D-I-Y: Turn an Old Book into a New Purse
When boredom kicks in and you want to do something productive and cool, try some Do-It-Yourself stuff!
You know, not only does doing stuff yourself allow you to express yourself in art but also it encourages the budding environmentalist in you because with DIY, you get to reduce, reuse, and recycle your old stuff. Want to try something interesting and exciting? Turn an old book into a new purse!
As a DIY enthusiast myself, it is always part of my routine to check some DIY stuff on the internet. And of all the DIY stuff I saw, this is by far my personal favorite. I have seen old books made into secret boxes but I personally did not think that an old book can be turned into a purse. Sounds amazing, right? Well, if your creativity strikes in anytime, feel free to do this cool stuff. Mandi Johnson is giving us 17 steps in turning your old book into a fashionable, perfect little book clutch that can be done in a couple of hours.
Of course, you have to prepare the needed supplies and tools first.
Supplies: Hard cover book at least 1” thick Magnetic snap kit Lining fabric that coordinates or compliments with book colors Heavy weight interfacing Tools: X-Acto blade Fabric scissors Marker Hot glue gun Iron Sewing machine
Now let’s go through the steps one by one.
1. Remove the cover from the binding and pages. Use an X-Acto blade and as much as you can, clean up the cover until it looks neat. 2. Using your chosen lining fabric, cut out a piece to the size of your book’s cover with an extra .75” for the border. 3. Iron the edges of the fabric lining to make sure they are well folded down for the final shape to appear a bit smaller than the cover of your book. 4. For the interfacing where you will be placing your snap, cut a small piece of cloth and stitch it to the end of your fabric. 5. A bit more than .5” from the edge of your rectangle, put the snap back on the area where the interfacing is. Cut through the slits of the snap back using an X-Acto blade. 6. Through the slits of the snap back, place the arms of the snap front and secure them by bending them down. Make sure that the snap is on the right side of the fabric. 7. Just about .25” from the edge of your rectangular lining, stitch around the edge. 8. Now time to begin making the snap flap. Make a shape like the one shown in the picture. 9. Spare at least .75” around the edge of the snap back. Two patterned fabric pieces are needed plus another one for the interface. 10. The interfacing must then be stitched to the wrong side of one of the patterned pieces you cut out. Place the snap back on the interfacing after you wide stitched it which is about .25” from the edge. To cut through the slits of the snap back, use the X-acto blade again. 11. Make sure that on the right side of the fabric is the snap front while the snap back is on the interfacing side. Therefore, you must put slip the arms of the snap front through the snap back. 12. Since the right sides of the fabric need to face each other, you need to layer the flap pieces. You then have to stitch the pieces together as close to the snap as possible. You need to flip right-side-out the flap pieces so do not sew the bottom edge. After flipping, iron around the edges. 13. Slightly open the book cover like the one shown in the picture. Trace its edges to create the side panels of the purse. Because you will need two layers of fabric, don’t forget to fold the fabric at the opening the purse. 14. Cut out the patterns and .5” from the edge, make sure to stitch around the edges of the fabric. 15. Using hot glue, attach the side panels. Glue the binding edge of the cover first before doing the front and the back. Put the line of hot glue just enough from the edge, not too close otherwise it will be seeping. Anyway, you can always add more glue if you deem necessary. 16. Attach the snap flap using hot glue again. 17. Now work on the inside lining of the purse. Take in mind that hot glue will easily dry up and harden so you must really work on it as fast and as careful as you can because you also have to line up the fabric with the book cover for your purse to look perfect. And there’s your work of ingenuity. I hope you have fun!
