Leather Notebook Cover Tutorial

July 31, 2015

I absolutely love Moleskine notebooks. I have been using one to bullet journal. I wanted to gift Lis a leather Moleskine cover in her favorite color scheme- ocean colors! Want to make your own? I have a tutorial after the photos.

Materials:

• Vegetable tanned leather in 4 to 5 ounce weight.
• Cutting tool to cut the leather (I used a rotary cutter, but I've also used scissors and an exacto knife).
• Hammer.
• Lacing hole punches. 
• Leather dye in color of your choice (the one above is turquoise from Fiebings).
• Sewing awl. I bought a simple one on Amazon - it works pretty well. 
• One classic large-sized Moleskine. 

Instructions:

1. Cut three rectangles for the cover: one 12.5 by 9.5 inch rectangle (for the outside cover) and two 3.5 by 9.5 inch rectangles (for the inside flaps).
2. Use your hammer and lacing hole punches to punch holes for stitches all the way around the inside flaps.
3. Line up your flaps with the cover, and use the holes you have punches as a guide for punching holes in the cover.
4. Dye your leather with the dye. You may need to let this dry overnight.
5. Follow the directions on your sewing awl to stitch the flaps and top cover together.
6. Insert your Moleskine!

That's it!  Here are some extra pro tips if you would like to make the cover look even more professional:

• I would recommend a stitch groover to guide your hole punches. I didn't use one, and you can see that some of my stitching was crooked.
• If you have a leather hole puncher, you can use it to create the little seams I made above for the elastic Moleskine band and a card holder.
• When you punch your holes, punch on the right side of the leather. It will look neater (I didn't do that here, but I will next time).
• If you like neat edges - you can burnish the edges (smooth them out) with a burnisher and gum tragacanth.  I did that above.
• If you want the edges to look even more professional, use a beveler. It rounds out the edges. I am going to try this next time.

Hope you enjoy making this as much as I did! If you want to see more of my current projects, you can find me on instagram (SaltyCrafter) and on ravelry (bsl19).

~SaltyCrafts