More Eclectic Elements For My Junk Journal

What do you think this is?

When I took a little break from blogging at the beginning of 2024, it was a paper based project that brought me back.

From March through to the end of June, I blogged about a jumbo junk journal that I had started compiling during the Christmas holidays of 2023.

The project was inspired by two things: a YouTube channel featuring beautiful works of art in the name of junk journaling, and my own need for a jazzier solution for my daily handwriting exercise.

It's this ongoing latter requirement that's the focus of today's post. Representing the twenty-second "thing that I made with my Eclectic Elements fat quarters" (I should update that list — the junk journal itself already has an Eclectic Elements fabric cover as well as a vinyl pocket), it's a two piece notebook cover.

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When I incorporated a standard notebook into the back of my junk journal for daily use, I thought that I would simply adorn the front and back covers with magazine images in standard "junk journal fashion" every time I started using a new book. I did this for my first two, but by the time the third one arrived, I had lost interest in glamming it up. Since it is not a permanent part of the journal, I didn't and don't feel the same motivation to make it look special.

What else but Tim Holtz's Eclectic Elements fabric for a junk journal?

Instead, I began to ponder the possibility of making a reusable cover for that notebook, and of course, ended up examining my final few Tim Holtz Eclectic Elements fat quarters. This one is called Documentation.

Addressing my constant need to "save" fabric before I ever cut into a new piece, I just sat and looked at it for several minutes, trying to decide how to hack the project so as to preserve as large a usable remnant as possible. As you can see below, folded in half along the 18" height of a standard fat quarter, the fabric does not have sufficient height to cover the book. (To add to my difficulties, this is also one of Mr. Holtz's directional selections. There's an absolute "right side up" to the print, so I couldn't use it sideways.)

Not quite enough...

Having to think about it outside of the proverbial box, however, I soon recognized that this cover simply needs to be different from a traditional cover. The notebook is tethered to a volume that has gotten enormously jumbo, so a custom fitted wrap-around book cover would result in even more bulk. Also, if I made it a custom fit, what if I couldn't find this exact notebook (coil bound, 250 pages) in future? At 6" x 9", something of its size will likely always be available, but maybe not with the same number of pages or with the same size coil.

I decided that what I needed was a sleeve for each cover. And being merely a sleeve, it would have to be snug fitting to stay put. Half of the fat quarter – at 9" – is the same height as the notebook, but if I added a tiny strip to the top and bottom and sewed it with a small seam allowance, it could work.

Selvages came to my rescue to add just the right height...

As my eye caught sight of the selvage along the edge of the fat quarter, an idea popped into my head. A strip of that could be sewn to the top and bottom of a 9" panel, potentially making it big enough to accommodate the covers of this notebook.

I dove into my collection of selvages and found a strip that was perfect for what I wanted: it was just selvage (i.e., no tiny strip of actual fabric showing alongside), and mostly plain (i.e, not a lot of identifying information on it). It wouldn't be a very decorative choice for use in any so-called selvage projects, so sacrificing it here was fine.

With selvages added to the top and bottom, a sleeve was formed by holding in half...

After attaching the selvages to the fabric panels and pressing them inwards, I opted to zigzag stitch the raw edges of the fabric to keep them from fraying. (No, I never considered seaming them; a rustic look here is preferable.)

To finish, I folded the panel in half, sewed the exposed edges of the selvage together at both ends and then turned the whole thing right side out. After pressing, I had the sleeves that you see in the top photo of this post.

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As I had hoped, the fit was properly snug without being difficult to put on/remove. (The original fabric was cut to an 11.5" width that resulted in the zigzagged raw edges stopping just shy of the coil.) I like how both the inner and outer sides of both front and back covers are now adorned; I had previously never bothered to put magazine images onto the interiors of the covers.

Front cover installed on notebook...

Most importantly, this kind of covering adds no noticeable bulk to the notebook. The fabric is not even interfaced, so it's light. There is no obstruction where the coil is, meaning that the cover won't shift in any way when the book is opened.

Interior of front cover...

May I say again how much I love these Eclectic Elements fabrics? They are still widely available, despite having been released some time ago, and of course, Mr. Holtz is regularly adding to the mix. Every time I see a new collection, a little yearning comes over me, but I know that at this stage of my sewing game, I am not going to buy fabric that I don't have a specific use for.

Interior of back cover...

In the above photo, you can see the only bit of evidence that the strip of fabric at top and bottom is a piece of selvage. This one came from Craftsy's Boundless DECOdent collection, which I purchased at the same time as my Eclectic Elements bundle, in March of 2018.

Exterior of back cover...

These book cover sleeves took me no more than an hour and a half to make, including all of the "thinking" about how to make it work with fabric that was the same height as the item I was attempting to cover.

And in the end, I even managed to save a very serviceable remnant that's 18" x 9.5" wide. Out of my original twenty-five Eclectic Elements fat quarters, I am now down to three (plus scraps).

'Til next... 🇨🇦🍁