Journal Covers

I have always liked journals, not to write in, I have never been much of a diary keeper, just to admire. I just like to look at them, admire the pristine blank pages, I generally have not felt that I could write anything that would be good enough to mess up that pretty paper. When I have kept a journal and read it months or years later I am always horrified by how stupid it sounds the second time around. Then while listening to NPR I heard about line-a-day diaries, John Quincy Adams kept one and it is now being posted on Twitter, here is a depression era diary also on Twitter. After all, how stupid can I sound in just one line?
I saw this as a perfect excuse to actually buy one of those wonderful journals but I figured I should start small so I just got a two pack of thin moleskines. Then I decided that the journals were a great excuse to try out one of the fun tutorials I could remember seeing. So I got on the interwebs and starting looking around and I found a couple good tutorials, here by keyka lou and a reversible one by Lara Cameron, but I made mine mostly like this one by Bloom and Blossom. I made a few changes and put mine together slightly differently.

My journal is 5" x 8.25" x .25". So I cut:

• Outer fabric 16.25" x 9.75"
• Interfacing 16.25" x 9.75"
• Lining 7.5" x 9.75"
• Twill tape for tie 19" long

I fused the interfacing to the outer fabric then placed the lining centered on the outer fabric then sewed along the top and bottom with a .5" seam.

I turned it right side out then pressed the raw edges in all around, folding them over .5" Now is a good time to check and be sure that your cover is 1/4-3/8" taller than your journal.

Then I placed the end of the twill tape in to the fold on the center of what will be the front edge and wrapped it around the end.

Then I top stitched the fold edges along the two sides, but not the top and bottom.

Then I folded the ends towards the center by 2.5" to create the flap and pressed. This is a good point to wrap it around your journal to make sure it is the right size.

Then I topstitched 1/8" in from the edge along the top and bottom and voila!