Dress up Your Journal – Making Fabric Dust Jacket – DIY Tutorial
FABRIC DUST JACKET – DIY TUTORIAL
What you need:
• Journal
• Fabric
• Lining
• Padding – (heat and bond or similar)
• Sewing machine and thread
• Fabric scissors
• Ruler or measure tape
• Marker or pencil
• Clips or pins
• Sewing awl
Measurements:
Lining fabric – big enough to wrap around the book, plus ½ an inch extra on top and bottom and ¾ of an inch extra to the left and right.
You’ll need twice this much to be able to create sleeves from this fabric as well.
Padding – same size as lining
Sleeves – same material and size as lining, then cut in half on the shorter side and fold in half again
Face fabric – 2 inches wider and 2 inches longer than your lining piece. Use lining as a guide. When you place lining over the outer fabric there should be 1 inch excess all around.
STEPS
1) Choose the fabrics – and make sure you have enough, for the Face, Lining, Padding, Sleeves, also check for thickness and pattern/fabric design (if it’s directional)
2) Measure – take lining fabric and wrap around your journal with wrong side up, clip, and mark dots in corners. Unwrap and join dots. Now add ½ an inch allowance to the top and bottom, and ¾ of an inch allowance to the sides and cut. This is your Lining.
3) Padding – Place Lining over the padding or heat and bond and use as a as a guide and cut exactly the same. This is your Padding.
4) Sleeves – Use Lining as a guide and cut exactly the same, fold in half and cut, then fold wrong sides together to create sleeves. Topstitch close to the folded edge. These are your Sleeves.
5) Face piece – place face fabric wrong side up. Place Lining over and use as a guide. Mark 1 inch allowance to all four sides. It should be 2 inches wider and 2 inches longer than the Lining. Mark 1 inch away from all four corners. Draw a line between two marks to either side of each corner to create a triangle, then cut. This is your Face.
6) Layering the pieces – place Face wrong side up. Place Padding on top in the centre, so that linch of Face is visible all around. Put Lining on top of the Padding, wrong side down. Finally, place Sleeves on top of the Lining, one on each side. Raw edges should be lined up with raw edges of the Lining, one to the left and one to the right. Folded edges should be facing each other, to the centre of the jacket.
7) Preparing for stitching – Get you clips or pins. Start working from the sides. Fold in the allowance of the Face in half then fold over the other layers. Secure with clips in the centre and corners. Do both sides. Repeat this with the top and bottom, but only secure with clips in the centres, do not clip corners yet. Now, go to any corner, fold in the allowance in half, then lift the outer corner of the allowance and fold again to form a triangle. Now fold the allowance over the layers and you should have a mitred corner. Clip. Repeat on all corners.
8) Stitching – Topstitch all around using zigzag or straight stitch to secure in place. Do not start at the corners. It’s best to start in the middle of the longer side
