Needle book tutorial
Laura
Need a needle book? Or know someone who does? I developed this when coming up with stuff for a bazaar. It is a simple design that showcases my naturally dyed wool felt. Even better you can turn one out in under 10 minutes.
Materials: wool felt, embroidery floss, 2 buttons
Tools: rotary cutter, self healing mat, pinking rotary cutter (optional), scissors, needle, beeswax
1. Cut out a 2 ½” x 6 ½” rectangle of felt. I like to use my rotary cutter with a pinking blade on the two short ends.
(The pink lines are illustrating where the folds in step 2 go. You dont need to draw them on your felt...)
- Fold it in accordion folds as follows; the first fold at 2 ½”, the next at 3 3/8”, the last at 5 1/8”. The goal is a lopsided “W”. Sometimes you have to play around to get the folds to work out right. The longer cover flap should be long enough to wrap around the edge of the inside fold, and overlap half of the other, shorter cover flap.
3. If this thing is a “W”, pinch the lower folds together and stitch them together with a blanket stitch. This is now the spine of your book.
4. About 1/8” from the fold, trim off the solitary, higher fold of the “W” to create two distinct pages for your needles.
5. Select two buttons for the closure. Cut felt circles slightly larger than the buttons.
6. Place a felt circle on the middle of the shorter cover on the edge where the spine stitching is. Put a button on top, and stitch the button to the cover.
7. Line up the second felt circle and button on the longer cover parallel to the first button, and stitch it in place. Leave the thread intact after tying the knot on the inside. Bring the needle between the button and felt on the outside of the book, and trim the floss to 3” or so. Tie a knot near the loose end of the floss and wind it around the buttons in a figure “8” to close the book.
8. Put some needles in you needle book!
9. Now do what I did; turn your workspace into a factory and work obsessively, trying to see how many needlebooks you can crank out in an hour...(optional)
Reader Comments (11)
See Laura.
See Laura sew.
See Laura in production mode...sew, sew, sew....
See Laura burn out. :)
It´s wonderful project
thank you
maria
i just used your sweet tutorial. i can see more of these in my future...thanks! :)
Ok, THIS I am loving, thx for the fun!
Really cute idea - these would make great gifts!
This is terrific! I had my kids make one each and I'm taking this to our homeschooling group as a project-- Thanks, super cute!
This is lovely!
Perfect - just what I am looking for. I am making sewing goodies for people in our state who have been devasted by floods.
Susan, that sounds like a lovely project! I am glad this tutorial is helpful.
ciao.
very beautiful tutorial..
many thanks
annapaola
tuscany
italy
Awesome! I've been looking for a needlebook, now I can make one.