I’m still trying to figure out exactly what the generic, non-trade name word for this style of notebook is. Insert notebooks? Composite notebooks? It turns out that Traveler’s Notebook and Midori are both trade names, and faux-dori? Well, I put way too much work into this for the result to be a faux anything.

So, here I am, a week or so later, and I’ve spent the better part of the afternoon ironing out fabric “sandwiches” to make journal covers with. I am probably getting six of them from the yard of stabilizer I bought. Probably? Well, two of them are passport size (give or take) and that’s an expensive size of insert. In my opinion, it’s also a really awkward size to work with. Teeny-tiny, and also expensive? Not for me. (On the other hand, hey! I wrote twenty five pages today. Okay. No. that would be wrong.) I could probably do better, with a little more experience.

The outside of the notebooks will be a canvas-y black. The inside is happy, fuzzy flannel. (It has mountains on it. Remind me not to do prints or anything else that needs to be well-aligned until I actually have the patience for it.) Fusible stabilizer between the two. No sewing, yet, but I’m thinking of putting something around the edges.

I’m working on how I want to hide the knots, after I add elastic. I definitely don’t want a bunch of lumps in the middle of my notebooks. I’m also thinking thoughts about how to close the thing. (Lump elimination is vital… to me, anyway. I’m hoping to come up with a real, working notebook, not just a planner.)

I’ve trimmed most of the fabric sandwiches into fabric rectangles. They’re delightfully tidy.

It’s turning into more of a project than I really expected.

I’m still hoping they’ll turn out well.