If you've got a stack of large book covers sitting around — panels salvaged from books you've cut up for their images, or battered kids' books that can't be donated — this tutorial is full of ideas for turning them into something genuinely beautiful. I work through six finished projects in this video, from a vellum-windowed stamp storage book to chunky folio wallets stuffed with pockets, and I show you how to build each one from start to finish.
What we cover
This is a roundup tutorial built around one core question: what can you actually do with a large book cover? I cover how to assess your cover (glossy vs. canvas vs. paintable), how to prepare and decorate it, how to hinge two panels together with fabric to make a folio spine, how to bind pages in using a five-hole pamphlet stitch, and how to line and pocket the inside panels before gluing everything down. Along the way I show six completed projects — folios, a stamp book, journals with removable inserts — as a menu of directions you can take.
What you'll learn
How to assess a book cover before you start — glossy, canvas, or painted — and choose the right approach for each:
- Glossy covers need sanding before paint will stick, or you skip that entirely and cover with painted paper or contact paper
- Canvas-like or non-glossy covers take paint directly and beautifully
- Some covers are worth keeping as-is; you only need to deal with the spine or any visible text
How to cover a panel with self-adhesive contact paper — including the trick of sticking the sticky side lightly to your table first so you can lay the panel down and smooth out bubbles as you go, then miter the corners cleanly
How to hinge two panels with fabric to create a folio spine, leaving the right amount of space between panels so the folio can expand, close flat, and keep growing as you fill it — the amount of gap you leave here determines how much the finished book can hold
Why I use carpet tape (heavy-duty double-sided tape) alongside fabric glue for the hinge — it holds immediately while the glue sets, useful when you're handling a large panel that wants to shift
How to prepare inside panels before gluing them down, including:
- Sewing lace pockets onto paper panels at the machine, then gluing the whole panel in as one unit
- Cutting a window and inserting vellum paper to make a see-through pocket
- Creating narrow pockets from vellum for storing stamps, using machine sewing or glue
How to bind signatures into a spine using a five-hole pamphlet stitch, including:
- Making a folded paper template the same height as your pages to mark five evenly-spaced holes
- Using the same template on both the signature and the spine so all holes align
- The figure-eight stitch pattern, working out from the centre hole and back in
- Finishing with an S-knot so the final knot sits beside the others rather than on top, keeping the spine flat
How to make large journal pages from kids' scrapbook/art pads — pre-tea-dyed, coffee-dyed, or avocado-dyed — and size them to fit within a specific cover
How to paint a glossy or canvas cover using found mark-making tools — lids of different sizes for stamping circles, packaging foam for texture, sponges for loose layering — finishing with glitter paint or glitter glue for depth
Tips & gotchas
Glossy covers will reject paint without preparation — either sand the surface first, or skip the sanding entirely and cover with a sheet of painted paper instead. It achieves the same result with a lot less fuss.
When you're hinging two panels with fabric, the gap you leave between them matters more than it looks in the moment. Too little space and the folio won't close once there's anything inside; I showed examples with a tiny spine that struggled, and one with a generous gap that could be chunked right up. Err on the side of more space.
When you glue the spine fabric down, don't pull it taut. Leave it loose across the gap — that looseness is the flex that lets the book open properly. Tight feels better in your hands at the time, but it fights you every time you open the book afterward.
Do all your pocket-making and embellishment work on the paper panels before you glue them into the cover. Once a panel is glued down you lose access to the sewing machine and clean edges. This is the step most easy to do in the wrong order.
Don't use double-sided tape to close pockets. Anything you slide in — a tag, a card, a folded piece of ephemera — will catch on the tape and get stuck. Use fabric glue or regular craft glue on the pocket edges instead.
When gluing panels down, make sure the glue reaches all the way to the edges. Any area you miss will lift, especially on large panels. Press down firmly and let it set properly before filling.
The same hinge-and-fabric technique scales to all sorts of panel sizes; the pamphlet stitch works for anything from a slim notepad signature to a fat stack of mixed pages. I've ended up with six of these on my shelf that I genuinely can't bring myself to pass on — which might be the best argument for making them in the first place.
