Book Cover Tute

I recently purchased a new Bible.  This is an ESV Study Bible.  I LOVE LOVE it.  It is great for really digging into God's word and growing in your faith.  OK I know that you aren't here for a book review! 

The only problem I had with this book was that the version I could afford was not very attractive.  It was blaring white, red and black!

See what I mean...its not very pretty.  I wanted to make it pretty.  It was very simple and a great beginner project.  I will apologize for the lack/quality of pictures now.  I will try to update this tute tonight!

Materials:

1 fat quarter of fabric

fabric scraps

thread

sewing machine

scissors

iron

pressing board

Step 1:

Measure the book you wish to cover.

You should measure the face of the book width and length(mine measured 6.75 inches wide x 9.5 inches long)

You should measure the thickness of the book (mine was 2.5 inches)

Step 2:

Figure your fabric needs. 

I needed two strips of fabric that was 14.5 inches wide by 10 inches high (cut from the fat quarter)

I also needed 1 strip of fabric that was 3 inches wide by 10 inches high (cut from scraps)

Step 3:

Press all raw edges 1/4 inch to the wrong side of the fabric.  Once all edges have been pressed stitch those raw edges down.

Step 4:

All of your edges have been finished. 

We need to join together the 3 pieces. 

Place one of your large strips (14.5 x 10) right side up on the table. 

Now place your small strip (3 x 10) face down on top of the large strip. 

Joining your 10 inch sides together

You should have two pieces of fabric right sides together, pin. 

Sew them together with a 1/4 inch seam allowance. 

I back stitched at the beginning and end of mine

since this is a book that will be used a lot and I wanted it to be sturdy.   

Press your seam allowance to one side. 

Place your joined pieces face up on the table

 and place your 2nd large piece of fabric face down, pin. 

Join pieces together using a 1/4 inch seam.

Again I back stitched at the beginning and end.

Press seam to one side.

Step 5:

Now decide if you want any embellishments. 

I wanted a ruffle, because ruffles are KEWL!!!

I cut a strip of my scraps 3 inches wide and 15 inches long. 

You could finished the raw edges but I decided to leave them ragged.

Loosen your tension on your machine and lengthen your straight stitch.

On my machine I turn my tension to 2 and have a stitch length of 5.0.

Sew two parallel stitches on the strip 1 inch apart.

DO NOT back stitch at the beginning and end.

Be sure to leave your threads long.

Once you have your two parallel lines,

pull the gathering thread until you have a ruffle the size of your book face.

RESET YOUR TENSION AND STITCH LENGTH!

Step 6:

Measure your ruffle to ensure correct size. 

Take a coordinating scrap of fabric that is slightly longer than the length of your ruffle

and 5 inches wide.

Fold your strip in half (wrong sides together)...press

Open up and press the raw edges to the middle.

Fold in half again and press.

You should now have a strip of fabric that is the length of your ruffle and a little over 1 inch wide.

Top stitch all edges closed.

Step 7:

Place your finished strip on the center of the ruffle. 

 Top stitch the strip to the ruffle.

Step 8:

Now its time to attach our embellishment to our cover. 

Place the cover wrong side down on the table.

Place your book onto the fabric.

Open the back cover of the book

fold the fabric into the cover pin top and bottom edges

mark the fabric with a pin where the fold occurs.

Do the same for the front cover of the book.

With the cover still on the book and pinned

place the ruffle or other embellishment on the front.

Choose your location and pin to the front cover.

Now remove the book from the cover.

Unpin the top and bottom edges on the front of book cover

Your front cover should now be free.

I placed my pins back into the fabric just to mark where i need to join the pieces.

Top stitch the ruffle to the front cover ensuring not to sew through the inside fabric flap.

Step 9:

Now we are almost done!  You can finish one of two ways!

Option 1: top stitch  the bottom and top edges of the fabric together.

 Using the pins as a guideline for the book size.

Option 2: Using the pin that marks the fold as a guide

fold the inside flap of the cover out onto the front of the cover so that right sides are together

Stitch the top and bottom edges closed

flip the pocket you just created open so that the wrong sides are together

repeat with the back cover.

this will hide your edges.

Step 10:

Slide your book into the cover!  TaDA! Your done! 

Now you have a pretty book!

Enjoy! 

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