Thursday, December 30, 2010

a little note...

I wanted notebooks for an event I was hosting and knew I wanted the covers to be decorated.  I wasn't sure if I wanted to have the guests decorate their book themselves, decorate with paper or fabric... I decided on making fabric book covers that way the recipient could remove it, if they were inclined.  I was pleased with the finished product even though I hit a few glitches here and there.




 I did the first two with regular cotton fabric.  Then I realized the felt was faster to work up for this project. (no seems needed) Since I was in a hurry, I ended up covering most with the felt. It was too plain with felt alone, so I added a fabric "binding".  Doesn't it add so much more?

You simply cut a piece of felt larger than the book itself. (about 3 times the size the width of the front)  You can fold it over the book to give you an idea and then mark it off.  I pinned the 'sleeve' part and used chalk to mark the top and bottom margins.  I sewed all the way across the top and bottom to seal the sleeves.

I then cut a rectangle out of coordinating fabric for the "binding", that matched in height from top to bottom of the felt. I zigzag stitched the sides of each piece onto the felt. Voila'!

Easy peasy, right?



I love this picture because of all the inspirational energy it conveys.  The madness, the color, the perceived chaos that produces the lovely finished product.

2 comments:

Susan Skommesa said...

This is very cool Katy! I have 2 questions for you.
1. You say to: "You simply cut a piece of felt larger than the book itself. (about 3 the size in width) You can fold it over the book to give you an idea and then mark it off."

Q: what do you mean when you say "about 3 the size in width"? Is that 3 times the size of the book in width?

2. You say to: "I pinned the 'sleeve' part and used chalk to mark the top and bottom margins."

Q: I'm not picturing the purpose of the top and bottom margins. Is that the line on which you'll sew across that secures the sleeves down?

Love this idea!

kt said...

Oh yes! 3 TIMES the width! ;-)
thanX for catching that--I'll correct it.

The top & bottom margins are the marks where I *sewed* the fabric all the way across. Yes, you understood that correctly. Marking helps to create a better fit for the cover--not too big & not too small.