Scrappy Friday - book cover tutorial

Today I'm cheating a little and showing you a project I did months ago, which counts as a scrap project as it used up an old waistcoat I was never going to wear! Which means I can also use it on my clothes upcycling project page!! Yippee!

Anyway, back to my project, which was to sort out my recipe book - and revamp it with a nice new cover!

Here's the before...

And the after....

And here's how I made the cover:

First I chose my fabric - a waistcoat I was given, loved the fabric but was never likely to wear it!

 

Then I just placed the open book on the fabric, and cut around, leaving about 3cm above and below the book, and enough on either side for the flaps over (about 10cm on each side in total)

Then I double turned and stitched each edge to neaten. (As you can see my pinning is rather rough, I do smooth it out more when I machine stitch!!)

Next step is to place the book open and central on the fabric, which should be right side facing upwards. 

Fold one side flap over and pin at the top and bottom above and below the book.

Fold the other side flap over, but don't pin yet!

Because the material  will stretch as the book closes, shut the book now, allow the material to give into the bend of the book and pin the top and bottom of the flap above and below the book.

Stitch the top and bottom of both flaps about where your double turned edges end.

Your cover should now look something like this:

Next turn the book cover right side out, and fold down and pin, the middle parts at both the top and bottom.

Top stitch this to hold it down in place.

Your book cover is now finished and ready to slip your book into!

The side flaps can also be used as little pockets to slip notes into - or in my case here, new recipes cut  from magazines!

With the remaining scraps of fabric from the waistcoat - I covered a couple of sections of drainpipe to make little storage containers!

And the other, using the fabric inside out, which was a fabulous gold colour. It's the perfect size for holding those important kitchen utensils!

So there you have it - a mini tutorial for using up those scraps (or an old piece of clothing) to brighten up your favourite book!


Jill