My friend, Marilyn, taught our fiber art group how to make fabric books. Hers were lovely, with pale pages, lots of embellishments, and amazing contents.
I had just whacked off a good bit of an already quilted quilt and thought that piece would make a good start for the cover. This is what it looked like when freshly trimmed. (From the bottom of this quilt.)
And here it is as the book cover, front (right) and back (left.)
I added hand embroidery to both covers.
I initially planned to leave the edges unfinished, but later added hand buttonhole stitching, which I really like.
Knowing that I would probably add colorful items to my book, I chose black for the pages.
The pages are about 6″ square with one layer of batting between two pieces of fabric. The batting gives it some body. But, maybe the coolest thing about the structure of the book is that it’s made with signatures. These are groups of pages that are sewn as one into the spine of a book. In this case there are 3 signatures, creating 6 pages. The signatures are attached with a space between them, (1/2″ here,) which creates a flat spine. A very nice shape.
For my content I plan to add little samples and things I’ve done over the years, as well as ones I’ll do in the future.
This first page shows a sample I did of cording made on the machine.
Isn’t the knot cool?
The only other page I’ve done is one I did after the book was constructed. The batting layer makes it easy to slip a needle around without having stitches and knots showing on the back. A nice feature.
This little book was quick to make and I look forward to adding little things to it.
Other bookish things I’ve tried:
Mixed media book
A book using tea bags
A video about how to make an accordion book
Ellen Lindner
Wow…thanks for sharing. Love the embroidery and special touches. My bookcovers are actually fitted with composition books……I have lots of mini sizes but the best sellers are large, finished size is 16″ x 10″. Because these are made to sell…..I try to keep the time commitment as low as possible, BUT always with quality sewing in mind.
Thanks, Mary. Your books sound great. 16 x 10 is big!
I get your emails and immediately want to try what you’ve done! I’m going to make a book cover for stories I write to give as gifts!
That’s a great idea, Lif.
It’s so nice to have your blog coming into my inbox again! Perhaps it’s my email?–but I haven’t gotten a blog post from you in a long, long time and have missed seeing all your adventures! Hope you’re well and will be posting more frequently in the future!
Laura, I was THRILLED to get your email because it was the first notification that the email subscription is finally working again. Yippee! You’re right, it’s been out of commission for about a year. I did nothing to cause the issue and nothing new to correct it. Weird. But, I’m happy to have it cooperating again!!!
I love these.
Thanks, Anita!
fabric books are great fun; a good way to play with bits and pieces, a place to store them instead of in a box or bag somewhere. One of my groups did story books where we each started a story and passed it around for each person to add to the story. The results were funny and so creative—we still talk about them.
And those bits also make great postcards…I use them as thank you notes.
I love it! You’ve inspired me to use one of my quilts gone wrong to start a cool little journal.
That looks really nice – a great compact way to contain your creative experiments and a great memory when you are done.
Thanks, Shasta. Yes, it was quick and easy and I think it will be fun to fill the pages.
Love, love, love this! My next project, for sure!
Thanks, Barbara. They’re fun and quick. I’ve been finding some cool little experiments to add to mine.