Protect your summertime reading materials from water and suntan lotion with an oilcloth book cover. You must know how to use a sewing machine, but you don't have to be an expert seamstress.

You'll need:

• Sewing machine and thread
• Oilcloth or vinyl material (enough to cover your book)
• Soft pencil
• Scissors

Place the piece fabric, wrong side up, on your work surface and lay an opened book on top of it. Draw a line around the book making the area 1" bigger from the top to the bottom and 6" bigger side-to-side. Cut out along your lines. Turn under and stitch a 1/4" hem along the top and bottom edges. Put the fabric back on the table, wrong side up, and mark fold lines for the left and right flaps at 2 3/4" from each raw edge. Fold along this line and sew in place along the top and bottom edges, lining up the top and bottom hems.