So if you pay money to go to dragon*con, they give you a program/schedule with everything that is happening every second of each of the four-ish days the *con is on. It is very important to have, and to not lose, your personal copy because you probably have circled things you want to do and made notes in it. You will probably tote it with you literally everywhere all weekend, and pull out of your bag and shove it back into your back something like 20x a day. Oh did i mention it's printed on newsprint? and held together with two staples?
Here, I drew you a picture:
but imagine it's just a crumpled up piece of trash. Because that is exactly what it is by the middle of the first day... THIS WILL NEVER BE MY FATE AGAIN!!
So this year is The Year I'm Smart and I made a cover for my program out of some old Star Wars bedsheets I had made into a dress last year. (no pic? sorry)
You've already seen the outside, so here is the inside:
And here is an action shot with an old crumpled-then-uncrumpled program:
And here is my ridiculously crummy tute. (click on any pic to make it bigger)
You will need:Two pieces of nice cardboard.
Two pieces of cloth. I'd recommend thinnish.
Two lengths of flat elastic
A nice, flat, big, button. (yes, these are the notes I make for myself) and an old hairband. Sorry, no crappy drawing of a hairband.
What you're gonna do is cut 1/2" notches out of all four corners of one piece of fabric. Spray one side of the board with some kind of craft glue. Press the board onto the inside of this fabric 1/2" in from the outside edges. The boards should be 1/2" away from each other. Fold the edges over and hot-glue them onto the inside (un-craft-glued) side of the board.
With the second piece of fabric, cut the notches out again, then fold the 1/2" in onto the "bad" side of the fabric. Pin. Iron. Sew down.
Now time to make the sandwich. Place your flat elastic two inches or so in from the short edge on the "good" side of the covered board. Glue it on the "bad" side of the board. See second live-action photo if this doesn't make sense.
Your old hairband is going to be the closing mechanism. So hot-glue it to the "bad" side of the right-hand board. Basically on the outside of the back of the book.
So now you have a lovely inside and a really fugly outside. So take that sewn rectangle of fabric and hot-glue it to the outside where all the hot glue and fugliness is.
Measure where your hairband reaches to on the cover and made a dot with a marker. Then sew your nice, flat, big, button there. My button had a nice curve going on, but if yours doesnt, just leave a little space so your hairband has somewhere to fit.
Tada!
I'll probably hot-glue the spine of my program into my little cover here, and use the elastic bands to mark pages. But if you wanted to use the same cover again and again, you could just use the bands to hold your program in.
Comments? Questions about my lack of clarity in my crummy tute?
Show Posts
