Faux Leather Crafts: Mini Covered Notebook Tutorial

Make a mini notebook with a vegan leather cover to keep it protected in your bag or pocket!

These little notebooks are simple to make, and you can easily remove and reuse the leather cover once the notebook is full.

This tutorial is the last in the series of synthetic leather crafting ideas I've been sharing this week. It originally appeared on the Village Haberdashery's blog and was created using synthetic leather and other craft supplies from their shop. (Here are the other tutorials I've shared this week: a lightning bolt brooch, a geometric necklace & a star headband). 

You will need:

- The notebook and notebook cover templates (follow the links to view and download the PDF template sheets).
- Some synthetic leather
- Coloured card
- Plain or scrap paper
- Sewing thread to match the card
- 90 cm yarn in a co-ordinating or contrasting colour (or embroidery thread or narrow ribbon)
- A standard sewing needle and a large, sharp sewing needle for the yarn
- Sewing scissors
- Scissors for cutting paper and card
- A ruler
- An air-erasable fabric marker pen or an ordinary felt tip pen

To make the notebook: 

Use the card cover template to cut a piece of blank card, then fold it in half. Then use the page template to cut eight pages from plain or scrap paper and fold these in half as well.

Use a large, sharp needle to poke three holes in the fold of the card, measuring their position with a ruler. Make one hole right in the centre of the fold then one above and one below it, each 3cm from the central hole. Then poke holes in the pieces of paper (two sheets at a time) in the same positions as on the cover.

Line up the pages and the card cover, and sew them together using a double thickness of sewing thread to match the card. I started in the central hole of the card cover, leaving a length of spare thread hanging loose then returned to the centre after stitching the pages and card together, knotting the two ends of thread together securely then trimming away the excess.

Use the leather cover template to cut out a piece of the synthetic leather. Place the paper template on the back of the leather, trace around it with an air-erasable fabric marker pen or a felt tip then cut out the shape with sewing scissors.

Wrap the cover around the notebook until you’re happy with it, then unfold it and open the notebook to the first page. Use the holes in the card as a guide to pierce three matching holes through the leather.

Cut a 90 cm piece of yarn (or embroidery thread or narrow ribbon). Use the large needle to thread the yarn through the two outer holes as shown, threading it through the leather and the card of the notebook. Pull the yarn through the holes so there is an even length of yarn at each side.

Thread both ends through the central hole, pulling the yarn tight. Knot the yarn to secure the notebook and leather cover together.

Close the notebook and leather cover as shown, wrapping the yarn around it and tying a bow to secure it.

This tutorial is for non commercial use only: you can use it to make as many notebooks as you want for yourself or as gifts, but please don't make any for sale. You may borrow a couple of photos if you want to blog about this project, but remember to credit me and link back to this page on my blog, and do not reproduce my entire tutorial / share my templates on your site. Thanks!

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Faux Leather Mini Notebook Tutorial

UPDATE: my vegan faux leather craft tutorials are now available here on my blog! Make a lightning bolt brooch, a geometric necklace, a star headband, or a mini covered notebook.

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The second of my vegan leather craft tutorials is up on the Village Haberdashery's blog: a step by step guide to making a mini notebook with a faux leather cover.

These mini notebooks would make fab gifts - and great stocking fillers. (Have you started thinking about your Christmas gifting yet??? Because I totally have - the 25th of December seems to creep up faster every year!).

Click here for the free tutorial.

Fancy some more free tutorials? Subscribe to my newsletter for a monthly free pattern and visit my crafty tutorial archive for lots more free projects.
 

A Little Book of Positivity

I was having a sort out through some old boxes this week and I came across this...

This "little book of positivity" is a small notebook I kept when I was a not-very-confident teen. It was sort of like a diary, but only with awesome stuff in it: happy things, compliments people had paid me, things I'd achieved, etc. I had a great day hanging out with so-and-so! I did well on that big test! So-and-so said XYZ about my writing! So-and-so said they thought my outfit was cool! All that sort of teenage stuff :)

It's a bit embarrassing to look back at it now but it really worked wonders to boost my confidence. It was even followed by a second (bigger) book of positive things:

I highly recommend it if you're someone who has trouble with confidence issues, or who finds it easy to get stuck thinking about all the things that are rubbish in your life instead of focusing on the good stuff. Get a little notebook, decorate it if you like (I filled the inside cover with stickers and other fun stuff) ...

... and start filling it up. There are no real rules except when good stuff happens or you do something awesome or someone gives you a compliment, even if you think it's only a small thing or a bit silly (all those small things add up!), you write about it with no negativity allowed. You can add tickets and photos from happy afternoons, or inspiring quotes or cheerful photos if you like.

Then when you're feeling rubbish, you flick through the book and it's like having someone to give you a pep talk and remind you that things aren't always gloomy and that - whether you believe it or not right now - you are awesome xxx

Paper Work

Lots of my tasks this week have involved paper.

I've been drawing, making pattern pieces, writing notes, processing orders, ticking things off to do lists... and sorting receipts & printing out lots of spreadsheets for my accounts ready for filing my tax return (yawn).

I've also been doing some cutting and sticking, which is always fun (and rather relaxing, too).

Whenever I design something new I do a lot of brainstorming and doodling of random ideas until I settle on one that I want to develop, so I've built up quite a stash of doodled-on scraps of paper over the years. Looking through them can be great for sparking new ideas, and often a drawing that wasn't quite right for one project becomes the seed for something completely different months or even years later.

