Happy New Year everyone! If you're like me, I like to plan ahead, and have everything all in one place, and my diary is the key to that. I prefer to pretty mine up with its own custom made cover.
I hope you will have a go at making your own.
Gather supplies:
Sizzix Bigz L Die - Fan Blade 30 degrees (660459)
Sizzix Big Big Shot Pus Machine
Large fabric scraps for outside and sleeves, smaller fabric scraps for embellishment. Heavy weight interfacing. (I used Pelmet Vilene)
Start by measuring your diary/journal/book. Measure from the front right edge around the spine to the back right edge. Then measure the height of the diary.
My diary was 12" by 8.5". Add 1" to each of your measurements, this is the size you should cut your main fabric and interfacing.
I layered the main fabric wrong side on top of the interfacing. If you use fusible interfacing then fuse to the wrong side of your fabric. Quilt as desired. I used straight line matchstick quilting with a pale yellow variegated thread from Aurifil that would be very subtle on the linen for mu cover.
I then grabbed my smaller scraps, using the Big Shot Plus and the Fan Blade die, I pressed and layered the fabrics onto the die to cut out the blade shapes. Lay out the shapes to see what order you would like to sew them together.
I sewed the blades together until I had enough to go from top to bottom of the cover.
I positioned the pieced blades, right sides up, directly onto the cover at least 2" from each edge. Using a darker variegated thread, I used a narrow short zigzag stitch on my sewing machine to stitch the blades in place. The darker areas of stitching accentuate the subtle curves of the blades.
From you sleeve fabrics cut two pieces that are the height of you main fabric x 4" wide. Fold in half along the length with wrong sides together. Press.
With your cover right side facing up, place a folded sleeve on each side of the cover with the raw edges matched to the edges of the cover. Pin in place. Using a 1/4" seam allowance, stitch all the way round the edge of the cover.
Trim corners.
Fold the sleeves out so they are now on the inside of the cover. Use a chopstick or other blunt pointed implement to push out the corners. Fold the raw edges in so the the seam line is just to the inside. It is worth taking the time to ensure all the seams are pushed out . Press all edges.
Top stitch around the outside of the cover about 1/8" from the edge. Repeat the top stitching close to the first row, but no more than 1/4" from the edge.
Your diary cover is now ready for use, decide which decorative side you prefer, slide the front and back cover into the sleeves and enjoy having a unique, handmade diary cover. You'll certainly know which is yours at those meetings!
If you make your own diary cover using this tutorial, please tag me on social media (Instagram/Twitter: @trudi_wood) so I can see your diary cover too.
Thanks for reading, Happy New Year,Trudi
