Around December last year, I found a tutorial in youtube on how to stitch your own book. I've been making three ever since because it's totally cheaper, it can lay flat, and it's fully customize-able, from the paper I use to how I would like to do with the cover. For the three book that I made, I use a cereal box and glued it to the first page of the book (you can also stitch it but I found it not as sturdy).

my books, and their bare spine and cover

I've been using my second book for a while and thought that the cover is kinda plain, so I draw things on it. But actually I've been wanting to make a fabric cover that can also cover the spine (because the downside of the book is it shows the stitch on the spine of the book, it could be unique of course, as long as you do the stitching part right).

I love this kind of book cover in particular because it is reusable. A friend of mine gave me a notebook with this kind of cover and I currently use the cover as my passport cover. I can also make another notebook in similar size and use the cover for that. I thought that it doesn't require a lot of thought when making the pattern and not many parts to sew.

So, yesterday morning, I sit quietly on my bed and do the whole thing, and 3 to 4 hours later, my book is finally fabric-covered! Yes it took a long time, but I totally satisfied with the end result.

Here are things I use to make mine :


I used canvas fabric because it's pretty sturdy. I think it's a bit thinner than the fabric on my canvas bag. I didn't know about any other fabric but I think anything not silky will do just fine.

I also used an embroidery thread for sewing and PVC glue (we'll get there).

What I did is pretty simple, it only took some time (not as easy as my previous project) and perseverance. Of course it will take less time if you use a sewing machine. This is definitely one of those time when I want to master the skill of sewing (and also own the machine myself 0_0)

First, I mark my measurement on the fabric using pencil and ruler. For my book I cut one 30 x 21 cm (for a 24 x 15 cm book) and two 13 x 21 cm parts for where I would insert my cardboard cover to.

I cut those parts out and start working with the glue. I fold each edges of the fabric twice and glue it in place to make a nice and good edge for the cover without having the fiber unraveled. Actually, I can directly sew it (jump to the last step right away) but I am not that good in sewing and that stressed me out (holding the folded fabric, keep track of my thread, and so on and so on) so I used the glue.

The downside of this method is, if you put too much glue, it will harden over time and I had to push the needle harder to make it into the other side of the fabric (doing it continually hurts your fingertip). So, if you don't want to use glue, it's either holding every thing with your fingers while sewing or secure it with a sewing pin.

finishing all three parts of the cover

zoom in on the edge

securing the parts with sewing pins

It definitely takes a long time to finish this project, but at the very least, this keeps me awake, keeps me from watching Running Man episode the first thing in the morning and keeps me occupied for about 3 to 4 hours straight.

And voila, my DIY notebook now have a DIY fabric cover!

messed up on the corner. but well...