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Moleskine Cover Tutorial

Whew, writing tutorials is hard!  This is a first draft, so clarification might be needed.  I'll do my best to edit this as time goes by making it much more clear.  Please ask questions and I'll try to address them.  Good luck!

Tips:

*Iron your fabric. Ironing is the easiest way to dramatically improve the look of your finished item.  Wrinkles=no good.

*Trim excess fabric from corners before turning. 

*Once your journal is tucked inside the lining fabric is not visible so use something basic/cheap/recycled.

*Make your pattern from heavy paper (like velum) and then trace around it with a Mark-b-Gone pen or tailors chalk...so much easier then pinning the pattern in place. Or just use a ruler and pen or chalk to draw directly on your fabric and skip making the pattern all together.

*Where leaving an opening to turn your pieces I always sew it closed at first.  At both ends of where the opening will be I back tack and then use a longer stitch length in the middle.  Then iron the opening and use a seam ripper to remove the stitches.  When you hand sew it shut it will be much cleaner because you've ironed a nice crease. 

Pattern measurements for a Pocket Moleskine or any journal measuring 5.5" high x 3.5" wide x 0.5" thick:

Main body: 6.75" high x 11.5" wide (tape together two pieces of 8.5" x 11" paper if you don't have paper long enough)

Flap: 7" high x 2.75" wide - Make the square first and if you want rounded corners then find something round (a glass?) to trace around to make rounded corners at the top.  Or just leave it square--it is way easier to sew.

1) Cut pieces (grain of fabric should run parallel to the short end of your pattern)

    1 main body in outer fabric

    1 main body in lining fabric

    1 interfacing for main body (optional but gives the cover more substance - sew-in or fusible
    1 flap in outer fabric

    1 flap in lining fabric

    1 flap in interfacing

    Velcro strip about 1.5" long

2)  Center one Velcro piece on the outside of the flap lining about 1/2" from the top.  Sew in place.

3)  Place flap pieces with the face sides together and pin.  Leave an opening to turn (see tips above).  Sew around flap.

4) Place main body pieces with the face sides together and pin.  Leave an opening to turn (see tips above).  Sew around main body. 

5) Trim corners and clip curves of flap.

6) Iron around stitching of both pieces to shrink thread and iron your openings back so you'll have a nice crease for closing them up.  Be careful not to melt the velcro when ironing.

7) Open your pieces and turn.  Use your scissors to gently poke the corners out nicely, being careful not to push too hard so the fabric doesn't give.

8) Hand stitch the openings closed.  Iron again if you are a perfectionist.

9) Top stitch around flap and along short ends of main body.

10) On main body piece measure in about 3" at each corner and mark with pins or the mark-b-gone pen.  This is where the main body flaps will be sewn down.  DON'T sew the main flaps down yet!  OR for a custom fit do this: fold main body piece in half to find the center.  Place your journal in center crease and then open the front and back and wrap the main body ends around front and back.  Close journal with fabric tucked inside and mark where the main body flaps will be sewn down.  Make any adjustments to fit by tugging the ends to get the fit you want.  Mark for sewing, but don't sew yet. 

11) Now you need to line up where your flap will go and the second velcro piece.  This is the hardest part to exlain...I pin the flaps in place and then put my journal inside and just line it all up nicely.  Then center your flap along the back and pin in it place.  Using the flap as a guide figure out where the velcro piece needs to go and pin that down.  Take the journal out and unpin the flaps laying the main body flat.  Sew on the flap and then the velcro piece. 

12) Refold the inside flaps to your marked spots.  Now it's time to sew the inside flaps and topstitch along the upper edges.  For topstitching I use the inside of the feed dog as a guide (about 1/8").  So your topstitching will be just inside the edge of your presser foot.  Sew all the way across the top and then the bottom. 

13) Your journal jacket is done!  Trim any weird threads and snuggle your journal into its new home. 

 

Losing My "Real" Job

Tomorrow morning I will most likely be laid off from my job as a commercial insurance underwriter. I'm not surprised and actually pretty darn excited about having some free time. For more than six months we've been waiting to hear when/where/how many?  On the "company" side of the insurance industry layoffs are fairly standard these days--a bad year or two and the shareholders want blood, so they sell part or all of the company to put some cash on the books.

