The First Cloth Book

Here is a little more about the first Fabric Art Journal (or Cloth Book) which was the subject of yesterday's posting.

The purpose of a cloth book is to keep samples and experiments and little bits of fun in an attractive format to show others and to remind ourselves of different things we have done.

This first one is made up of a cover and 'signatures' which are then sewn to the cover and doubled over to form pages.  So far I have made the cover (but not decorated it yet) and also one signature which is attached to the centre spine of the cover with straight stitching.

Here you see the cover which has been machine quilted as described in yesterday's posting.  This could equally well have been hand quilted if that is your preference. It is made from two different fabrics with wadding in-between and finished around the edges with a close zig-zag stitch on the machine.  Again this could be done in a buttonhole stitch by hand.

If you look closely at the next picture you will see that the signature has been joined to the cover at the centre and then folded to the right to make four pages.  But to the left of the join is another line of stitching.  This marks the spot where another signature will be joined once it is made.

The signature in the photo was made by decorating two pieces of fabric with rows of fancy machine stitches, then assembled with wadding in-between and edged with zig-zag stitch in a pretty thread.

You can see that a gap was left in the stitching where the signature was to be joined to the cover at the centre.

 Again, in the last  photo you can see the pages folded to the left this time and the line of stitching on the right hand side is where the third signature will go. It will be folded first and the fold sewn to this line of stitching by hand.

Once all three signatures are completed and sewn to the cover the book will have 12 pages (not counting the inside covers which could also be decorated).

One idea for the next set of four pages is to trial some labels for our finished work. That would mean putting two on each side of the finished signature.  I will do some examples and we can try different ones out in February.

Ideas for decorating the third signature (four pages) in this first book are welcome.

Looking ahead:  I have made a second Fabric Art Journal in a completely different way and this will be featured in my next posting.  It is finished and I have used lots of bits that were left over from some of our earlier experiments at Bredon Crafters.  In my box I found silk roses, machine embroideries, Suffolk Puffs and ink jet printer images printed on to fabric.

Have a look to see what you are hoarding and which might become a decorative element of a Cloth Book - it's quite exciting making something pretty from a cast aside piece of work or from a rejected effort which has fresh possibilities when cut up and re-cycled into a Fabric Art Journal.