What Mama makes - journals... day 1

I've been day dreaming about making some altered journals for a while now, and had a surge of inspiration in the middle of the night the other night. What if I used a repurposed tee-shirt to cover a store bought journal... (after all, we all know that anything you dream up when your half asleep is totally do-able right?)
But I was totally determined to find out if it was possible, so the first thing the next morning I set right to work (after I caught some more zz's that is!) I pulled out the hand-me-down bag and found a little girl shirt that was too little and a spiral bound journal with a thick chipboard cover. I did a little measuring and figured out that I could use the front of the shirt for the front cover and the back of the shirt for the back cover. So I took the cover off the book, cut my fabric to fit, and sewed a little sleeve for the front and back covers. To do this, I stitched up the side and bottom of each piece (wrong sides together) and flipped it right side out, then inserted the cover, and topstitched the open end shut. Here's a hint - tee-shirt fabric has a little bit of stretch to it, so go ahead and sew your cover about 1/16 of an inch too small. That way it won't be all loosey-goosey and wonkey.
Now to put it all back together again, we need to punch holes for the binding to go back through. I used a crop-a-dile to punch holes through the fabric, I imagine the sharp point of a pair of scissors would do the same thing in a pinch. Here's another helpful hint that I figured out after I'd finished the first panel. If you add a strip of scotch tape to the part where you'll be punching your holes, the fabric doesn't ravel as much and you end up with a tidier hole. Put the tape on your fabric sleeve before you flip it right side out and top stitch it, you'll be able to feel where it is with your fingers. Then just find the holes with your finger tips and make your cuts there.
Put the cover back on your journal and it's done!
I'm planning on using this one to keep my gardening stuff organized - but my daughters have both ordered one, so it looks like I'll be off to the dollar store to find more of these little books after the weather clears up a little.

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