Planner Cover

To make my planner a bit more useful, I decided to add a cover  with plenty of pockets. This should allow me to not only have all my appointments and lists handy, but also related items like tickets to a show or coupons for shopping trips.

Materials:
2 fat quarters in matching or contrasting fabrics (not even half of each fat quarter gets used)
7” zipper
Matching thread

First I eyeballed how much fabric I would need for the shell by wrapping the fabric tightly around the closed notebook and deciding how much overlap I would need for the flaps that hold the cover in place.

With these measurements in mind I added my inner pockets: a zipper pocket on the left flap, and two card pockets on the right flap.
I sewed down the zip pockets only on 3 sides to create an additional pocket on the left flap.

To accommodate for the unusual closure of the notebook, I made openings for the leather strap on the back and the pencil holder in the front. These are basically just small rectangles cut out of the fabric, then neatened with a zigzag stitch. Measuring the height of the notebook,  I snipped the fabric right at the end of that seam and double hemmed the shell fabric between the flaps, then sewed the flaps to the shell, right sides together.

I plan on making at least one of these for Christmas, but with a regular notebook planner. So I won’t need the openings in the shell and will instead add some elastic to keep the notebook shut.