A Sewing Lesson

While we were out at the Sisters Harvest Faire last weekend, Chloe and I saw some fabric covered composition books.  She really liked them, but we thought better of buying one and decided to try making one at home.  I think she did a marvelous job.  We started with a basic book cover pattern in a book I just picked up, The Crafter's Companion (a marvelous read, which really made me feel pretty normal for being so obsessive about the handmade).  By the way, it's so easy to make you don't need a pattern, but I wasn't sure how to start.

She went through my stash of batiks and found two gorgeous fabrics.  We altered the orginal pattern by removing a tab closure and added some interfacing for body.  We also had some discussion about how to add graphics with her homemade stamps.  It was finally decided to print it on a patch of fabric and add it after the cover was sewn to eliminate the possiblity of error.  Along the way, the patch turned into a pocket.

And here's the happy writer/artist.  I see more of these in our future!