On Saturday I took a day off and spent most of it making this:

It didn’t take as long as the first version, mainly because I knew what I needed to do. I wasn’t expecting to make it in a day, however. I started out by making the book cloth I needed, and figured it would take the rest of the day to dry. In the meantime I got some of the sewing done. But by lunchtime the book cloth was dry so I just kept on going. At the end of the day I glued the bag section to the cover and clamped it with bulldog clips to dry overnight.

The next morning I discovered this:

The clips had left rust stains on the white satin lining. Doh! I tried removing them with lemon juice, which was amazingly effective but didn’t get rid of them completely. Fortunately I had a strip of satin left, which I seamed then glued and stitched down.

I have one more copy of each of the two books, and a few ideas on other ways to make book bags. For these two I have the perfect events to wear them to coming up in a few weeks: two literary award ceremonies. The red and blue of the bags will also match the dresses I’m planning to wear.