Vintage Valentine e-swap

Stitched Fabric and Paper Book Tutorial .

By
StitchyWooWoo

‘Little
Love Book'



In this tutorial you will learn how to combine
paper with fabrics, decorate and embellish with trim, text and stitch, to create a small book or journal for
your personal notes and collections.




This tutorial concentrates on a romantic and
delightful design called a ‘Little Love Book'. Filled with pretty pages and
charming words and sayings it is ideal as a place to put poems, letters, love
notes, anything that concerns the beauty of LOVE in your world.


Although this project can be done by hand
stitching, a sewing machine is desirable. Basic sewing skills are required.


So let's get started....

Stage 1.Preparation


You
will need :

·        
1 x     9" x 7" fabric for Outside
Cover

·        
1 x     9" x 7" fabric for Inside  Cover

·        
1 x     4 ½" x 3 ½" fabric for back inside
pocket

·        
2 x    10" x ½" torn fabric /ribbon for
ties.

·        
4 x      6" x 8" drawing / watercolour paper for
pages

·        
3 x      6" x 8" fabric for pages

·        
Small amount   x    scraps of plain/ patterned fabrics, papers,
ribbon, trim, embellishments.

·        
Selection of matching or
contrasting threads.

·        
Fabric pens and/
or inkjet transfer paper (with access to computer and printer)


·        
Sewing machine or hand
sewing kit.

·        
Optional -small piece of
bondaweb / wonder under - fusible web.

·        
Strong glue suitable for
fabric/paper - I find ‘tacky glue' to be good for most things.




*All measurements are adjustable if needed. Your
book can be any size that you wish.

*For the purposes of this tutorial I am using
contrasting colour thread.

*Best fabrics to use: any natural fabric - cotton,
linen, wool calico, canvas. (Silk is best used for embellishment as it is more
difficult to sew well and it frays badly. 
However a silk book does look wonderful). I am using  vintage French cotton ticking for the cover, -
unbleached calico and 120lb cartridge paper for the pages. 

* I mostly use straight stitch on the machine,
although you might want to use zigzag or a decorative stitch. I sometimes use a
darning foot with free motion embroidery to apply shapes such as hearts ( if you
know what how to do this then it's easier, but don't worry if you don't know
what I am talking about,( that needs to be another tutorial !) then  just use straight stitch) . NOTE ; when
sewing paper , use a long length stitch on your machine to help prevent the
paper from tearing.

Prepare your pieces as above. Cut to size.





Stage 2 Text/
Lettering/Shapes

There are a variety of ways to pre - decorate your
book with text and shapes

I do all my text onto small bits of plain fabric or
paper first and then apply these to the pages /cover.

Photo4 Text on fabric

1.      
Hand write using fabric
pens.

2.      
Use text/lettering
stamps and an ink pad.

3.      
Print from computer
using a variety of fonts. Print onto heat transfer paper (remember it is
important to mirror image  before
printing , otherwise your words will be the wrong way round.

4.      
Lots of other ways to
get text in your book, try some of your choosing.

Choose appropriate words/sayings for your ‘little
Love Book'

Love ,
dream, believe, I love you, love me, love you, friend, lover, just because, you
are my sunshine, forever loving you, darling, my dearest, valentine......... Any
lines from songs or poems are also great.

As you can see I like to add:

This book belongs to
....

Name....

Little Love Book - as the
title.


In this tutorial my text is  transfer printed from the computer and then
ironed onto small bits of calico/ linen.

*Bondaweb / Wonder Under - fusible web can be
ironed on to back of pieces to assist with sewing down. Use parchment paper to
stop the transfer print from sticking to your iron.

Applied Shapes

Hearts, flowers, anything connected with love. With
complicated shapes I do use fusible web. I iron web onto small fabric piece,
draw a shape,  and then cut the fabric
shape before  removing the
backing  paper. Remove backing paper and
iron on.







Once you have all your text and shapes prepared you
can then think about where you are going to place them your pages.

Stage 3 Making up of Cover
.

Outside Cover.


Decorate outside cover on right hand side of
fabric.

A  mixture
of bits and pieces of torn fabrics, vintage hankies, laces, ribbons, trims,
braids can all be used to add to your fabric and pages covers and pages. Use the
tiniest pieces of old embroideries, old printed bits anything that is
appropriate for your theme.




Stitch on title text piece. Stitch on ribbon or
lace. Stitch on heart.




Here you can see I have added to the heart by
stitching a gathered strip of printed cotton around the edge and doing a bit of
free motion machine stitching.





