Repurposing a Vintage Book Into a Diary Cover

As if you needed further confirmation that I am more than a little obsessed with vintage books, today's post is about a vintage book I recently upcycled into a cover for my very cheap and, while not ugly, not very classy-looking diary for 2012.  I found a very straightforward tutorial for my project on the Just Something I Made blog and I have to admit that I now want to make vintage book covers for all my boring notebooks!

This repurposing project really was quite fast and simple, with most of my time spent waiting for my glue (I used the very handy Gutermann fabric glue) to fully dry and cure.  I did tweak the tutorial a little to improve the look and function of my "new" diary cover.  Firstly, I glued a strip of cotton fabric onto the inside spine of my old book to protect and strengthen it.  And secondly, I  cut the pockets for the diary's covers a little narrower than the cover of the book so that the spiral binding of my diary could sit nicely along the spine.  The best part about this project is that I'll be able to re-use my upcycled cover every year as long as a I buy a similarly-sized diary!