Oh, Craft!

Over the weekend my mother decided she needed a new address book. I swear she goes through address books quicker than any one I know! I had this idea for a felt covered journal for K and new baby A. I went to the dollar store and found these two, cute but obnoxious books. One is an address book (the one that says addresses :) ) and the stripy one is a journal.

Not to shabby for $2.16!

My mom's I was going to make with Orange felt as this is her favorite color, and although not shown I chose a really dark brown for K's.

The first problem I had was that one sheet of felt did not cover either books...so I would have to sew two sheets together to make one long sheet of felt. This is where I put my label. You will see it on K's as I TOTALLY forgot to put it on Mom's (this has been a pain trying to remember to put them on. So far on the 3 things I have made with them on it...I have yet to remember in the beginning of the project and end up having to "just put them somewhere." Hopefully this is a habit that I will grow out of very quickly.)

Anyway! The second problem I had was the journal had this magnetic flap on it. But I figured that the felt would cover the edges so I just cut it off.


ON TO THE SEWING!

So I thought I would take the shortcut and machine sew the book cover together. (the first one was my moms since I didn't know what I wanted to put on K's yet.) I chose Turquois thread to contrast the orange.

You can see the center seam where I connected the 2 sheets of felt.
I went around the edges again for a little contrast and then I noticed problem 3. I did not make the pattern big enough for machine sewing. DUH! So the sleeve of the cover was really tight. Fortunately FELT is really pliable and I just streatched it over the book. **shaking head still not believing that I actually did that**

Because the pattern was too small for the book it did not want to close properly. Then I noticed a solution to problem 3. As you can see from the first picture below (I think you can double click on them and they will get bigger if you can't) the address-book has a wire binding that is surrounded by a cardboard cover. Well there was obvious space in between the wire and the cover. So I again...cut the cover, and folded the edges over it' self. This gave the book more room in the felt cover I had made.


After throwing a little embroidered star and a pocket for a pen or pencil I was almost done.

Mom keeps the passwords to certain websites she frequents often in her address book. She wanted a pocket on the inside so that if she is at work, craft club golf what ever and gets a new password or website she should check out she could put it on a scrap of paper and then tuck it into the pocket. So I made her a pocket.

Sorry it is sideways...I don't know how to change that yet. (Again something I will have to learn.) SO all in all, I decided that with K's I will just have to hand sew. Then I looked down at my table. My mother had given me one of those tiny irons used for quilting but I wanted to try for my stuff. I thought it would be perfect because it is small and will not take up allot of space. To be honest I have used an old hair flattener for a long time. ANYWAY I looked down and....

**GASP**

Turns out you can not leave those little suckers on felt as it melts onto the iron. Now I have this lovely orange layer on my iron. The layer is the consistancy of enamal. I really do not know what to do to get it off. I think I am going to try and heat it up again and scrape it off with a knife or something. If any one has an idea PLEASE let me know.

SO I started on K's. This time like I said I hand sewed all the way around and acctually remembered the lable. I decided to write Letters to A... on the front of the book. I wanted to make a journal that K or her Husband, or grammas and friends can write letters to A as she grows up.

The pages of the journal are lined with fuchia (my favorite color lately.) So I chose that color for the contrasting stitching.

Sorry about my foot in the picture. I put a pen pocket and a small pocket on the inside as well. I don't know if that will get used but I thought it was cute.


Lessons learned from this craft:
1. Felt is not very long. BUY MORE.
2. Do not leave the mini iron plugged in and turned on while sitting on felt. Felt=MELT
3. If you cut a pattern to hand sew....hand sew it. Otherwise cut the pattern bigger for machine sewing.
4. buy more embroidery thread than you think you will need. You use more than you think you will use. Especially when you use 6 strands.

Have a great day!

~j