But my stash of scribbled-on paper scraps was starting to get out of hand, so I thought I'd tidy up a bit by cutting out all the "useful" doodles and sticking them in a blank notebook. So eventually (when I've finished all this cutting and sticking) I'll have a sort of ideas scrapbook that I can  flick through next time I need a bit of crafty inspiration.
 

Treats from Renegade

This weekend I took a trip to London to visit the Renegade craft fair - I was very disappointed to miss it last year, so I was extra excited about going to see all the lovely people selling their crafty wares!

(I can never manage to read on the Tube, so my trusty Walkman is an essential bit of kit for a long journey across the city!)

Everyone was super friendly, and I got to meet and catch up with lots of my crafty chums whom I've "met" online through Etsy and Folksy and blogging. It's always so good to finally meet people in person, and have a good natter :)

I scoped out a few new-to-me shops for some potential Christmas shopping later this year, and treated myself to some cards and notebooks (always useful) from a whole bunch of sellers...

... A cute foxy "drink tea & eat cake" card from Kayleigh O'Mara, and happy star and sunshine cards from Debbie Greenaway...

(I also bought one of Debbie's adorable hedgehog brooches, which my mum has already stolen! I was showing her the lovely things I'd bought and when she saw the hedgehog she just fell in love, so I had to gift it to her!)

 

... A couple of postcards (You've Got to Be Kind to Yourself & One Step at a Time) from Art Equals Happy, and a very cute cat notebook from Zosienka & Rosie.

... A peacock postcard & a little notebook for writing lists from Lovely Pigeon, and a tea & biscuit themed card for a friend from Mellybee.

... A printed Moleskine notebook from Finest Imaginary and a sweet mini notebook made from a vintage postcard from Ladybird Likes. I don't think I'm going to run out of notebooks for a while!

 

Here are a few more of the business cards, etc, that I came home with... from Zeena, John of The Bungaloo, and Sarah of Magasin...

...  Rebecca of Charming Little Picture... plus some mini London-themed cross stitch patterns from CrossStitcher Magazine.

I was also very pleased to finally meet the lovely fellas from Folksy, after having a shop on the site for so many years (I was Folksy user number 12 when I signed up way back in 2008!). I thought the cardboard postbox on their stall was especially ace & I couldn't resist pinching one of their "Golly!" cards, which were actually for people to fill in their email address to sign up for the Folksy newsletter (shhh, don't tell! no-one will find out now I've posted it on my blog, er...). Folksy is so often described by sellers as "the British Etsy", and I find the quirky Britishness of their branding / marketing style very appealing (and I would totally buy a pack of postcards like this).

And as if all that wasn't enough fun for the day, I also got to have a cuppa with the lovely Genevieve of Floss & Mischief who sells very cool cross stitch kits & patterns.

Hurrah! :)

Nostalgia + Lots of Craft Supplies

While sorting through a box of bits and bobs this week, I found this mini notebook. The panda's eyes flick from being blue to having big red hearts in them. Cute, huh?

When I was very small and obsessed with sewing clothes for Barbies or Flower Fairies or Sylvanian Families, I used to write notes for my sewing projects in here...

... but spelling was never my strong point! :)

In other news, I've added a few "new" listings over in my Etsy shop - larger quantities of some popular items in my supplies section.

You can now buy a set of 24 mini 3inch embroidery hoops...

... a bumper button-making kit with 60 cover buttons instead of the 20 included in the basic starter kit...

.... a huge bundle of 144 skeins of embroidery thread / floss (4 skeins of each of the 36 rainbow colours)...

... and a set of 4 giant wooden buttons:

Oh, and just a heads up for all you felt fans, there's just one pack each left of the "warm tones" and "cool tones" felt bundles as I'm discontinuing them to make room for a couple of new packs later this spring. 

Folksy Goodies (and a new assistant)

A couple of weeks ago, the British craft website Folksy (where I've had a shop for a few years now) got a snazzy new look.

I have to admit to having been a teeny bit stressed by the prospect of big changes at my busiest time of year, but I love the colourful new logo, the new shop layouts look great, and the new "one page" listing process has already proved to be a huge timesaver when running my shop.

While the revamp was happening, the maintenance page had a sudoku puzzle on it to "keep you entertained" while the site was down overnight. My mother is a total sudoku fiend, she is completely addicted to them and happily works her way through the most complicated ones she can find. I am under strict orders to save her any sudoku puzzles I find in newspapers, etc, so I printed off the Folksy sudoku and gave it to her, she filled it in during her morning coffee, and I then tweeted that she'd finished it.

Then this week, the lovely staff at Folksy (who has seen my tweet) sweetly sent her a little parcel of goodies to say congratulations for completing the puzzle!


They sent her a set of Folksy badges and a Folksy notebook, both from the new "Folksy Collection" which launched this week.

Needless to say, my mother was totally thrilled by her surprise parcel! She was quite blown away by the unexpected kindness of the gift, and is very much in love with the notebook...


... she also likes the badges but has decided that badges aren't quite her sort of thing, so she's kindly passed them along to me. Hurrah! :)


The badges also got some attention from this big bundle of fur, who came to "help" me take photos... perhaps I should make him my new studio assistant?

"Oooh, what are these? Are they for me?"


"You don't want to take photos of these boring things. Take my picture instead!"


"I'm ready for my close-up now..."