Needlebook - March 2022 Cards, Tags, & More Kit
Hey, y’all! Welcome back to the Tres Jolie Blog!
This month’s Cards, Tags, & More Kit has the fabulous Stamperia “Threads” collection, and I couldn’t help but want to build on that sewing theme by making a needlebook (even if I do have to sew really slow to get it “right”)!
I know I normally try to stay with using the kit only or mostly for my first project of the month, but sometimes inspiration just strikes and you have to go with it! And don’t think you have to go out and buy fabric—think of what you have around your house. Do you have some old pillowcases you could re-purpose? An old shirt you no longer wear? Use what you have! This doesn't use a lot of fabric, about 1/4 yard for the base construction--a standard pillowcase (20"x26") would actually provide twice as much fabric as you need (overall, the fabric is approx. 12"x30" + any small bits you may want to add).
Don’t forget to check out my video to watch me putting this together!
Video:
Page by page break-down:
Because I refer to the pages as 1 (&6), 2 (&5), and 3 (&4) in the more detailed PDF, I have decided to add “sides” for this post. For example, I have Page 1 and Page 1 side 2. Also, at the time the photos were taken, I wasn't completely done decorating, but I think I was far along enough to show possibilities and examples?!
*Alternative: Instead of a 3-piece cover, you could just cut two pieces of fabric the size listed for the “Inside Cover.”
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The front cover: In addition to the interfacing, you see me add in the video, I also added some stabilizer to my rice paper squares that I added to the cover. I stitched on three of the chipboard buttons, added some stitching around the rice paper square, and added some silk ribbon embroidery roses to the buttonholes. |
The back cover: Same interfacing and stabilizer added, but I only added the stitching around the square on this back piece. *Rice paper squares: 3-3/4” x 3-3/4” you can get to this size by cutting approximately 1/8” out from the lace edge print. |
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| Inside front cover: I added a couple of accent bits of fabric and a bit of trim that works well for holding some items. | Page 1: This is my “Button” page, so I added my die cut buttons along the top, a couple flaps of accent fabric to hold buttons, and the “Buttons” label cut from the front cover of the paper pad. |
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| Page 1 side 2: A bit of “ruler” (I don’t think it’s to scale!) cut from the paper pad and some more flaps of accent fabric. | Page 2: This page I added the silk ribbon roses as tack points after my needlebook was together. I did it this way because the little bits of lace go all the way across – from edge to edge – and I didn’t want to tack it down and find out I had pulled too tight causing my page to buckle when I stitched all the pages together. |
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| Page 2 side 2: More trim bits and fabric and felt flaps. | Page 3: This is my “only felt” page, and I just added some bits of fabric for accent. |
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| Page 3 side 2: More trim tuck in spots. | Page 4: Even though you can put needles wherever you want, I added the needle label to the center of my needle book and turned that dark brown felt into a little pocket. |
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| Page 4 side 2: More felt, and I used that bit of trim to cover the backside of the stitches. | Page 5: I only had a little section of that white trim, and I didn’t want to put it away since it was so small, so I cut out a felt heart, sewed the white trim on as far as it would go, then filled in the gap with the last little bit of green trim. The heart is only sewn onto the page down the center, so you can still lift the edges like flaps. |
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| Page 5 side 2: Here is the other half of those full length trim pieces! And, to remind me to mention it, I tucked some seam binding onto the page. Depending on how much you want to sew, you could always finish the edges of your needlebook with some seam binding. | Page 6: Just a little bit of accent fabric with some hand stitching and die cut sewing machine for decoration. |
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| Page 6 side 2: Another “ruler” from the paper pad with some bits of fabric flaps. Lots of places in this needlebook to hold your needles! | Inside back cover: I used my Tim Holtz “Stitched Slots” Die to create a little area for holding my threads – and found the chipboard pieces were just the right size to wrap way-ward thread around for storing! To make sure my slots were nice and sturdy for use, this is my fabric sandwich: Fabric, iron on adhesive, fabric, iron on adhesive, felt, iron on interfacing. I then, very carefully, stitched along the edges. |
My closure! Even though I had originally planned on using snaps, I found that the “teeth” parts weren’t long enough to make it through the felt and I didn’t want to only have it attached to a single layer of fabric. Fortunately, I *knew* I had some kind of hook and eye closures in my stash, so I dug them out and threw some stitches in to hold them in place.
After all of your pages are completed, line them up and stitch down the center of your book, using some straight pins inserted at the centers to guide you.
The “dots” are the pinheads, which aren’t lined up here, but I did make sure they were lined up -- at the center represented by the dashed lines -- before I ran the whole thing through my sewing machine. **Sorry for this photo being blurry, I had to grab it from the video because I forgot to take an actual photo during construction!
Thank you for joining us here at Tres Jolie. I hope you enjoyed this needlebook project and it gave you some ideas of what you can do with this month’s Cards, Tags, & More Kit! Paper products don’t always have to be stationary; they can be made functional too!
Stay Crafty, Friends
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In addition to this month’s Cards, Tags, & More Kit, I used:
Tim Holtz “Stitched Slots” Thinlits Die; any coordinating laces, trims, fabric bits, etc. you wish to add in; Mod Podge Matte Acrylic Spray; Iron On Adhesive (Heat-N-Bond, Pellon); Fabric Interfacing (whichever weight(s) you prefer for your project—I have light all the way to stiff interfacing/stabilizer in my needlebook); batting or heavy stabilizer (optional); Sizzix Big Shot Plus + cutting plates, CornerScrapsStudio Needlebook Pattern PDF