I made this book (with the help of my Mum and her sewing machine) because I wanted to demonstrate that you don’t have to put finished work in a hoop or frame, there are other things that you can do with it! The joy of this book is that you can keep adding pages, you might just need bigger rings. I have captured some of the funny things that my nine year old son has said over the last few years, my only regret is that I didn’t record (or stitch) when he said them! Wouldn’t this be a lovely way to capture handwritten recipes? Or kid’s drawings? So many ideas….
Materials and equipment needed
- Lined paper fabric and plain white cotton. My fabric packs include the white cotton.
- Embroidery thread, needle, hoop, Frixion pen
- A firm interfacing, such as Vilene S80/240
- Eyelet maker
- Hinged metal rings
- Sewing machine (could be hand sewn)
I have included links to the products that I used but there are lots of alternatives out there.
Stitching
- Think about the size that you want your finished book to be. The finished size of mine is 15cm wide x 13cm high. I think an A4 sized one would also look amazing.
- What are you going to stitch? Check out this blog for some ideas!
- Use a piece of plain white cotton behind the design fabric. The lined paper fabric is a lightweight calico which is great for tracing designs through, but as you’ll likely be stitching in black thread, you don’t want to see any ‘thread shadows’ come through. The second piece of fabric also gives your hoop more to grip and so you’ll be able to keep better fabric tension while you are stitching.
- I used ‘Calligraphr’ to create a font of my son’s handwriting, this meant that he didn’t have to write out all of the sayings!
- Transfer the design to the fabric – I use my laptop screen as a lightbox and a Frixion pen.
- Stitch your words. I use split backstitch which is a great simple stitch and gives you a nice solid line. I normally use two strands of embroidery thread. Try to keep your stitch length consistent, although it is also helpful to shorten the length to get around tight corners.
Book construction
I was so excited to get the book made that I didn’t manage to take many pictures at all! If you have any questions about any of this, please either leave a comment (as I’m sure you won’t be the only one with that question!) or send me an email – hello@littlelightstitchery.co.uk. I used a sewing machine for this part of the process but there is really no reason why you couldn’t hand sew this instead.
- Choose a fabric for the reverse of each page. I used unstitched lined paper fabric, but you could use anything! More stitched lettering or kid’s drawings, coloured/patterned fabric, other embroidery designs…
- Iron your stitched work really well! It’s good practice to iron on the reverse into a soft towel so that you don’t squash your stitches. For full transparency though, I didn’t do this, I ironed straight on to the right side because I wanted to get it as flat as possible!
- I used a firm interfacing to stiffen my pages, the advantage of this rather than using cardboard is that it is easy to stitch through and to iron. The next stage is to make a pocket for it to go in. Trim your fabric (front and back) to the right size, remembering to include your seam allowance.
- With right sides together, sew around three sides (I left the side with the margin open). Trim the corners and then turn in the right way. I used a knitting needle to push the corners as square as possible.
- Measure a piece of interfacing just smaller than the page and slide it inside. You are going to now turn in the open edge and press it so make sure that the vilene is less (by the amount of your seam allowance) than the width of the page.
- Now top stitch all the way around.
- I used an eyelet punch to make my holes. It is a great tool that did the entire hole and eyelet insertion in one go. This is the one that I used and the eyelets are the 6mm ones.
- Finally, I used these hinged metal rings to hold my book together. I think they look like the rings in a ring binder. They held 6 pages nicely, you might want bigger ones if you have more pages!
And you are done. Stand back and admire your handiwork! If you have any questions, please pop a comment below or email me at hello@littlelightstitchery.co.uk. And I would love to see your finished book so please share your pictures on Instagram and tag me in them @littlelightstitchery !
Happy Stitching!
Nicky x
