PettiBear's Fashion Roar: Book Clutch DIY

By Viki Tiamat

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 ;)

To make a Book Clutch you obviously will need a book.
One with hard cover which you won't mind destroying ...
I don't have books like that,so I made my own cover

To make a cover you'll need -

Book Board
Book Cloth or other heavy material
Glue (I use Elmer's glue)
Brush to apply your glue with
X-Acto knife

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 A5 sheet

Apply glue on your chosen cloth and on one side of all boards and wrap the boards with it

Leave about 3-4mm margin between the cover boards and the spine to allow opening

Set to dry. Then decorate as you wish

I hand screen printed mine :)

Now when your cover is ready and set, prepare the materials for the clutch

You'll need-

Zipper (long enough to cover three sides of your cover )
2 end sheets cut to size of the cover
I'm using the FAB Canvas Corp. French Script Printed Canvas sheets
1 spine sheet cut two times larger than the spine width and same size as the spine height
2 tongues to cover zipper's ends
These beauties are too from CC Brands and are named Tile Printed Canvas
2 front and 2 lining pieces for the sides of the zipper cut the width of the zipper and the length of the zipper + the two tongues
I'm using both "Tile Printed Canvas and Chevron Printed Canvas sheets for these
sewing machine (optional)
glue gun

Begin by setting zipper's tongues and sides-

First sew (or if you can't sew,hot glue ) the tongues to both ends of the zipper and after attach the sides . Do so by sandwiching the zipper between two side layers ( front and lining) and sewing or glue in along the zipper teeth. When done,you should have a fully enclosed zipper that looks good both from front and the reverse

Take your enclosed zipper and with a hot glue gun glue it into the book cover

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 !!!

When you reach the end follow the same instructions as above to set the second bottom tongue (again gluing it parallel to the spine!!! )

After the first half a clutch glued in,open the zipper and do the exact same procedure to the other side of the cover

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

Place the sheet on top of the spine and neaten it smooth

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 :)