Make Your Own Book Cover

 

For Honors English next year, I needed a composition book. First off, I HATE composition books, especially the pattern on the cover. Second, you can't cleanly rip out pages and I tend to rip out pages A LOT!
Well, enough of me ranting, here's the tutorial!

Supplies
1/3 yard of 45" material
18 in. of accent ribbon
1 skinny hair tie
1 button
Craft Glue
Sewing machine




Cut the 1/3 yard into one large rectangle that is 10.5 in x 16 in and two 10.5 in x 5 in.

On each of the smaller rectangles, hem one of the long sides by folding it over 1/4 of an inch. Do the same to the longer sides of the large rectangle.

 Flip the large rectangle over so the correct side is on top.  On the right side of the material mark half way down (5 1/4 in). Make sure the mark is one inch from the fabric edge; this is where the button will go.

Unscrew the lid to the craft glue and put a little dab on your finger. Put the glue on the back of the button and the center of the X for the button.

Now press the button down on top of the X. The glue helps hold the button in place while you sew it.

Once the glue has dried, set your sewing machine to the zig-zag setting. Make sure the setting is small enough that the feed dogs don't pull the material towards it, but wide enough to fit in each of the button holes without hitting the button itself.

 

For the first few stitches manually insert the needle and make sure do back stitch SLOWLY! If it hits the button AT ALL make your stitch wider or smaller then go ahead and press down the pedal!

Cut the strings, pull out the material, and you just sewed on a button in half the time it normally takes! :)

 

To make the pockets that go over the inside of the notebook, line up the raw edges of the longer and shorter rectangles. On both the top and bottom edges, make sure the shorter rectangle hangs over about 1/2 in.
BEFORE SEWING - put you accent ribbon in line with the button you just sewed with about an inch and a half over the raw edge. Make sure to sew the longest edge first, securing the ribbon in place. Use a 1/4 inch seam for the long edge and sew DIRECTLY ON TOP of the hem for the top and bottom.

 

Before starting on the other side, find your button under the ribbon. Cut a small slit just big enough for the button in the ribbon. Slide the button through the hole and it's set. Move on to the other side!

Take the hair tie and cut where it was joined into a circle. I just happened to have a matching pink one (that's who knows how many years old). Cut it to the length of 4.5 inches and pin at the half way point on the raw side of the large rectangle, ON TOP of the ribbon.

Now finish the other flap. Line up this flap the same as the other, making sure the small rectangle hangs over 1/2 inch at each end. Once you reach the hair tie, back stitch over it multiple times; when you secure the notebook closed, you don't want the hair tie pulling out of the seam. Use the same 1/4 inch seam allowance for the long side and sewing directly over the hemmed edge.

 

 Flip both pockets right-side out and test on your notebook. If everything fits good, cut the extra ribbon out of the seams and put it on your notebook for good! Now you don't have to worry about having the same notebook as anyone else! Go be unique :)

 

Lace Flowers

 

 

Hello everyone! Today I'm going to show you how to make lace flowers. The other day, my friend had the cutest lace flower in her hair, but sadly she couldn't remember where it was from. Instead of going on a wild goose chase online, I figured I could just make one myself. Oh, the wonderful powers of sewing! :)

Supplies
At least 7 inches of lace
Sewing machine OR needle and thread

Optional
Hair clip
small scrap of felt


Start off by measuring out the lace. I used 14 inches and it ended up like a rose. Depending on how many layers you want to have, adjust the length. The shorter the lace, the less the layers, and same for the longer lace. I have also found that scalloped lace makes really cute daises!

Sew a long basting stitch across the straight edge of the lace. For this step you can either use needle and thread or the sewing machine. I prefer using the sewing machine just because it gets the job done faster. Some may call this lazy, but I call it efficient! :)

After sewing straight across the lace, slowy and carefuly pull on ONE of the strings. Don't pull too hard or too fast because the string will snap and you will have to resew along the edge. Not fun, trust me. (If you are making a daisy, sew the two ends of lace together BEFORE gathering. Make sure not to sew over the gathering strings as well.)

Now, roll your gathered lace (or gather the circle of lace), and the flower will start to form! DON'T CUT OFF THE GATHERING STRINGS!

Flip over the flower, there will be an ugly little nub. Take the two gathering strings and wrap them around the base of the nub. Flip the flower over... now you have a pretty center!

Congratulations! You made a dainty lace flower!

Attaching to a hair clip:

Start off by putting some hot glue on the bottom of the flower. Then, put the hair clip on top of the hot glue. WARNING: Before you wear the gorgeous new flower,  cover up the hot glue with a small circle of felt. This way, it won't get caught in your hair when you take it out.









Paper Heart Garland

Hello again! I finally got around to writing my first tutorial! Without further delay, here it is.

 

Supplies-
3+ Sheets of Paper
Scissors
Pencil
Sewing Machine


I always have a TON of old sheet music laying around. It's mostly old, easy music that I have outgrown and I know I wont miss. What better way to recycle it that making cute decorations? You could use any kind of paper for this; at the moment I really want to try out paper from an old book. Sadly, I don't have an old book I could destroy creatively use at the moment. 

You are going to start by drawing different sizes of hearts on your paper. On the top sheet of paper I drew one large, one medium, and two small.

Then, with your other pages underneath, cut out your hearts (so you get them all done at once) and lay them in the order you want next your sewing machine.



Now here comes the cool part-- sewing them together. Most people think sewing machines are only for material, but it works really well on paper too! Don't worry if you hear a weird hole punching noise as the paper goes through the machine, it's just the needle puncturing the paper. I set my machine to a longer stitch, but it really doesn't matter, it's by personal preference.

As you sew them together, leave only a few centimeters between each heart. This way your hearts will be less likely to flip over when you hang your garland up.

That's it! Now you can proudly hang your garland up in your room or use it as party decorations.

Here I go...

Hello blog world!

This is my first time blogging and I am super excited to start. I've been crafting for a while now and I can't wait to share all of my DIY ideas with everyone. I know I still have a TON to learn about blogging, but I hope everyone likes it. I will try to get around to writing my first tutorial soon, until then au revoir!