I love to do upcycle projects, giving old retro materials a new purpose. Here is a mini notebook I made a few years back using an old cassette tape and some fabric to decorate.
Step 1. Carefully take the cassette tape apart. Older ones have little screws, but you can easily pry one open with a flat head screw driver at the seams.
Step 2. Take a cassette single sleeve and use it as a template to cut another piece of cardboard. You can use the sleeve, but I like to use that for another type of mini journal. If you don’t have a cassette sleeve, you can use the cassette as a template and add some space between the spine on depending on how thick you would like your notebook.
Step 3. Fold the cardboard the same way as the template. Make sure that any design is on the outside of the sleeve. It will be covered by the fabric you have selected.
Step 4. Cut a piece of fabric big enough to cover the cardboard. Give it at least half an inch (about 1 1/2 cm) of allowance to properly sew it around the cardboard.
Step 5. Iron the fabric around the cardboard. Fold the fabric twice then iron. This will give it a neat “hem”. You may have to cut some excess fabric to neatly sew the fabric onto the cardboard.
Step 6. Sew theSew the tapes on the front and back of the fabric covered cardboard. I used embroidery string and a bead for the enclosure. fabric onto the cardboard. I used a contrasting color to give it more interest. If you don’t have a sewing machine, you could just glue it to the cardboard instead.
Step 7. Take a very tiny drill bit and create holes on all 4 corners of the plastic cassette tapes.
Step 8. Sew the tapes on the front and back of the fabric covered cardboard. I used embroidery string and a bead for the enclosure.
Step 9. To construct the notebook part, I used this tutorial: https://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/cassette-case-notebook
