Book Bag

Stephanie showed me these gorgeous book purses a while ago. We talked about making them together, but didn't get around to it before I moved. When a local used book store had an enormous sale, I went in and got a pretty book in a good color and thought I'd give it a try even without Steph's help. And then I took pictures at every stage so she could show me the right way to do it later on.

Here are all my supplies:

A book, 1/3 yard of cute cotton fabric, 1/4 yard of ribbon, handles from Joann's, and a button to help keep the purse closed. Oh, and FabriTac, and Heat and Bond, and a piece of stiff cardboard, which I forgot to add in the picture because I didn't purchase them.

First I removed the actual book from the cover. I’m sure you could use a razor blade, but since I didn't want to display the inside cover, I cut it out with a kitchen knife. Afterwards, it looked like this: Then I reinforced the spine with approximately 8 million layers of tape:
I think that might actually be bookbinding tape, but I'm not sure. Let’s say it is so I feel extra smart.

Next I attached my handles as well as a button and a ribbon loop to keep things closed:I used my new love, FabriTac (thanks, Steph, for introducing us) and bits of ribbon to attach the handles at an equal distance. And then I taped again because I wanted it to be strong enough to use.

After that I turned my focus to the sides. I made a pattern by tracing around the outside edge of the book when it was open to the width I wanted and then adding a 1/2 inch margin to glue it inside my book. I taped in my pattern to make sure I liked the look:

I did.

I cut two on the fold, so one of them looked like this after I opened it up:

For a little extra support I used some Heat and Bond to hook it together in the shape that I wanted:
Using more Fabritac I attached the middle first:
and then worked towards the edge, making a fold at the corners and another fold at the edge of the book. So it looked like this:
I could have been more neat, but I knew I'd be covering the inside up, so I didn't have to be perfect. The most important thing was keeping the fabric even with the edge of the book.

The final piece I made by covering a piece of stiff cardboard the same size as the book with matching fabric. I measured it so that it folded at the same places as the book cover, thus making yet another layer of support for the binding. Since I used a discarded Kudos box (but you could use any granola bar box), there was already one fold in the exact right place, but I scored the other side lightly with scissors to get a crisp fold. Covered, it looked like this:
Then I secured my fabric covered Kudos box inside with FabriTac to cover all the tape and ribbon ends and exposed fabric. And the project was complete:
It took me two afternoons with assistance from my two helpers and I really like how it turned out. It’s not big enough for diapers (YAY!), but perfect for carrying the essentials—cellphone, chapstick, keys, and a wallet. Or, the inside of the book:
Which brings me to a question: Does anyone want the inside pages of the Reader’s Digest version of Miracle at Philadelphia? I’ll give them to you cheap.