I was going through some storage boxes the other day looking
for something when I came across some of my old scriptures. It was pretty
perfect timing because my son is at the cute age where his Sunday School
teachers are encouraging them to bring scriptures with them to class. Of
course, my name is printed on the outside of my old scriptures so I wanted to
think of a way to cover that up and at the same time help him feel like they were his
own.
A book cover was the perfect solution, and since I still
have a bunch of leftover felt from
this project (
although the stack is getting
smaller all the time) and felt is such an easy fabric to work with (
you gotta
love a fabric that doesn’t fray on the edges) I knew it would be the perfect
material for a book cover for my little man’s new/old scriptures! Better still,
I let him pick out the color of felt and thread he wanted so he would feel even
more involved.
If you can sew a straight line you can whip one of these
book covers up in no time. Start out by tracing around the open book that you’re
planning to cover on paper. You’ll want about a ¼” border around each side. Cut
the paper out to use as a template and trace around the template onto the felt.
This will be the front or outside of the book cover. Then, fold the paper
template in thirds and use that to trace two smaller rectangles onto the felt
as well. These will be the inside flaps that the cover of the book slides into.
Once your three pieces are cut out, lay them out like a traditional book jacket
(as pictured) and stitch a straight seam along all four sides leaving a ¼”
border.
I was in a hurry as I was sewing this up so it’s far from
perfect, but as I said, felt is a very forgiving fabric. The most important
thing is that little man loves it. This is a great way to cover up any book
inexpensively and lasts much longer than the old, brown paper bag method. Plus,
it’s a lot more fun and colorful. If you wanted to get really fancy you could stitch a little
ribbon bookmark to the top center of the inside to, but since the set of
scriptures already have one I didn’t bother this time.
What have you made with felt
lately?
Labels: fabric, sewing
