Leatherbound Sketchbook Holder - the Everdoodle

The Everdoodle is a sketchbook holder for the cluttered artist—storage for a single standard A5 sketchbook, with some modular, replaceable pockets for writing utensils, papers, and other arts materials.

Faux leather (2 colors)

Transparent acrylic sheet for laser cutting

Leatherworking set, specifically an awl and a needle

Small magnets

Since the Everdoodle is meant to be like a bag for your notebook, measure according to the size of your notebook. 

You will want a measurement for the size of the Everdoodle, which should be roughly the size of your notebook, but larger by 1-2cm.

The Everdoodle has a transparent backing acrylic to display art through. This is a piece of acrylic that is exactly the size of the notebook, with 4mm holes dotting the edges to let it be stitched in with the leather.

The acrylic to be used is 3mm, but any thickness thinner will work. Alternatively, using no acrylic works as well, just modify the back design to replicate the front, acrylic-less design.

Create this design through a vector application such as Inkscape.

Cut the acrylic with a laser cutter.

There are four main pieces of leather needed for the final Everdoodle.

The first piece will form the main body and outside cover of the Everdoodle, and is what is going to be stitched directly with the acrylic. Cut this piece with your main leather color.

This piece must be the width of 2 notebooks + 3 inches. The two extra inches of width are used for smooth edges for the piece to be folded over, while the last inch is used for the central spine of the Everdoodle.

This piece must also be the height of 1 notebook + 2 inches. The two extra inches of height are used for smooth edges as well, to be folded over.

This first piece must then have a special rectangular hole 1 inch from the left in order to form a hole for the acrylic.Note that there are triangular cuts on the corners, to allow for the edges to be folded over, which produces a neat crease with no exposed inner leather.

The dimensions of the hole should be the width and height of the notebook minus a margin of 0.6 inches (subtract 1.2 inches from the height and width to obtain the true size of the hole.)

Then, diagonal cuts should be made at the corners with a length of 0.42 inches to allow the margin to fold over neatly.

The second and third pieces of leather will form the "pockets" in which the notebook can be 

inserted into. These leather pieces must be the width of 2 notebooks + 1 inch of margin to be folded over, and a height of 1 notebook + 1 inch for the same reasons. Cut this piece with your accent color leather.

The fourth piece of leather will be used to connect the two pockets together, and must be the width of 2 inches (corresponding to the width of the central spine + a little more to allow for connecting) and a height of 1 notebook (with no margin as this exposed edge will be hidden). Cut this piece with your main color leather.

The first part to be stitched is the acrylic backing piece to the margin of the Everdoodle.

This may be done first by folding the leather edges (keeping them in place with a weight, clip, or masking tape), placing the acrylic piece atop, and stitching these pieces together with backstitching.

Next, the two pockets' short edges must be folded and stitched so that the exposed edge is not shown. Either the running stitch or backstitch may be used. I used the backstitch.

Afterwards, the two pockets may be stitched together with the fourth piece of leather. They should look like so:

After this, assembly of the final product may begin. First, lay the first leather piece down.

Felt may be placed atop this piece to be sandwiched between the layers of leather, reinforcing the structure of the piece.

Next, place the two connected covers atop this first piece.

Now, fold over the edges of the bottom layer (the first piece) such that its edges roll over themselves, hiding the exposed cut edge. Secure these folds down to keep them fixed for stitching.

Stitch the margins together, making sure to go through every layer of the project to maintain the structure of the piece. I used the running stitch for this demonstration.

This completes the main body of the Everdoodle.

Looking back at the final photo, there is an extra pocket that is not part of the main body. This is a modular pocket, one that can be stitched to any size or shape, depending on your use case.

The pocket pictured is a simple, single piece of leather folded over itself, and fixed via the running stitch.

The pocket is not connected to the main body via stitching.

The pocket is connected to the main body via a magnet.

Using this basic design, many pockets that conform to any size or shaped tools can be created.