Felt Book Guide

[kickandslide.livejournal.com]

lefthandpinkie requested I put up a guide on how to make my felt book.

...Poof!! And it shall be done :)



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Step 1: Planning
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Decide what kind of book you want to make, how many pages and what the theme is going to be.
Draw each page out on paper so you will know approx how much felt/what colours to purchase.

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Step 2: Set Up
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Purchase the felt, embroidery thread, needles, scissors, fabric glue and any embellishments.
You can do the next part 2 ways. You can either cut out all of the pages and then sew all of the pages, or you can cut out and sew one page at a time. I guess it depends on what method you like best.

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Step 3: Cutting Out The felt
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Use one whole sheet of felt as the back of the page, a contrasting colour for the letter and then an animal to represent the letter. Cut out the letter first then the pieces of the animal, shadow and embellishments. Use fabric glue to hold the felt in place while you stitch. Glueing the felt also allows you to see the finished layout before you do any real work so if you don't like the placement of something you can modify it. Keep your scraps - they are good for small things like eyes, tongues, teeth and other details. They will also come in handy for other projects.

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Step 4: Sewing
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Use regular embroidery floss and a large needle to sew the felt. You can do all types of stitches to keep it interesting, zig zags, dashes, knots, crosses, V's, etc. Some stitches take a while to do, but they add texture differences to the project. This was also when you will add a lot of embellishments. You can add ribbon, zippers, beads and buttons.

Back up each page to one another to hide the back side of the pages where your knots are. Do a diagonal stitch along the edge of the finished pages (a blanket stitch would work too.) to hold them together.

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Step 5: Binding
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Take embroidery floss and weave through the left edge stitches of all of the pages and pulled them tight.

Sew a ribbon to the right side of the outer 2 pages to tie the book together to keep it tidy.


Tada!