There's something especially satisfying about a journal and bag that were made for each other — not just in size, but in material and spirit. This video is a flip-through and showcase of a collection I made for my Etsy shop: handmade junk journals paired with matching crossbody bags, each one a collaboration between me and my parents. My dad is a retired upholsterer, and he and my mum make the bags; I make the journals. The result is a set you can carry every day — journal tucked inside, pens in one pocket, phone in another, keys on the little hook — all under one kilo so postage stays reasonable.
What we cover
I walk through four journal-and-bag sets from this collection — each with a leather and upholstery fabric crossbody bag and a matching junk journal. I flip through the first journal in detail, covering the signatures, pockets, tea-dyed and onion-skin pages, stenciling, vintage book pages, and the various paper elements I've built in. The other three journals get a quicker look, with notes on how they follow the same formula while differing in the specific book pages and ephemera used.
What you'll learn
How I build a soft-cover journal with upholstery fabric — the cover uses two layers of upholstery fabric with cardstock in between, giving the journal enough structure to hold its shape without being a rigid hardcover. It stays pliable, which matters when it needs to sit flat in a bag.
How ribbon closures are attached at the construction stage — the ribbons are sewn in between the cover layers before the journal is assembled, so they become part of the structure rather than an add-on.
How I approach tea dyeing and stenciling for a cohesive look throughout the journal — rather than treating each page independently, I use a consistent palette of tea-dyed paper, onion-skin-dyed paper, and a few recurring stencil designs to give the whole book a unified feel even when the individual pages vary.
How to use original vintage book pages — and why photocopying isn't an option — the pages I pull from books like Janet Marsh's Nature Diary (1979) and a small quote book are originals, not copies. Books still under copyright can be used in handmade items you sell, but reproducing or photocopying the pages is a different matter. I use the originals, which means no two journals in the collection are identical.
How I structure the interior of each journal, including:
- Two signatures with plenty of writing space
- Transversal back pocket sewn down the centre
- Acetate pocket with a tucked-in envelope on the reverse
- A fold-out page made from two A4 sheets sewn together to open for extended journaling space
- A small handmade booklet tucked into one of the pockets
- Loose bits — writing paper, ribbon trim, lace — placed inside pockets as usable inclusions rather than fixed decoration
How I think about filling a journal for sale — I want the journal full of interest and texture, but I have to be deliberate about what I add. Every element contributes to weight, and keeping the journal-and-bag set under one kilogram together is a real constraint that shapes how much I put in.
How I put together a "formula" and follow it across a collection — once the first journal in a set is done, I use it as a template for the others. The placement of pockets, tags, and stenciling stays consistent; what changes is the specific book pages, the colour of the fabric, and the incidental ephemera. This is how I make a collection feel cohesive without making every journal identical.
Tips & gotchas
The weight limit is real. I wanted to fill these journals as fully as I could, but the journal and bag together had to come in just under one kilogram — go over that and postage jumps into a higher bracket, which changes the price for the buyer. It's worth weighing as you go rather than finishing and then having to remove things.
On using vintage book pages from books still under copyright: you can use the original pages in handmade items you sell. What you can't do is photocopy or reproduce them. This distinction matters both legally and practically — using originals means each journal is genuinely one of a kind, which is part of what makes them worth selling in the first place.
When the bag fabric and the journal cover fabric come from the same upholstery source, the match is visual but also tactile — they feel like they belong together in a way that a close-but-not-quite fabric wouldn't. If you're making matching sets, try to cut from the same piece of fabric for both.
The crossbody bags in this collection were made on an industrial upholstery sewing machine — the same kind used for sewing couch fabric. That's what gives the stitching its durability. If you're making bags to pair with journals, the bag construction matters as much as the journal's; a bag that wears out quickly undermines the whole set.
If you're thinking about making your own journal-and-bag sets, the formula here is adaptable: find a fabric that works for both, keep the journal construction simple enough that the cover can be replicated, and think about the whole set as one object from the start rather than two things that happen to match.
