Wednesday, June 02, 2010

Introducing fabric . . .


. . . . at last.  Having stuck with paper and card up to now for making book covers I have started experimenting with fabric in some form.  What has held me back from this is wondering what glue to use and how to make the holes needed for attaching signatures and covers.  This one has 2 panels of free machine embroidery using a sandwich of foundation fabric, bits and pieces and organza .  I then stuck a piece of card, which itself was backed with painted paper, on the back with PVA glue.  Then i poked measured holes all round the edge, and worked buttonhole stitch with perlé threads
Then I worked buttonhole again with a finer thread, putting beads on.  I then stitched the whole book together in the coptic style, with a lot of rows of the little chain stitches you get when linking back to the previous signature.

Then finally the bead dangles were made and attached.

This one has a piece of free machined sandwich, backing, wadding, bits and organza, cut to the size needed to cover signatures 1/4 A4.  I put 5 signatures in, with a separate thread for each, starting and ending at the top, then tied the ends in a couple of knots to form a tassel.  Then wove through the long stitches.
You can't see the colours in the cover well in these photos, but the threads pick out 2 of them, the pinks and green.
This one is different again.  Using up thread leftovers i worked running stitch through 2 layers - a wadding and a piece of cotton coloured with watercolour pencils.  Edges were oversewn, and a piece of card stuck on the back.  The book was then stitched together in the coptic style.  Two bits of twisted cord were stitched to the covers and tied in a bow to close.  It is another small. 1/4 A4 size book.

2 comments:

Mandy said...

These are lovely Barbara, I really must try making books after seeing these.
Lovely work.

Julie Shackson said...

Love your embroidered books; they work really well.