We are so inspired by the many great ideas, projects and shares on Pinterest and to see these ideas come to life with our products is even more inspiring. Viki shows us how to make a trendy fabric zippered book clutch using an assortment of Canvas Corp Printed Fabrics. The printed fabrics are all 100% natural 10 ounce cotton. The heavy duty weight is perfect for making bags, totes, aprons, pillows, placemats and other projects where you need the fabric to stand strong. Printed with a resist black ink, the fabrics can be tinted, misted, dyed, stained, inked, stamped, stenciled…to be transformed into the color, style and look you are going for. While it is not required to wash the fabric before creating, you may want to do so to create a more vintage, soft cloth. Check out this great step by step Viki is sharing today on the blog where she shows off her book binding and clutch making skills!!!
Viki here! The other day I saw this neat book clutch on Pinterest and since I am a book binder myself, I immediately wanted one too :). And since I decided to make one for myself, I thought you might want to make one for yourself as well, so while making my own, I took pics of stages for you to see how it’s done ;).
Materials and Tools:
Book Board
Canvas Corp 2 Canvas Sheets
Glue (I use Elmer’s glue)
Brush to apply your glue with
X-Acto knife
Zipper (long enough to cover three sides of your cover )
Canvas Corp Printed Fabric French Script, Chevron and Tile printed canvas sheets
sewing machine (optional)
glue gun
Step 1: Cut two same size boards and one narrow board for book’s spine. The size of the boards will establish the overall size of your book clutch. The spine will be the depth of your clutch. My book is a tad smaller than an A5 sheet.
Step 2: Apply glue on your chosen cloth and on one side of all boards. Then wrap the boards with the cloth and leave about 3-4mm margin between the cover boards and the spine to allow opening.
Step 3: Set to dry. Then decorate the front and back covers as you wish. If you have not crafted on canvas before, you are in for a treat. The natural surface loves just about any craft medium including paint, pen, ink, mist, dye, rub-ons, iron-ons, stencils, appliqués, monograms, screen printing, heat transfer, etc. and you can apply embellishments such as metals, ribbons, cords, etc. with a glue such as Beacon’s 3 in 1 glue which will hold all the goodies in place. If you want to transform the color of the canvas do so before you glue to the board and let dry completely, as this is a natural fabric it will shrink if you apply a water based paint, so let it dry completely and iron it to flatten it out and then glue to the book board.
Step 4: I hand screen printed mine, but you can stamp it, screen print it, paint it… Really anything. You should have some scraps left over where you can try your favorite paper techniques and see which works best on canvas.
Step 5: Begin assembling the rest of the book by setting zipper’s tongues and sides.
First sew (or if you can’t sew, hot glue) the tongues to both sides of the zipper (the cloth part around the teeth). I used the Tile printed canvas to make the tongues. You should measure your tongue lengths by how many inches there are around your book from the top of the binding to the bottom – where the pages would be visible if this were a real book. You may want to add an extra 1/2 inch on each end to make attaching easier.
After, attach the sides. Do so by sandwiching the zipper between two side layers (front and lining) and sewing (or gluing) in along the zipper teeth. When done, you should have a fully enclosed zipper that looks good both from front and the reverse.
Step 6: Take your enclosed zipper and with a hot glue gun, glue it into the book cover.
Step 7: Start gluing from the middle of the spine and proceed to one of the covers. Notice how the tongue of the zipper is glued parallel to the spine, while the rest is glues horizontally, beginning where the actual zipper teeth start!!! For fun you can attach a charm to your zipper as the pull and add your own style.
Step 8: When you reach the end, follow the same instructions as above to set the second bottom tongue (again gluing it parallel to the spine!!!)
Step 9: After the first half a clutch glued in, open the zipper and do the exact same procedure to the other side of the cover.
Step 10: When all is glued in, proceed to treat the inside of the clutch. Begin by gluing in the spine sheet- Fold the top and bottom raw edges in (glue them with glue gun) and lay a layer of Elmer’s glue on top.
Step 11: Place the sheet on top of the spine and smooth it out.
Step 12: Repeat the same steps for the end sheets -this time folding all four raw edges in, hot gun gluing the ends and finally adhering it all with Elmer’s glue to the inside covers of your now finished book clutch.
Step 13: Take a minute to admire your work.
Neat project right?
Now you have your gorgeous finished project ready for craft supplies, spare change, your wallet, your phone… Anything!
This is gorgeous!! Thank you Viki for this unique and trendy inspiration!
For more of Viki’s ideas, click here.
Happy creating!
