As I mentioned the other day, I’ve been busy making some small items for an upcoming arts fair and I just *love* the little notebook organizers I’ve been making. You can see some of them here in the store. I’ve also been making some new designs in Photoshop Elements which is a dangerous activity for me these days; it’s so easy to lose a whole day just fiddling around with all the fabulous techniques and effects that are available.
I finally finished some new designs for notebook organizers and business card holders which I’ll show you next week, but I’ve also decided to make one of the designs available to you and included a tutorial to go with it – just in time for the weekend, so this will make a super weekend project. This size notebook cover holds a 3″ x 5″ notebook or scratchpad and is just the right size to fit in your purse, handbag or jeans pocket. It has a large pocket as well as a pocket for your pen because you can never find one when you need one. The designs are really cute so I hope you like them.
The Designs
To download the designs, click on the images below and then right click and save to your desktop. They’re really big files suitable for printing on fabric, so you might need to be patient while they download.
Notebook Organizer
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Business Card/Credit Card Holder
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Peltex Fabric Stabilizer
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As I mentioned, the designs are high resolution and ready to print on fabric. Worth noting is that I design specifically for printing on fabric treated with digital grounds so if you are printing directly onto untreated fabric, don’t be too disappointed if you lose some of the lovely visual texture and depth of color.
But of course if you’ve been thinking about trying digital grounds, this is the perfect opportunity. You can find out more about how I use digital grounds here, and you’ll also find on the right hand side of this page a link to DickBlick.com where you can purchase a sample pack of the various digital grounds which is a inexpensive way to get the feel for digital grounds and decide whether the product is for you or not. And of course, don’t forget my dvd Exploring Digital Grounds on Fabric where I teach you everything I know about using digital grounds on fabric.
The Tutorial
This tutorial shows you how to make a very basic notebook organizer using peltex which is a very stiff stabilizer similar to timtex. Although I make my organizers a little differently than described here, I do use peltex in all of them which helps to keep the covers stiff and well-shaped. If you’re not sure what peltex is, on the right you’ll find a link to Joann.com where you can find out more information.
When working with peltex or timtex for this tutorial, cut your fabric slightly larger than the peltex piece, fuse the fabric to the peltex, and then trim away the excess fabric. Doing it this way ensures full and even fabric coverage over the peltex/timtex.
The finished size of the notebook organizer is 8″ x 6.5″ open, and 4″ x 6.5″ closed.
You’ll need:
8.2″ x 6.7″ notebook organizer design printed on fabric. When you download the designs they are already slightly oversized for you.
8″ x 6.5″ fusible peltex, or non-fusible peltex and some fusible webbing such as wonder-under
8.25″ x 6.75″ fabric for lining
8.25″ x 8.5″ fabric for main pocket
8.25″ x 4.25″ medium to heavyweight interfacing
30″ narrow cording for wrap-around tie
The first thing is to print out your design onto fabric.
Fuse the lining fabric to one side of the peltex allowing the fabric to overhang the edges of the peltex on all sides. Turn the peltex side face up and trim away the excess fabric from the lining.
Fold the pocket in half so that it measures 8.5″ wide x 4.25″ high, press it and insert the stabilizer into the fold.
Topstitch close to the top edge of the pocket.
To align your pocket evenly, with the lined side of the peltex facing up, position a quilting ruler 2.5″ from the top of the peltex and butt the edge of the pocket up against the edge of the ruler, allowing the pocket to overlap on either side. Pin in place along the edges.
Note: Pinning through peltex is virtually impossible, so run the pin at a sideways angle into the peltex so that it runs through the core of the peltex.
One of my favorite tools is a hera marker. It’s a plastic tool with a sharp curved edge. You can use it to make creasemarks in your fabric instead of marking your fabric with a fabric marking pen. The creasemarks are quite visible on most fabrics and can easily be used as a guideline for sewing.
Clover Hera Marker
To make a pen holder, using a hera marker (see sidenote right) or fabric marking pen, make a mark 4.5″ from the left edge.
Topstitch along the marked line from the top of the pocket to the bottom edge of the cover. Make another mark 3.5″ from the left edge and topstitch from the top of the pocket to the bottom edge of the cover.
Turn the peltex over so that it’s facing up, and carefully trim away the excess fabric from around the edge.
Now fuse your printed image to the other side of the peltex allowing a little overhang on all sides, carefully trim to size, and pin your pockets in place around the edges.
To finish the edges, use a satin stitch or a zig-zag stitch and carefully stitch around the outside edge making sure that you catch the pockets as you sew. This might take a little practice if you haven’t done it before, but go slow and be patient.
A tip before you begin
Because the peltex is very thick, some of the white color is going to show through along the edges once you’ve finished zig-zag stitching and this can detract from the appearance of your project. To fix this problem, use a sharpie in a color that complements the color of your fabrics and carefully color in the edges before you stitch them.
Once you’ve added your stitching you can’t notice the white edges at all.
Once you’ve finished stitching your edges, attach your cord. Cut an 8″ piece of cord and attach half way down the right edge of the cover, and attach the remaining cord half way down the left edge of the cover. Handstitch in place.
The long piece of cord wraps around and then there should be sufficient lengths to tie a knot. You could also add a bead at the end of each piece of cord as I’ve done, to add weight and decoration. I’ve also added some machine wrapped cording to the edges and used the same type of cording for the wrap-around tie; I like the way it finishes things off. If you want to use machine wrapped cording, you can find the tutorial here.
I’ve also given you a matching design for a business card/credit card holder and you can find a tutorial for a business card holder here. For the card holder I would use a medium to heavyweight stabilizer rather than peltex which I find too thick for such a small item.
And that’s it! I hope you have fun with your weekend project and if you have questions, please post here. Enjoy!
I'm Linda Matthews and welcome to my website. My current passion is creating digital collage and then printing my artwork onto fabric. You'll find lots of information here about printing on fabric as well as other textile and art quilting techniques. Enjoy!
