ELEGANT BOOK COVER
COMBINE HAND AND MACHINE STITCHING TO MAKE THIS BEAUTIFUL BOOK COVER – PERFECT FOR JOURNALS AND SKETCHBOOKS
Use machine and hand stitching to make
Louisa Burtonshaw’s novel sleeve project
GETTIING STARTED
Prepare your sewing machine by attaching a freemotion embroidery or darning foot. Next, drop the feed dogs – the mechanism that grips and pulls fabric through your sewing machine. Your sewing machine manual should tell you how to do this. Next, mount your fabric into a hoop. Do this in reverse to the normal way, with the inner hoop uppermost. Make sure the fabric is really tight in the hoop – this stops the threads from warping and makes the whole process easier. Start with test fabric to make sure the tension is correct and the bottom thread doesn’t show though. Remember the stitch length is determined by the speed at which you stitch – the faster you go, the shorter your stitches will be. When machine embroidering, try to work in one continuous line. If you do need to stop, make sure you lower the foot so you don’t have jumps in your stitching.
01
Cut a piece of interfacing to the width and height of the book cover, ensuring the book is closed when measuring. Cut a matching piece from your pink fabric, adding 24cm to the width and 4cm to the height. Then, iron the interfacing onto the WS of the fabric with a 2cm border at the top and bottom, and a 12cm border at the sides.
02
Transfer the design onto the RS of fabric using you preferred method, positioning the template so the cameo and corner flowers will be in the centre of the front cover once it’s assembled. Align the spine elements separately. Attach your freemotion or darning foot, drop the feed dogs on your machine and stitch the design outlines using black. Don’t worry about making the lines of your freemotion embroidery super neat – this is almost impossible. The joy of it is in the messy sketched look of it. To create the cameo frame, swirl the fabric in a circular motion, overlapping the circles. You may want to try this first on a scrap piece of fabric to practise the technique a few times.
03
Stitch the flowers on the front cover by hand in Long and Short Stitch using two strands of dark red, red and light pink. Fill the outlines starting with dark red stitches along the bottom of each petal, blending to the red and then light pink at the tip.
04
Fill all of the leaves with Straight Stitch using two strands of green.
05
Turn over the seam on each side of the width by 1cm, then again so that the raw edge of the fabric is concealed within the fold to create a neat double hem. Press and pin, then use your machine and light pink to sew it down using straight stitch, 3mm from the fold.
06
Fold and iron a 1cm hem along the top and bottom edges. Place your stitching face up on a surface and lay your book on top centrally. Fold the excess width over each edge so there is an even amount on both sides and pin in place along the top and bottom edges. Open and close the book to check the fit, then adjust the pins until it folds easily but isn’t too loose. Remove the book from the cover and then stitch along the length of the top and bottom edges, 3mm in from the edge. To make the corners of your cover neat, clip off excess fabric from the corners. Turn through, poke out the corners carefully with a knitting needle or pencil, press and insert your book. With the iron on a low, dry setting, iron the cover again once the book is inside – this will make it hold flat against the book.