Baby Idea Books

This project was first inspired by my little sister's art.  She made a couple lines of stationary, and I for some reason, found a couple images from her "Invention" pack on my computer.  I wanted to make something with the images, and I'm really into freezer paper stenciling.  Her telephone piece made me think of making a little booklet for telephone messages. 
From there, I thought of using scraps and fabric paint to make a small notebook.  I ended up making three from her invention series, Gramophone, Microscope, and Telephone.

So these little Mini Notebooks were born.

1. Cut rectangles from scraps, an outside and a lining for each book.  I also cut a rectangle of fusible interfacing, about 5" x 8-9".

2. Print out/ trace the images on freezer paper, iron paper onto fabric, and paint.

3. Iron the interfacing to the lining.
3. Sew the lining to the exterior, right sides together, leaving 2-3 inches unsewn.
4. Snip corners, turn rectangle right side out through 2" hole. 

5. Top stitch around the rectangle, sewing hole shut.

6. Measure paper and cut to fit inside book, I used regular copy paper

7. Using denim needle on your sewing machine, "bind" books together, sewing down through the paper. I made two rows.

EXTRAS

On the gramophone, I added a button and elastic closure.

The elastic is actually a tiny hair elastic, making things easy.

Just stitch your elastic to the right side of the exterior back half, with the elastic looping onto the fabric, not hanging off the edge. When you flip the cover right-side-out, the elastic will hang out of the seam.

Sew button on.

I thought these ended up cute, unique, quick & easy project, and a good way to use scraps.  I thought they would make a great little gift for someone, because you could personalize them so easily with the image you choose to paint on the front.  I liked how each was a different object, but as a group they somewhat relate being older inventions.

Because they have the inventions on them, I thought these particular little notebooks would be great to fill with your Best Ideas.  I love little journals, and was always interested on the history channel or school to see the sketchbooks of great geniuses.  Like DaVinci's little drawings and plans.  So these can hold someone else's great ideas.

CHANGES:

I would have loved to have great linen paper to fill them with rather than copy paper.
I would have loved to put button closures on all of them.