Fabric Storybook Create a soft, embroidered gift for your little ones! Use favorite fabrics, alphabets, and designs to publish your own embroidered page-turner with this project tutorial. Project Needs & Notes: - 1/2 yard of quilters cotton or twill for pages (for 4 pages) - 1/3 yard of quilters cotton or twill for cover - 1/3 yard of quilters cotton or twill for cover lining - 1/4" - 1/2" grommets or eyelets - Grommet or eyelet setting tool - Hammer - Craft knife - 42" yards of leather lacing (In this tutorial, two colors of lacing were used; 42" each) - 1/4" - 3/8" thick batting - Medium-weight (2.5 ounce) cutaway stabilizer - Temporary spray adhesive (such as Gunold's KK100) - Air-erase pen for marking The designs used in this tutorial include: - L3403, Old MacDonald Had a Farm - X10624, A On the Farm Design Pack Special Notes: Every 1/4 of a yard will make two complete pages (front & back) using dimensions in this tutorial. If you'd like to make a larger book or add extra pages, you'll need more fabric. Finished Size: 10" x 9"
To create the front of the first page, draw a 7 1/2" x 7 1/2" square on the fabric with an air erase marker. Add a 1" x 7 1/2" allowance along the left side of the square. This allowance will be a part of the spine of the book and will be where the grommets are added to the page later. Next, find the center point of the original 7 1/2" x 7 1/2" square. Using a ruler and air erase pen, make a dot in the middle of each of the four sides of the square (do not include the 1" allowance area in your measurements). Draw lines to connect the dots, dividing the square into four sections. Where the two lines connect is the center point of the square. A template, or printout of a design, is an excellent tool to help with placement. Print a template of the design from your embroidery software. If you do not have embroidery software, Wilcom's TrueSizer is a free program to use. Center the template in the square, making sure there is at least 1" between the embroidery and the edges of the page.
Cut a piece of medium-weight cutaway stabilizer bigger than the drawn page, and spray with temporary adhesive. Smooth it onto the back of the fabric, making sure it covers the entire drawn area of the page. Hoop the fabric and stabilizer together, aligning the marks on the hoop with the marks on the fabric. Attach the hoop to the machine and load the design. Move the hoop so that the needle is directly aligned with the center point on the fabric. Embroider the design. When the embroidery design is done sewing, cut out the entire shape of the page. Make sure to cut both the fabric and stabilizer together, and do not trim the stabilizer around the embroidery. The stabilizer will be used to add sturdiness to the pages.
Repeat the above steps to create the backside of the first page, adding the 1" spine allowance onto the right side of the square instead of the left. Place the backside of the page onto the front with right sides facing together. Line up the edges and make sure the spine allowances are together on the same side. Pin along three of the four sides, leaving the spine allowance side open and unpinned. Sew a 1/4" seam on the sides that you pinned. Make sure to leave the spine side open for turning the pages right side out. Trim the corners with a scissor, and be careful not to cut through where you've sewn.
Turn the page right side out, and press all of the edges. Topstitch a 1/8" seam along the three sewn sides. Repeat the above steps to create the rest of the pages for the book. To find the size of the cover, stack the finished pages, and measure the height of the stack. For this book the pages stacked 1/2" high.
Measure the dimensions of one of the completed pages (our pages are 8" x 6 3/4"). Then, double the completed page width and add the height of the stack which we found in the previous step (total of 16 1/2"). Finally add 1" as a 1/2" overlap on both sides, and 2" for the two 1" spine allowances on the cover. The final width for the cover in this tutorial is 19 1/2" wide. To find the height of the cover, take the height of the finished page and add 2 1/4" for overlap allowances. This makes the book in this tutorial 9" tall. Draw a rectangle onto the fabric (the final size is 19 1/2" x 9"). Use the diagram below to draw all the allowances and overlaps inside of the rectangle as shown.
Using the same technique as before, measure, mark, and connect the center points of the four sides to find the center point of the right rectangle. This will be the front cover of the book. Print a template of the embroidery for the cover. Check that it fits by lining up the center points and making sure it doesn't fall onto any of the overlaps or spine allowance. Spray a piece of medium-weight cutaway stabilizer with temporary adhesive and smooth the fabric on top. Hoop the fabric and stabilizer together, aligning the marks on the hoop with the marks on the fabric. Embroider the design.
Once the embroidery is finished, trim the excess stabilizer away, leaving about 1/2" around the design. Cut out the entire cover shape. Lay the cover shape onto the lining fabric, right sides together. Pin them in place, and cut around the edges of the cover to make the lining fabric piece the same size. Lay the stack of fabric onto a piece of batting, pin the pieces all together, and cut around the shape to make the batting the same size as the fabric.
Pin the cover fabric, lining, and batting together, and sew a 1/2" seam along three of the sides. Make sure to leave the side by the back cover open for turning. Once finished sewing, turn the cover right side out, and press the edges on low heat, making sure not to melt the batting. Turn the open edge in 1/2", press, and topstitch 1/4" seam to close the open side. Sew along the outer edge of each spine allowance from top to bottom. To add the grommets or eyelets, start with one finished page and center two grommet pieces on the spine allowance. Make sure both grommets come right up to the topstitch line on the top and the bottom, and mark in the center of each.
Remove the grommets, and measure the distance between the two dots (ours are 6" apart). Divide that number by three (2" for our book), and use that number to place dots evenly between the two original dots (so our dots are all 2" apart). Using a craft knife, cut a small "x" on each dot to create a hole for the grommet or eyelet. Place the grommet pieces in the holes, and use the proper sized setter and hammer to tap each one into place. Repeat to add four to every page. To add the grommets or eyelets to the cover, lay one of the pages onto the front side of the cover. Make sure it is centered between the top and bottom of the cover, and that the grommets line up with the center of the spine allowance. Using an air erase marker, make a dot inside each of the four grommets.
Cut the holes, and set all eight grommets or eyelets on the cover. Cut one or two 42" lengths of leather lacing, and tie a knot at the end. Lace it through the bottom grommet on all of the pages, so the knot rests against the last page (between the last page and the back inside cover). Bring the lace out through the bottom grommet by the front corner. Then, thread it through the grommet that is up one and over one, so that it goes diagonally over the outside of the cover. Next, thread it straight through the second row of grommets in the pages. Repeat this to move diagonally up the whole cover and through all four rows of grommets in the pages.
Repeat the same pattern, but moving back down the cover, threading over the first diagonal passes on the cover to create a "x" pattern. Make sure you go straight through each of the three bottom rows of grommets in the pages one more time. Finally, tie a knot against the bottom corner of the front page (so the knot is between the first page and the inside front cover). This sweet storybook is the perfect bedtime tradition to share with the little ones in your life. Adapt the story to include their name, or their favorite theme!
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