The second of the promised more detailed posts about how I made my Monster High Twyla cosplay… this is the Book of Talismans, which I turned into a book bag!
By far my favourite of Twyla’s accessories is her Book of Talismans. It’s a book, it’s turquoise, it has icons on the front representing all the different types of monster and it’s about talismans, which are one of my all time favourite things. Here’s Creepover Twyla and you can see the book on the left.
And here’s my book bag version with the doll sized book:
When I made this I didn’t actually own the Creepover Twyla or any of her accessories, but knew I wanted to make this book over the Fearbook.
The talismans on the front represent all the different types of monster – a shell for sea monsters, a bat for vampires, a lightening bolt for Frankenmonsters, a snake for Gorgons, a crescent moon for were-creatures and a jewel for mummies. I also love that her friends are one of each – Lagoona, Draculaura, Frankie, Deuce, Clawdeen and Cleo.
How to make a book bag from a book box
While shopping for her costume I’d picked up a book box from TK Maxx, one of the MDF ones with a magnetic closure, a realistic shape and nice-looking “pages”, because if I’m going to make a fake book, it needs to be useful as well as pretty! Originally I thought I’d just make it a box and hold it, then realised I could make it into a really cute bag and use it again.
Step 1 – mark, drill & add hardware
Figure out where would be a good place to attach your fixings. Check the inside so you don’t damage the structure of the book box.
Open drill box, prepare drill. Remove helpful cat from project space. Carefully drill a hole in either side of the “pages” where you’ve marked. I chose to do this on the sides, but if you’re not putting anything too heavy in it, you could probably get away with doing it on the top edge where it opens, and being able to store it upright on a bookshelf.
Once your holes are drilled, screw in the hooks – mine were just the right length to not really stick out on the inside, and didn’t need the nut to secure them, but if yours are longer you can add a nut to make sure they stay in place.
Check your strap clips on securely – I pinched one from an old bag, but good haberdashers will have straps, clips and all sorts of other bits.
For some reason I didn’t photograph this bit of the process – I think there is a video somewhere – but here’s the book box with hardware and straps attached.
Step 2 – painting
Next up was painting the spine and the back in turquoise to match the doll-sized book. This is the first coat of two, in the closest colour acrylic paint I could find (and I did do a single coat of turquoise on the front too, in case of any show through when I made the front cover):
Step 3 – the front cover
Then came creating the front cover. I did a bit of tinkering in Photoshop for contrast and making sure it was the right size, did one test print on a normal piece of paper, and then took a risk and put a piece of primed canvas paper through the printer on photo print settings – and it worked like a charm!
I’d chosen the book box base to be smaller than A4, so I knew I’d easily be able to make this work. My printer goes to A3 but finding interesting textured paper for this kind of creating is really hard beyond A4 size.
Then it was time to cut to size:
Glue:
Another coat of paint on the back and spine, and then a coat of glossy varnish followed, to keep everything protected and looking good, and also to help flatten the edges of the printed canvas.
Step 4 – inside flaps
I don’t have any photos of the process of this because it involved a lot of swearing and failed experiments! But if it was going to be the bag I carried my phone, keys & purse in all day, it needed to have something to stop everything falling out every time I opened it.
Fortunately there was some spooky fabric in the studio left over from reupholstering chairs, and I eventually managed to get it cut into roughly the right shape and stapled in on each side.
I’m not actually sure what the best advice would be for this – definitely do it last because it was fiddly and once it was done anything involving the inside of the book was more difficult. But glue did not hold sufficiently, even gorilla glue clamped overnight, and my staple gun, while the obvious fix, had long staples in so I nearly ruined the front cover while doing this part.
Step 5 – adding a velcro clasp
One of the things I hadn’t accounted for was that once there was anything at all added to the book’s initial shape, the magnet wasn’t strong enough to stay closed on its own.
And is it even an event in costume if you’re not up at stupid o clock the night before trying to fix something?
After trying a few different options my eventual solution was heavy duty velcro on a piece of wide purple satin ribbon, attached on the back and holding the book shut until I wanted it open. It functioned really well on the day and the purple at least went with the colour scheme!
This is the prop I was most determined to make, and most determined to make accurate, and I am delighted with it – will be using it as a random bag for as long as it stays in one piece!
The book bag budget
Things I needed to buy:
MDF & fabric book box, £4.99, TK Maxx
Acrylic paint, £1, The Range
Steel screw eyes, £1.79, The Range
Total spent: £7.78
Things I already had in my stash
Heavy duty velcro roll
Primed canvas A4 paper pad
Gorilla Glue
Bag strap with clips
Fabric for inside flaps
Wide ribbon
Tools I used
Electric drill
Staple gun
