Vintage Fabric and Lace Pocket Notebook (Eileen Hull)

Vintage fabric and lace are my absolutely favourite things to work with and what better than to bring them together in a small notebook.

No excuse for not using lashings of lace and ribbon ! most of which have been dyed with tea .......

...... along with small vintage elements such as brass keys, pearl buttons and small paper flowers.


This is how it all came together:

I have die cut the covers from the Pocket Notebook die using cheap greyboard from the back of a pad of paper. They will not be seen so no point in using up good supplies! I have separated the spine from the front and back covers and cut a piece of linen to allow a 1" border all around.

Draw around the area of the front cover with a pencil .........

....... and mark these lines and corners with pins.

Then when you turn the fabric over you have marked guidelines for the edge of the cover and no pencil lines to remove.

I normally design my cover before making it so that I can work out what needs to be stitched and what can be added later. These small pieces of lace, some of which have been dyed with tea, have been stitched onto the fabric.

To adhere the greyboard to the fabric I have used sticky red tape rather than glue, but that is really a matter of choice. I have mitred the corners of the fabric, but don't cut these two tight to the corners or they will fray. After the stitching my edges had got rather frayed so they have been trimmed to 3/4".

I normally stick down the long sides first before adding the tape to the sides.

The corners don't have to be too neat as they will be covered. If they are fraying just rub a little PVA dries clear glue on the edge and leave it to dry and that should be enough to stop it fraying further.

Cut a piece of good quality cardstock to cover the inside of the book. Mine measured 9 1/2" x 6 5/8" but the size might vary depending on the thickness of material you use.

Once it has been glued in place, let it dry before using a bone folder to depress the cardstock either side of the spine. If you don't do this the paper will crinkle and fold in places in you don't want it to!

I have used three pieces of elastic for my paper booklets inside. I have used lace and ribbon to cover these.

Once the knots have been tied put a little PVA glue on the knot and leave to dry. This will stop the knot coming undone later when adding the paper booklets.

For the inside pages I have cut a selection of paper 8" x 6 1/2" -  some light watercolour paper, tea dyed copy paper and covers made from good quality cream cardstock.

I have arranged the papers into small booklets and included a smaller piece of cardstock in the middle. This has a purpose!

 I have used a pokey tool to create small holes to stitch the papers together.

Once the booklet is stitched, insert it into the book under the elastic.

Then when you stick down the middle pocket you hide all the knots!

I have finished the book with some small lace along the outside edges.

Finally decorate the front cover with your lovely vintage embellishments! I have tucked a Tim Holtz Vintage Card under the lace and glued it to the fabric and added a little collection of embellishments in the bottom corner and at the top. These all help the photograph to stay glued to the fabric.

I have used more lace on the spine to cover the elastic along with some tea dyed seam binding which has been looped through the centre of the book. Add a few embellishments - in this case the remains of an old vintage style necklace.

Thank you for joining me and I hope the tutorial inspires you to create with linen and fabric. If you have any questions concerning the tutorial or need some more information please do not hesitate to ask in the comments section or email me.

As always thank you for joining me!

Jennie x