Covered Victorian Diary.

This quick little covered book was for the character of Cecily in The Importance of Being Earnest at Oak Park Festival. I started with a small amount of brocade fabric, a $5 "leather" journal from Staples and some decorative scrapbook paper. 

 I covered the book with spray adhesive, 

 and then carefully pressed the fabric down onto it. When doing this be sure to start on one edge and then slowly work your way across to avoid trapping any wrinkles. Also notice that the fabric piece I cut is much larger than the book. It is always better to be generous with this. Extra can be cut off if needed, it is very hard to add more fabric if there isn't enough. 

 I trimmed the fabric on the corners and the seams so that they would fold over neatly. 

 Then sprayed a bit more spray adhesive inside the cover and folded the fabric over onto the glue. 

 Finally I cut two pieces from the scrapbook paper the height of the book. 

 I sprayed them and then wrapped them around the edge of the journal to give it a look much more in line with the period books I found in my research (when in doubt in a Victorian play, add more detail). 

 And here is the final book. Cute and it matched nicely with Cecily's dress.