Even though I rarely have the patience to sketch outdoors, the elastic of my Talens sketchbook still managed to get too loose. I was hesitant for a while to cut off the elastic entirely or replace it but I decided to give it a try since I had some thin white elastic at home. But white elastic looked boring with my pink cover. Since I had some leftover matching chiffon fabric, I sewed a scrunchie-like elastic casing for it. Not perfect, but cute.

If anyone is interested in replacing the over-stretched elastic of their sketchbook in a similae way, here's the process:

• Use an x-acto knife to cut open enough of the interior back where the elastic is glued onto the sketchbook. Remove the old elastic.
• Measure your new elastic to fit the sketchbook plus 1 inch overlap. Since I was going to cover the elastic with fabric, I wasn't going to glue the elastic back on. Instead I was going to sew the ends together and have the seam hidden inside the fabric sleeve.
• Sew a fabric sleeve for the length of the exposed elastic plus several inches or more. I probably should've made mine longer for a more scrunchie look.
• While the elastic is inserted into the holes of the sketchbook in the right place, pull it to one end and insert the long end into the fabric sleeve. Checking that there are no twists, sew the elastic together. I sewed mine using the sewing machine but it may be easier to sew by hand since the sketchbook is hanging off the elastic.
• If your cuts in the interior back were done neatly, you can glue whatever flaps that were left back in place, or you could just do what I did and use cute stickers to hide the open cuts at both ends.