A Book... Bag!

This project uses the hard shell cover of a book and transforms it into a hard shelled bag to help hold and protect items.

Materials needed-
Hard Cover Book- Large enough to hold the items you want it to hold

Hot Glue Gun

Spray Adhesive

Felt

Foam Core (mine was 3mm thick)

Velcro

Nylon Straps x 2

ExactoKnife/Sharp Blade

Scissors

Measuring Tape

The first step in this process is to remove the pages of our book. I used an exactoknife to cut just along the edge and removed the pages from the cover. Be extremely careful to not cut through the other side of the book, so make sure to watch where the exacto knife is actually cutting.

So after the pages are removed we will now get the foam ready. Fortunately for me my book was just a bit larger than the foam I had got. If your foam is larger than your book now is the time to cut it just enough that it is smaller than the book. Next we score the foam following the binding of the book, we do not want to cut completely through the foam. Just go over it once with the exacto knife and bend it to make the edge separate.

Now its time to take the nylon straps and make our support and handles. I don't trust the binding of a book to hold together so I cut the first nylon strip up into 3 support pieces and 2 handles. My handles were roughly 19 inches each and the support straps were divided into 3 equal parts of the remaining strap. Next we hot glue the 3 support straps over the book binding, which were randomly placed without measurements. The handles were placed 3 inches from each outside edge (this can also be done randomly if you don't want to measure, but I wanted mine to be exactly the same on both sides so I measured.) Next we will cut the 2nd strap into 4 equal parts, I cut mine into 7 inch strips. These four will be on the outside edge of the book to help keep the objects inside the bag. I measured and marked my straps two inches from the top and then two inches in. The lower two straps were measured at six inches down and two inches down, this obviously depends on your book size and should be adjusted accordingly. Next hot glue just one side of the strap down to the book, but make sure you have the measurements already marked for the other sides.

Now after we have our handles and straps set its time to added the Velcro strap. I took a piece of velcro and glued it to a piece of the extra nylon strap and then glued it to the inside of the book. I took the second piece of the velcro and glued it directly to the back of the book.

Now we need to add the felt to the foam core, we will be using the spray adhesive to attach the two. Spray the adhesive to the side of the foam that has not been scored in the earlier step. Then after a liberal amount of adhesive has been sprayed on press it against the felt, make sure to leave about a half an inch of felt on each side of the foam. Then press down on the foam and make sure it has a good amount of pressure. Next we cut the felt, neither my scissors or my exacto knife wanted to cut the felt, but the edges will be hidden so it does not have to be pretty. So now hot glue all those left over edges of felt all the way around the foam.

Now we need to hot glue the foam to the book. This is the trickiest part. I put a good amount of hot glue on the binding of the book and added that piece of the foam first. I went about a inch at a time adding glue then holding down the foam, peel it up a bit and add more glue. I suggest to glue the foam down to the side that already has the side straps glued down first. The hardest part is the side straps will need to be glued in place before you glue the foam down. So after its all glued we can go back around, check our edges and add any glue if the edges are coming up at all.

Now just add your tablet, paperwork, or even another book!