Once I found this wonderful book at the flea market. It described the lives of people all over the world during one day. After a couple of years the book started to collect dust. Still I couldn’t get rid of it because I liked the cover so much. Time to make something useful of this book: a bag.

Step 1: Take Out the Inside

What you will need to make a book bag:

- a book

- a box cutter

- a ruler, scissors, pen

- paint and pencil

- double adhesive tape

- wood to make the frame, wood glue, band saw

- pillar drill, planer (if needed)

- two hinges

- fabric

- handle, sholder strap, hooks,

- press fasteners, tools to mount the press fasteners

- leather strap, screws

Do your books collect dust too? Make a bag and follow this instructables.

Take a book with a hard cover

Take away the pages of the book with a sharp knife and take care that you only cut the pages

Step 2: Make an Indentation (groove) in the Side of the Book

Make some kind of an indentation on the inside (see pictures) so that the bag can bent in the middle and open properly

Remove some cardboard with a knife and sand the groove afterwards

Glue double adhesive tape on the back and make sure to cover all the groves

You have to make a groove so that you can open the bag. Without groove (indentation) you can't bent the board in the middle and the bag can't open.

Step 3: Coat the Inside of the Bag With Fabric

Put your book cover up side down and draw the outline on the fabric

Cut your fabric 1 cm smaller on both the long side and the short side

Cover the coves with double adhesive tape

Glue your fabric on the book cover. You can also use wood glue on the hard cover but not in the groove as wood glue will become too stiff and this part needs to stay flexible for opening the bag smoothly

And yes, if I would make a bag again I would choose a fabric without a pattern :-)

Step 4: Make the Inside Frame

Measure the size of the pages of your book.Mine were 3.3 cm high. I prepared the wooden parts for the inner frame slightly thicker (3.6cm) as I will lose 3mm from cutting the wood in two at later stage (see next step)

Cut all your parts and sand the ends

Step 5: Glue and Split Your Frame

Glue your four pieces into a frame

Let dry and mark the center

Split your frame in two with your band saw

Step 6: Paint and Attach Hinges

Mark and drill holes for hinges

Paint the frame one time, let dry, sand lightly and paint again. Make sure you leave one side of the frame blank for better glueing to the cover

Step 7: The Handle

Mark and drill holes for the handle. I found the handle on an old kitchen door in a container with trash.

Mount the handle

Step 8: Mount Your Frame in Your Book to Get Your Bag!

Mix glue I used epoxy and apply it on your frame

Put your frame in the book and let it dry

Put some heavy books on top of to give it some presure

Step 9: Do You Want a Shoulder Strap?

Drill holes for hooks to mount the shoulder strap.I have some shoulders straps which I took from old bags

I painted my hooks the same colour as the frame

Don't worry if you don't have a shoulder strap, the bag looks wonderfull without too

Step 10: The Clasp

Measure

Cut the leather at the right length. You can use a leather belt or cut the bracelet from another piece of leather

Make a hole. I used a hollow punch tool. You can also drill your holes with a drill or use or a leather hole punch. The size dependents on your Press fasteners

Fasten your Press fasteners on both sides

Pre-drill a hole on the end of both leather strips to ease screwing

Apply double adhesive tape on the ends of the leather pieces (optional)