Of course most of my coworkers have not been muttering "sweet freedom will be mine!" under their breath like I have so it will be a weird and emotional morning--good for me and bad for most everyone else.  For the last six months I've been mulling over what I would do when this time arrived and now that it's here I think it's time to commit to some goals for the year:

1. Not have to get a full time job for the rest of the year.  The option of temping is always available and there is a special temp service just for the insurance industry, so the jobs pay pretty well. I definitely want to do some insurance work because insurance is my career insurance--if I can't make it on my own it will be there waiting to take me back.  But not right away, because...

2. I should focus on my business for a good chunk of time while I have the luxury of doing so.  One day a few years back I just signed up on etsy and over time it's evolved on it's own.  It's been so great and so many people give me great compliments and all those kind words really make you think you can make it work somehow.  But the somehow part is tricky.  I'm used to making money and going back to being poor and living on a strict budget is a wee bit frightening to me. 

3. Revamp my "look".  Two years ago I made my own banner.  It's not even the right size since they upgraded the site. And I'm tired of the old banner.  It's time for a makeover.

4. Send packages to Bouncing Wall in Seattle on a regular basis.  My stuff sells there, but I've never had the time to send her a regular supply.

5. Finish my business plan and go to SBA counseling to figure out that "somehow" part mentioned above.

The Weekends

Gee...one is gone and we are almost half way to the next already! 

Last weekend I mostly did chores--*sigh*, but did get in a bit of sewing and came up with this oh-so-cute tiny wallet:

Now I'm frantically making more so I can send a nice package to Bouncing Wall.  I never have enough stuff to send to Seattle and want to send them a really wonderful box this time with tons and tons of things.  This is the only store I sell in right now outside my shop and it's been a great experience--very smooth sailing, prompt payment, wonderful owner--and last summer I got a nice mention in Seattle (Seattle's monthly magazine) when Bouncing Wall was featured as a shopping hot spot. 

For entertainment there really wasn't any left over time to go out, but I did make it out to visit a friend and then I watched The Real Dirt on Farmer John while doing some hand stitching.  This movie was great!  Such an interesting guy and it was very nice to see him find his niche with Angelic Organics.  He is really onto something with that farmer in sparkly spandex on tractor thing.  I loved it and want to go live on a flamboyant farm now.  Al Gore was right, Farmer John and the movie are unbelievably special. 

The Dog Log

The faux woodgrain fabric is making me crazy.  All I can think about making is fake wood--or "Faux Bois" as Tim Gunn from Project Runway would say.  One of my larger fake wood projects--which is super top secret for now--got me thinking about making little logs. But what do you do with a small, fake log?  Then I remembered that my friend SK has a dog named Marley who is insane for logs. She has a piece of wood she loves to show off if you go in the back yard with her. It's very funny because the log is much, much too big for her and yet she insists she must drag if over and show it to you.

So where all of this led to making a new dog toy.

Hence The Dog Log:

It's made from brown canvas that I quilted with bark-like lines. Then I made an insert from some junky old fabric and stuffed the insert with a squeaker, plastic sacks (neat crinkly noise) and some polyfil. I sewed the insert up securely on my new serger and then stuffed it inside the not-very-realistic log exterior and closed the whole thing up.   

This log is much more Marley's size and Lila is kinda liking it as a chin rest.  It's going to Marley soon for product testing.  I'll probably make Lila one without the squeaker and bags, so she can use it as a pillow.   

Dog with Dog Log:

Dog Log End Detail:

Sewing Cuff

My mom is the most fearless sewer I've ever met.  She will sew anything and is alway willing to try to fix or make things that would just competely baffle or overwhelm me.  When I was a kid there was always some weird old couch being torn apart in her sewing room (often it was me tearing it apart for a few extra dollars) and then re-upholstered or a horse blanket being mended or some ratty lining being replaced for someone.  So for Christmas I made her this super handy sewing cuff with built in pin cushion:

She's actually had one of these  wrist pin cushions for as long as I can remember but it was one of those terrible plastic cuffs that don't fit well or stay on.  This particular cuff is made from a super soft Japanese cotton for the strap and then a cute scrap of the red mum fabric backed in red polka dots. Then I used a fun sparkly button and wool thread to define the flower "petals".