Back-to-School and the Environment

Here in Baden-Württemberg, school has started again. 

New school year, new textbooks

In 2024, I pleaded not to use that awful plastic for book covers again, but to use fabric book covers instead, for the sake of the environment. Grandma sews, and her grandson gets to choose (used) fabric. 

So in 2024, book covers were sewn for my grandson from old, discarded bedding. 

In 2025, my grandson came and said, “Grandma, could you... one book needs a cover.” 

This year, there were 4 new books that needed covers. Ghosts and dinosaurs are out. That’s why 2 of them got neutral covers made from the parents’ old bedding. 

And the favorite, with a big “Oh, how great, Graaandma,” was the cover with the dachshunds.

He loves dachshunds, and I discovered the fabric in my aunt’s stash.

Now everything is fine again for another year, and all the books are well protected. The teachers are happy. 

Did you get to help out for the start of school this year? Did you do any crafts, crochet, or sew as well?

Best regards to all of you

Petra 

Dear Petra, I think that’s a brilliant idea and execution. Not only did you sew great book covers for your grandson, but you also playfully raised his awareness of sustainability. Absolutely wonderful—I’m thrilled!

If all students were to follow this example, we could expand the initiative. There should be a sewing club that works on projects like this with the students. That would be sustainability in action, and the idea would be enthusiastically shared. 

I’m going to ask my 8-year-old grandson about this soon and take a look at his textbooks. After all, everyone wants to be cool—even when it comes to textbooks. If he thinks it’s lame, all the work would be for nothing.

To find out how he feels about it, I’ll add a sewn cover to a regular book—the kind I give him as a gift every now and then anyway. Let’s see how that goes. And his sister will get one with a cover, too.

Thanks for the idea, dear Petra. It immediately made me want to head to my sewing room :-)

Best regards, Ina

Dear Ina, yes, I’ve also thought about a sewing group. Right now I’m promoting my book covers a little to draw attention to them, but unfortunately I haven’t heard anything back yet. But never mind, I’ll keep going with my upcycling ideas.<\/p>

And yes, time and again, the way I do things is well received in the family, and they embrace it. <\/p>

I’m curious to see how your grandson reacts. Will he be able to resist his favorite fabric or motifs, or maybe he’ll be thrilled.  <\/p>

I think the idea of sewn book covers has a bright future, since there are suitable—and cool—fabrics for every age group. And maybe that’ll make learning just a little bit more fun.

Woolly greetings

Irene

Dear Petra, 

I’d have the perfect fabrics for my 4-year-old granddaughter right away, but it’s a bit trickier with my 8-year-old grandson. Right now, he’s into ninjas—and I’m not. They definitely shouldn’t look cute. I think I’ll start with the “girls’ book covers” and then see what he comes up with. Thanks so much for the idea, anyway. 

Schools should offer a course on “sustainability.” That would benefit everyone! It would make much more sense than a lot of what’s currently on the curriculum.

Best regards, Ina

Either way, this is a great idea to help protect the environment and let children experience sustainability firsthand; it gets kids on board faster than you might think, because they often pick up on more than we realize.

Best, Inge

It’s a lovely idea and a great execution.

Unfortunately, this isn’t allowed at our schools because then you can’t tell exactly which book or notebook it is 🙄—here, only clear covers are allowed on the books 😢

As a teacher, I think this kind of thing is great. As long as the child knows which book goes in which cover (and they don’t all look the same)... Those self-adhesive plastic sleeves are the worst. No one can get them to stick properly, and they don’t actually protect the book either, so we don’t allow them here. But if a child came in with a cover they sewed themselves, I’d really celebrate that. 😁

That’s really a great idea! When my kids were still in school, I covered their books with old calendar pages and posters. That went over well. Now my kids have been out of school for a long time, and my grandkids are still too young.

Calendar pages and posters would also be an option for me (as someone who tries to avoid waste). I also used wallpaper back when I was in school (my dad was a house painter).

My grandson has never once brought the wrong book to school. You can just open it up and check quickly. It’s a shame that there are schools that still encourage mountains of waste and consumerism. In elementary school, his notebooks had to be covered in specific colors, and new colors were chosen every year. Terrible. We had perfectly good covers at home, and we still had to spend money on new ones.