Personalized Fabric Notebook Cover

My roommate from college visited me from out of town last night.  Her birthday is tomorrow and I wanted to make her a gift.  Here is what I made for her:

Finished notebook cover with pen pocket

I was inspired by this pouch that Lynne had at the DC Modern Quilt Guild meeting on Saturday.  She was given this as a swap item.  Pretty great, don’t you think?

Personalized pouch – front

Personalized pouch – back

Fabric notebook covers are my “go to” item if I need a quick gift.  I made a ton of them for Christmas gifts this past year.  My quilt guild, Needlechasers of Chevy Chase, has made many of these to sell in our boutique at our next quilt show and that is how I first learned to make them. It is an original design by Candy Glendening  as featured in “Quilting Arts Gifts” Holiday 2011/2012 magazine.  You can figure the measurements to fit any notebook.  I like to use a hard covered spiral notebook that I can buy at Staples for about $2.00.

Hardcover spiral notebook 9 1/2 x 6 inches

To personalize this gift, I put Karen’s name into a blank word document and played with some different fonts until I found one that I liked.  I then added the little “flourish” to each letter because I liked that kind of look on Lynne’s pouch.

Font is Bradley Hand ITC – embellished as shown

I freehand copied it with washable blue pen onto my piece of linen fabric.

The embroidery was done with 3 strands of DMC floss and an outline stitch.

Embroidery of name done.

I added some lazy daisy flowers in green with pink french knot centers and then sewed some fabrics around it in sort of a log cabin style.  On the back I did a little bit more patchwork and  hand stitching.  I also did some top stitching with my sewing machine in pink as an easy accent (around the linen square on the back and “KAREN” on the front.)

Outside of notebook cover.
Ready to be sewn to inside.

The inside of this notebook cover has flaps to insert the notebook  into.  On the inside of the front flap is a little business card holder which I stamped a little design on.  The inside of the back flap has a (green) pocket.

Inside – ready for final sewing

Once the inside and outside pieces are all complete, the right sides are put together and stitched all around except for an opening in which to turn it.  The final step is edge stitching all around the edge to close the opening and finish it off nicely.

Finished Notebook cover – open to show front and back

Karen loved it!  And I loved having her visit.  Happy Birthday tomorrow!