Inside Cover

Take inside cover piece and stitch on ‘This
book belongs to' and ‘Name' labels - on left hand side of fabric.





Prepare pocket - fold and stitch top edge of
pocket. 


On right hand side of
inside cover stitch around 3 sides of your pocket to attach to cover.
Reverse stitch at top corners to secure.




I am making up my book with frayed edges because I
love the look of torn and aged fabrics. *So put wrong sides of outside and inside cover
together


and stitch all round 4 sides of cover. Stitch
ribbon /torn fabric strips, ties in place - one on the front and one on the
back.






*if you prefer to have all your edges enclosed then
put RIGHT sides together and stitch around 3 sides. Turn inside out and
hand stitch opening together.

Crease fold down centre. That is your cover
completed. Now for the insides.





Stage 4 Making the 
Pages

Paper Pages

Fold paper in half down centre. Crease firmly.


On each sheet you will have a left hand page and a
right hand page either side of the fold line. And of course the reverse sides of
the paper, forming the other side of the pages. So with 1 sheet of paper you
will actually have 4 pages.

Working on one page at a time decorate to your
liking. There are no hard and fast rules. Just have fun placing bits on your
pages. Either glue or stitch with machine. Note that any stitching
you do will show through on the underside of your page. You can avoid this by
stitching into small bits of fabric or paper and then gluing these onto your
page. I am happy to have stitching on both sides as it adds to the handmade look
of the journal. You can place things appropriately over any stitching if you
work it out beforehand.

1.      
Attach text pieces -
under lay with torn fabrics or ribbons.

2.      
Attach ribbons/torn
fabrics/ lace/ torn papers.

3.      
Attach pockets/
envelopes/ tags.



Decorate all 4 pages of your sheet of paper.


Do the same process with the other 3 sheets of
paper- vary the placements and what you put on. Remember to leave plenty of room
for your handwritten journal stuff later on.

Fabric Pages


Fabric pages are dealt with in the same way, sewing
or glueing things into place.

However you do need to consider a few
things:

Fabric is different to paper in that it does have
frayed edges. - Do you like this effect or do you want to stitch the edges with
zigzag or overlock stitch? 

It is harder to draw or write on. I tend to stitch
stuff down after writing.

Fabric can be used to secure things by pining into
the fabric. It is also better to have fabric pockets for heavier bits.


It can be embroidered either by machine or hand.


To make pockets simply fold pages in or up and
stitch around sides - ensure you leave at least one side open to get into the
pocket.


Work your pages as for paper
pages - Crease or iron down centre to create fold. Decorate left and right hand
sides of each page, flip over and work the reverse sides.

Do the other 2 pieces of fabric for your other
pages , varying placements and trims/ embellishments.





You should now have 7 full
sheets of decorated fabric and paper. That means you should have 14 pages and 28
sides. Hopefully we are all there!!!!


If you wish to add more pages either fabric or
paper then now is the time to consider it.

Stage 5    
Assembling Your Little Love
Book.

Now we need to bring all this work together into
our little book.

So........

Putting pages
together

Alternate fabric and paper pages - lay one full
sheet on top of another full sheet. Try and get edges together but remember it's
a handmade book and sometimes things won't always match up .

When you are happy with the arrangement of pages,
fold in half and crease fold firmly.


Note : This fold line will be your stitching
line.

Attaching pages to cover


Centre your set of pages down the centre of your
fold of your cover.





Machine or hand stitch through all the pages .
Secure stitching with reverse stitch on machine or knots if hand stitching. I
add a tiny bit of glue on the ends just for added fixing here.




Fold book in half.



Your beautiful handmade Stitch fabric and paper
book is now finished. Well done.






Stage 6    
Your Little Love Book

Step back and admire your work.


You can now add other things to the pages, in
journal style, write, draw, sketch, add special photos, love letters, love
notes, pin brooches in , place secrets in pockets. Just have fun and personalize
your little love book.

I do hope you enjoyed this tutorial and have made a
lovely book to treasure. Please let me know how you have done. And show me
photos of your wonderful finished books. Please also credit my tutorial
instructions if adding your finished work to any blogs, social networking sites.


The inspiration of this book
came from a 1940s Valentine card.


I have used the
heart motif for the centre front cover and blue gathered fabric around the heart
is inspired by the fabric on the embroidery ring. Using this card was A Creating
the Hive e swap challenge.

Tutorial is to be used for non commercial purposes
only. Copyright Sally Hutson

www.stitchywoowoo.blogspot.com