"Here's one I made earlier..."

I was in need of a new sketchbook, something small I could just carry around to do some quick scribbles in when out and about. I decided to make my own sketchbook, inspired by one my friend made me at Christmas.

I first folded some general A4 cartridge paper into two. I then stitched down the fold to create a small booklet. I did this three times, creating 3 A5 booklets. I gathered them all together and stitched them all together through the fold, connecting the three together to make a large A5 booklet.  After I had completed that, using some thick cardboard (I used the back of one of my old sketchbooks) I cut the cardboard slightly larger than the sketchbook, about 1cm on both the height and width. I also included a spine about 1cm thick. 

 

From there I found some fabric out.Placing the three pieces of cardboard together on it, I cut out a large border (around 4cm) 

From there, I glued the pieces of cardboard to the fabric. I pushed them closer together as well, leaving a gap of around 0.5mm either side between the spine and covers. Once that has dried, I began folding the edges in together and glueing these onto the cardboard. (This doesn't have to be neat, as it'll be covered with the sketchbook)

Here it is completed:

Now I brought in the sketchbook I made earlier. The first and back page need to be glued onto the two covers, like so:

Make sure that the sketchbook can open and close properly, then leave to dry. 

Once it's dry, you'll be left with something that looks like this:

Ta da! There's the basic sketchbook. You can leave it like that if you want, however I decided to add some decoration. Using small scraps of fabric, I made small bunting flags. Using a small needle I stitched these on (watch where you glued onto the fabric as you won't be able to stitch there)

For a little bit extra, I added two buttons. (I made the heart shaped one out of clay)

And there you have it! Your own sketchbook :)