Introduction: TRAVALERS NOTEBOOK COVER
These are great gifts for all occasions. It will fit a small
notebook or sketch book to carry along in your travels and or adventures.
Step 1: Tools Needed
- Ruler or straight edge
- MalletSpreading tool (used for spreading contact cement in a controlled manner)
- Scratching awl
- Blade
- Round punch (optional)
- Bone folder
- Trimmers
- Wing divider
- Lighter
- Bonded Nylon Thread
- Contact cement
Step 2: Choosing Your Leather
Start by choosing leather of your choice, if you can find a
scrap piece of leather that is free of cuts and wear down spots that is at least 18.00" wide by 6.50" in height that will work.
Step 3: Transfering the Pattern to the Leather.
Place you pattern over you leather, making sure that the
leather is free of any scratches or wear down spots where the patter is. Using several heavy objects in my case two pieces of granite over the patter to hold in place. Star tracing the pattern along the edges using the scratching awl. Once done you will have an outline to follow your cuts along.
Step 4: Cutting the Leather
Using a good sharp blade of your choice cut the patter that
was traced using a ruler. I use several rulers one is a metal ruler with cork on the underside to keep it from slipping while cutting. A quilters cutting guide is also grate for this as well. I use a round corner punch for the corners but they can also be easily cut with a blade, I do this to speed up the process and a cleaner round cut.
Step 5: Stamping
At this point is the best time to stamp your logo on to the
cover. Using a soldering iron I heat up my company stamp and using an arbor press I press my logo onto the front center of the cover. At this point also is the best time to decorate your cover. If you’re going to paint or stamp it with initials or such.
Step 6: Puttinig It Together
Place the pattern on the back side and using a pen mark
where the glue marks are at. Using a straight edge draw a line along the folds to act as a guide for the contact cement. Apply contact cement along the edges and the lines that were just drawn. Allow contact cement to set and fold carefully aligning the edges if they do not match perfectly it is ok you can trim it off after the cement is dry.
Step 7: Pre-stitching
At this point trim off any excess front eh edges. Using the
wing divider set at 1/8" of an inch wide mark all around the entire border of the cover to act as your stitching guide. When you get to the pen loops use a straight edge and scratching awl to continue the stitching guide line.
Step 8: Sweing
Using the lines drawn in the previous step stitch all around
your cover. Don’t forget to back stitch and singe the thread to keep it from coming undone.
Step 9: Finishing Touches
Once you’ve sewn the entire cover, using the bone folder
push it along the seams to separate any contact cement that may prevent the notebook to be inserted. Do the same for the pen loop. Enjoy!!
