Last year on Instagram, I started seeing very ornate fabric-covered journals pop up in my feed in that very random, very social media way. The covers featured intricate embroidery in oval lace-embellished frames atop small calico floral fabric adorned with long top stitches of thick cotton thread. I was in love!

It quickly occurred to me that these more modern fabric journals appealed so strongly to me because they reminded me of the elaborate fabric photo albums of the 1980s – the decade of my girlhood. Do you recall those? They were everywhere. I remember going with my mom to craft shows and peering over the huge mountains of floral and lace photo albums piled up on table after table. It wasn’t long before my Pinterest feed was flooded with images and I was “forced” to make a Pinterest inspiration board.

I decided to try my hand at making my own version last summer. I went through my bins of vintage fabrics and laces and decided upon this blue floral. The picture of the girl is from a vintage greeting card I purchased from an estate sale. The journal turned out to be my perfect partner to document summer. 

Over the past year, I’ve been experimenting with different ways of creating these vintage-inspired fabric-covered journals and while little details or techniques change, the main approach starts the exact same — cardboard cereal box, quilt batting, and fabric. If you’re interested, I’ve created a detailed tutorial on my YouTube channel with the entire process.