NeedleBook Tutorial

Needle Book With Pockets Tutorial. Needle Book – EASY Sewing Project.

things you need to get started:

pencil
cardboard
sewing machine
sewing cotton
elastic
glue
ribbon
fabric
wadding
double sided tape
iron
safety pin
pegs

Firstly you need to cut out your cardboard for your needle book.

measurements i used:
Also if you have any cross stitching to do, do that first and remember your fabric must be larger than the cardboard cut outs.

cut 3 of 7.8 cm by 10.3 cm
cut 3 of 7cm by 9.5 cm

again you can make any size you want as long as your pieces fit together.

so you end up with 3 each of the following.

first you will put together the outside parts of the book. i have my 3 larger cut outs and my 3 cross stitched pieces.

now cut out some wadding for your cardboard cut outs.

now turn them over onto the wrong side of the fabric and with some double sided tape turn the corners over, and mitre the corners and lace, or you can use glue.

this is what the front of mine now looks like, notice i have also attached all my embellishments to the front, so if you have any, now is the time to do your embellishments on your front fabric.

now you will prepare the inside parts, again cut out some wadding for padding and your fabric, remembering your fabric must be larger than the cut outs. i also cut out double wadding thickness for one which i will use as a pincushion for the inside.

again mitre the corners and lace up, or glue your fabric over. the front of these now look like this.

now if you have any embellishments to go on these now is the time to do it.

POCKET - OPTIONAL

now if you wish to attach a pocket you can and you must do it next. you will need some fabric that is cut the length of the cutout and the double the width of the cut out. and you will need some elastic too.

with your fabric iron over the edge a little.

and now fold it over about 1.5 cm and iron it.

now using the folded seam as a guide, machine stitch this down with matching cotton.

using a safety pin at one end of the elastic

thread it though your fabric starting at one end till you reach the other end.

holding the elastic place and make sure it sticks out a little, machine stitch up and down securing the elastic to the fabric at the end edge.

now you should still have the safety pin inside the fabric, using your hands and fingers, slip it through to the other end, gathering your fabric as you go and hold on tight to it.

now remove the pin without losing your elastic, and again machine stitch the elastic securely to the fabric. you now should have this. looks like a little skirt :o)

now place the fabric how you would like it on one of your inside pieces, and secure the fabric to the back of it, i placed mine about 3/4 way up one piece and i hand stitched the sides of the fabric to the back, and i made sure the bottom was nicely neat and gathered. the back of mine now looks like this. you could use glue, but i think sewing thread might be better, but its entirely up to you.

and now this is the front, and i have also attached a bow to the top to make it look more pretty.

now cut out some matching ribbon, a nice large width ribbon works very well. cut it about 50cm long and you need 2 pieces of it and put it aside.

now you need to cut out some more fabric. this fabric needs to go across all 3 pieces, so you need a width that long PLUS more is needed for the areas that are in between the pieces. refer to my inside finished pics above to see what I'm talking about, you also need it to be double the length of the height of the book cut outs.

so you need about a piece 9 inches wide by 8 inches long

iron it and fold it half with right sides together, and then machine stitch in a straight line

now turn it inside out and so now you have the right side of the fabric and it's like a tube of fabric now :o) .......now iron it flat out, but make sure the seamline is down on the bottom creating one of the edges. notice now that you can't see my seam? because its down on the bottom edge.

for now put this aside.

now you need to glue your ribbon to one of the pieces of the stitched front, this will be the first one you want to show on the book, and in this case its the little flower girl on mine. so half way up the piece, glue your ribbon in place. make sure you have your work up the right way and not upside down, its very easy to make a mistake, so double check before you glue. note that the ribbon is glued on the left hand side.

now you need to do the same to the piece that you will use for the centre piece, but make sure you this time you glue the ribbon on the right hand side of the piece and making sure your work is up the right way and not upside down. always double check to be sure before gluing. 

now place glue on the first piece with the ribbon on the left hand side.

now place the fabric that you machine stitched about 3/4 of the way onto the stitched piece, and making sure its centred and you have the same space at the top and below. refer to picture.

now glue the first inside piece, making sure you glue right up to the edges every time you glue.

now place it centrally onto the first piece and make sure its centred, and i used pegs to hold it together while the glue dries.

once dry, place the fabric over the other two pieces and put the tops on top but DO NOT GLUE , this is just to work out how much space of fabric you need to leave before you glue the 2nd outside piece to the fabric. once you put the book together, fold it over like you would if it was completely finished, and make a marking with chalk or pencil to where you will start to glue the 2nd piece. this is important because if you don't leave enough fabric or too much fabric, your book will not close properly and neatly. notice the first fabric space is a bit larger than the other one?

once you are satisfied with the spaces, now you can glue the fabric onto both remaining peices, remember to keep your middle piece in the centre and it should have the ribbon on the right hand side.

once dry you can glue the top 2 remaining pieces. i have decided to place the pocket in the middle, and i place the thicker padded one on the end right as the pincushion. i placed wieghts on top until the glue dried, if you find the corners didnt glue down properly, just add a bit more glue with a toothpick or your fingers if you can and place weight on it again till it dires. you may need to add a bit more glue on the edges too, but if you put and spread the glue properly on the sides the first time, you will find that you will not need to add more glue in this fashion.
you have now finished the needlebook.