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Something I’m always looking for is new notebook covers — they’re just so useful, and it’s no mystery that I also happen to love traveler’s notebooks. That’s why it didn’t take a lot of convincing when I stumbled upon this:

The Tailormap Harris Tweed Travel Journal! I ordered it immediately, and though it took the better part of a month to get here, I’m glad to finally have it in my hands. It comes in a ton of different colors, but here we have the Navy Blue Plaid.

And first impressions are pretty good. It feels like I expected it to: it’s what I like to call prickly soft. It’s nice enough to the hand but kind of rough at the same time. It’s the kind of material you would want on the outside of a jacket more than touching your skin on the inside. Of course, it’s not a jacket so it doesn’t matter, but I think it’s perfectly fine to handle. And most importantly, it’s beautiful. The fabric looks wonderful, and that’s what sets this apart.

The hardware on the outside is also beautiful! I love the brass eyelets.

The patch and band also appear to be real leather.

The notebook comes with 3 inserts, held in using these bands that run through the eyelets on the cover. They were installed nicely from the factory and didn’t require any adjustments on my part.

The 3 inserts inside come in grid, dot grid, and blank, and frankly, they’re not great. They don’t feel like the same paper either — the grid paper was soft, so much so that pencils felt awful on it, while the dot grid was just the opposite: it was hard and textured, and overall unpleasant to write on.

Here we can see there’s not a lot of feathering other than the markers, but unfortunately I can’t say the same for the bleed-through.

The paper can at least handle ballpoints and most gel pens. It bled through less than expected with the rollerball, and it may be able to handle some fountain pen inks, but it’s already starting to bleed through a little on each of the papers. It might get by if using a fine enough nib, but honestly, I recommend using different inserts.

Thankfully, any standard-sized traveler’s notebook insert should fit just fine! Here we have a standard Traveler’s Company Midori MD blank insert, and it fits in the band just fine, but there’s one downside (or upside)…

The cloth cover holds its form surprisingly well, and it looks fantastic when it’s stuffed to the brim with the 3 inserts it comes with.

But it also means that it looks miserable with a single insert in it. If for any reason you like to run with just one insert, then this isn’t going to be it, and honestly, 2 inserts isn’t that much better.

The good news for me is it’s a traveler’s notebook! So there are plenty of ways to customize it to your liking if you do want to load it up! Here I’ve started with one of my favorite inserts: the Traveler’s Company cloth zipper case from the B-Sides & Rarities collection. On the opposite side, I have my 019 Planner insert.

Following that, we have a folder that I made specifically to complement this notebook! (If you want more info on that, there’s a full write-up free to all Patreon followers here)

And in the back, I have a Franklin-Christoph lined insert.

With all that, we’re left with a nice cross-section that’s still able to fill in the cover.

Something I really enjoyed about this notebook was how flat it lays compared to most leather covers. It’s very comfortable to write in, with less of a need for clips to keep everything open while you write. Of course, that means the cover doesn’t work as a hard backing to write on, but I wasn’t bothered by it.

All in all, this is an awesome cover. Admittedly, it probably wouldn’t wear as well as your standard leather cover, so I would keep it to light use myself, but just look at it! It has so much character. Maybe I’d be worried about it pilling with a lot of use (although it hasn’t yet), but it was also so affordable. I just can’t think of anything truly bad to say about it. And with all the colors it comes in? Yeah, I would probably get more.

If you want to get one for yourself, you can find it here!

More images/info:

Featured in the photography:

• Tailormap Harris Tweed Travel Journal, Navy Blue (Amazon)

• Retro 51 Tornado (Amazon)

• Sailor Pro Gear Slim (Amazon)

• Jacques Herbin Rocker Blotter (Amazon)