Happy Unexpected Crafting New Year! Aka The CHANEL Hassle. Part 2 of 2

Dear Scribblers

Sorry for the delay. I'm finally starting to feel better. So, here it is... What happens when you have a Louis Vuitton horizontal agenda insert that's too big for the medium agenda Chanel cover? For the backstory of why I was in this position, please read Part 1.

I needed to get this:

Into this:

It only stuck out about 1cm or so, but it looked a mess. I had a few choices open to me. The first was to pinch the metal coils, which were causing the majority of the problem.

I could have used pliers, but I had the fabulous Zutter Bind It All. I put the agenda in place, and gently clamped down, tightening the coils. It helped, but it still hung over! Holy Zutter, Batman! I would have to cut it down.

I looked at cutting a bit off the bottom, but it would have clipped into the days, plus I would have lost the gorgeous silver paper edging, which matched the Chanel CC logo on the front of my agenda so I didn't want to lose that from the longest edge.

I knew exactly what I needed to do, that was to take the whole thing apart and take off the top edge.

I began removing the old coils, and then making sure the silver edges of all the pages were aligned, I then used bull-dog clips to hold them altogether for the next part of the process.

I decided to use my metal ruler and sharp craft knife to cut through the whole thing a little bit at a time. I had a paper trimmer and variety of scissors on standby, in case this first idea didn't work. I needn't have worried as working methodically through the pile, it didn't take very long to get it cut.

I cut just below the original holes which made it a perfect guide for lining up the ruler. Any tiny wavers or slivers of paper left were easily dealt with using a nail file.

So now what? Now, I needed to make new holes to take the Bind It All coils (couldn't use the originals as the spacing didn't align.) I decided I didn't want to completely bind it with wires across the top, therefore I didn't need to punch holes all the way. I settled on 4 each end, but how to make sure I spaced them identically either side and all the way through the pile! I hadn't used the Zutter for a while, so it took a little figuring out. In fact, I found this the most difficult part of the whole process.
Here's what I came up with. (If you have a better/simpler/quicker way, please let me know in the comments, as I'm always up for new tricks and tips.)

First, I took a scrap piece of card and punched out holes all the way across to make a guide.

I then put the card back into the Zutter, hooking a hole into the stop bar tab, so it held the card steady and in place, and counted 4 spaces in from the left (as you look down on the machine.) I made a mark between the 4th and 5th holes. I removed the card again, and drew a line down the sheet, making sure it landed half way between the two. This I hoped would be the correct placement to the edge of the page.

Next came the test! I hooked the guide sheet back in place, and grabbed a piece of paper, lining it up against the guide line and punched out the holes...

And what did you know? It worked!

I tried a few more times with scrap, just to make sure that I was confident with the alignment, and also to make sure I had a steady hand. It was now down to me to get the pages to line up with the ruled line I'd drawn, as long as I did that, all probability meant that it would work.

To begin with, I punched with just 4 or 5 pages at a time. I'd cut out the one side first, before flipping the sheets over to punch the other 4 holes, so that selection was complete. Then I moved onto the next few pages, and over, and over again. As I grew in confidence, I began adding a few extra sheets to the pile, which I finished in no time at all. Here it was at about the half way point.

Next on the agenda... for the agenda!.. was to bind it all back up again.

Problem was I only had fairly large coils, or 'O Wires' as Zutter call it, but I thought I'd give it a go.

I cut the wires down to 4 loops each side, hooked them onto the pages and using the other part of the Bind It All, gently squeezed them into position.

Well. It looked the part, but - but, it still wasn't quite right! After all that, it didn't sit snug enough inside the cover. So disappointed. I knew it was all down to the ring size. They were far too large, plus I noticed they were pressing into the leather inside the cover. No good at all. Then I thought of a great interim idea. Cable ties!

My hubby is a superb handyman with a well stocked tool case. 😜😆😂 He has cable ties (or tie wraps, depending where you come from) of all different sizes and colours. So I knabbed a few different ones to experiment with, and settled on using just 4 of these in the end.

Any more than 2 either end was overkill, and I found that the more you add the more the movement of turning the pages are reduced, and I think they'd be more chance of ripping the paper that way. Trying only 1 cable tie each end made the agenda unstable.

As I said, these were/are only meant to be a stop gap before deciding on whether I'm going to change over smaller wires. However, after using the agenda for about 3 weeks I can say, I'm enjoying using it like this.

In fact, I don't notice the binding, and isn't that the best way? I'd notice it, if it wasn't working, if it was causing problems or I was fighting with it to turn the pages, but honestly I'm not.

It's probably not as perfect as using proper coils, but I don't think they are any less 'pretty', as the original metal wires can't be considered to look that attractive either.

What I'm doing is using the agenda, and generally enjoying using it. Has it been worth the hassle? Well, I would have preferred to have walked - or what did I originally say, 'entered with a skip in my step' - into Chanel and bought the correct insert, which would have saved me a lot of time and effort. However, seeing as I've ended up with an attractive Louis Vuitton weekly planner in the same horizontal layout that now works and fits inside the Chanel medium agenda cover, so yes, I'd say that it was worth the hassle.

Has it all gone to plan? No! 🙀
Am I now pleased with the outcome? A resounding yes! 😃👍
Would I buy another Louis Vuitton agenda? Now, there's a question!!!
If you'd like an answer to that, please leave a comment here, or on the corresponding Instagram picture. I'll follow up with a new post of a full review on the insert, including pen tests, along with further photos of how I'm making it work.

Happy Scribing!

Important Notes
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