Fabric Covered Notebook with Elastic Page Holders

Lately, my schedule has gotten crazy. I’m trying to juggle a lot more… between a full time job, an almost 3-year-old, my first blog, this blog, and family events and such going on… keeping it all straight in my head is an impossibility. So, in addition to the big white board calendar, I got a little planner to keep myself organized.

But, it isn’t exactly pretty. And the tabs are helpful, but it doesn’t just automatically open to the current month. If I’m so busy that my crafting life revolves around 30 minute crafts, I’m also too busy to go fiddling with monthly tabs.

This project fixes both problems – I now have a cute planner cover, elastic bands to keep me focused on what’s going on now… and it was a cinch to make. Here’s how I did it:

I started out with my supplies. My planner from Target, 3 fabrics, and some elastic were all that I needed.

I stacked up my fabrics and wrapped them around my notebook to decide how long I needed the fabric. I made sure to add at least a 1/2″ on each side. For my 6×8.5″ notebook, I ended up cutting my pieces 9.5 x 13.75″, which also gave enough room around the spiral binding.

First I put down the cover fabric, right side up, and pinned a piece of elastic in place on each side, about 1.5-2″ away from the sides.

I cut my flap fabric in half (making 2 9.5×6.8″ rectangles), and folded them both in half. I covered the elastic with this fabric, with all the raw edges touching an the folded sides in.

I then put the backing fabric face down, and pinned all the way around.

I stitched all the way around, leaving a hole for turning, and clipped my corners.

I turned the whole thing right side out, and…

Pressed it down.

I double-checked the fit by trying the cover on the book. I saw that there would be enough room to top stitch 1/8″ from the edge. If the cover is super-loose, I would top stitch further from the edge, if the cover is a little more snug, I would top stitch closer to the edge. I made sure to stitch carefully over the elastic. Once it was all top stitched, I put it on my notebook, and was all set!