Daily Planner for 2014 - Part Three: Closure

Part Three of this series is: Closure

The moleskin planner comes with a black elastic that wraps around the book from top to bottom. While that would be absolutely wonderful if I was using my planner in a traditional way, it's unusable with the tabs.

All that prettiness gets crushed and over the course of the next twelve months I think the whole thing would have torn apart.

So my first (brave) step was to tug assertively on the band and sure enough it popped right out.

Ha! 

Can you imagine my planner strap not getting an assertive tug now and then if I was keeping it? 

Would have broke for sure.

There was a little tiny black bit where I hadn't gessoed the cover that was easily concealed with a dab of paint.

The covers on the moleskine journals are made of a nice sturdy-but-flexible material so I took some hand dyed seam-binding ribbon made a loop and held it down with the plastic-y-est washi tape* I owned. I hope the washi will provide added reinforcement as any closure has to deal with a lot of force and wear and tear

Then I ran it through my sewing machine, back and forth, a whole bunch of times until it felt extremely secure. 

I made the ties extra long as I know this book will likely be twice the size once I add in pictures, ephemera and such. They look very pretty when tied closed. 

It's only been a week and a half but it's showing no stress or wear at all. 

This is part three of a three part series.

Part One: The Cover

Part Two: Tabs and Page Inserts

*Note: isn't it weird how washi ranges from low tack masking tape that's nearly translucent to plastic-like high-tack tape? I love the traditional masking-tape low tack stuff and despise the sort that you get from companies like the Smash! stuff. Ugh.