Pattern Review - Zakka Sewing Bunko-Bon Cover

I made this quick book cover for my husband (just in time for Father's Day, this post is a bit late!).  The pattern is from Zakka Sewing, which is a collection of Zakka projects from Japanese designers.  I've found most Zakka books printed in English are from designers based in the United States, and feel something gets a little lost in translation.  "Zakka Sewing" is one of the few such crafting books where I want to make a handful of the projects, or adapt them for my own uses.

One of the projects is a "bunko-bon" book cover, for paperback/softcover books.  In Japan there is a standardized size for their paperbacks, and so one cover can be used for many books.  Thankfully the designer included instructions on adapting the book cover to fit other-sized books!  My husband has picked up a new book series and wanted to keep the book covers/binding neat and clean.  So I made a cover for him using the instructions in Zakka Sewing.

One thing to note is that the instructions seem to miss the applique application.  I've searched for them several times in the instructions and must be missing them by a lot, or they are just not there.  Because I made the cover larger anyway, I folded both the cover and the applique in half to find the middle and then eyeballed how far up it should be.  I also scaled the applique up proportionally.  I embroidered his initials on the applique after I applied it.

I used grey Essex yarn-dyed linen and a cute Japanese quilting cotton.  I used a wide (1 inch) Petersham ribbon for the book mark.

He was very happy with the book cover and I'm planning on making at least one for myself to use when traveling, since all the travel guides are about the same size (albeit different widths! I'll guess I'll have to make a couple!).