Pink Diary Cover

I managed to finish the diary cover for my sister this week. Last time I posted I'd got as far as making pink batts and choosing the embellishments. I finished the layout the next day.

I wanted to create a feel of lots of different textures, but without it looking like it was 'piled' with embellishments. So after adding the fancy fibres and the cotton, silk, organza and synthetic fabrics, I added wisps of wool that I pulled from the batts. Close up of embellishments:

It took a long time to do the layout, so I didn't get chance to felt it until the next day. This is the piece when I'd just felted it and rinsed it:

I was taking lots of photos of the felting process for a tutorial and I think by repeating some of the steps for photos, I ended up fulling it a lot more than I usually do! It did shrink quite a lot.

Coincidentally, it shrunk width-ways to the exact size I needed for my notebook cover. This is a photo of the pieces cut out: Main piece, the front and back pieces for the closure flap, and the strip to cut two straps.

I didn't have the right colour thread for blanket stitching, so I made my own by splitting some lengths of embroidery floss in half and joining some pinks and lilac shades together. This is the front all finished:

And this is the back:

It does remind me a bit of a toilet roll cosy and I'm sure Barbara Cartland would have loved it, let's just hope my sister does :)

Very Pink!

My sister got me some wool tops for Christmas. Even before I'd seen the colours, I'd decided I'd make her a book cover from whatever she chose, thinking she'd probably choose her favourites. She chose a selection of pinks, not the colours I would have chosen for her, but pinks it is :)  I Picked out some shades I already had that I thought would work with them, I already had a salmon pink, some cerisey purple, reds, maroons and a nice lemon. Then I started to make some batts with my drum carder.

At first I made up some batts without any other fibres blended in, I'll use these for the bottom layer which will be inside the book cover. I split them in half lengthways after I'd made them, then rolled them up.

This is one of the lighter batts before I split it and rolled it:

I used some soy top, viscose, a small amount of banana fibre, black bamboo and dyed silk tops to blend in to make the batts for the top.

I rolled these ones a bit differently:

I picked some fabrics to embellish the surface with, some silk strips, organza, dyed cotton gauze and some synthetic lacey stuff I bought years ago which looks like it might be meant for tying back net curtains. In the 70's :)

I picked a few more embellishments too. Some silk throwster's waste, dyed bamboo fibre, commercial art yarns and fibres taken from unpicked yarns.

I'll show you more pictures when I've started to make it :)

Pink Ruffled Notebook Cover

I thought it was time for a well earned rest after finishing the Polymer clay book, we had a ridiculous heatwave here in the UK too, so it was far too hot to blink without sweating. I took refuge downstairs where it was a bit cooler for a few days and then had a look through my felt box to see what I could work on next. I found the pink nuno pieces I made for Ann’s Challenge on the Felting and Fiber Studio site, and decided to work on those. I started with the larger piece I made for a notebook cover. I’d measured carefully when I made the piece so I’d get the ruffles just on the front and back. This is the front:

And this is the back:

I must have measured properly because it worked out well. I didn’t want any of the ruffles where the flaps for the inside would go.

The fabric is a kind of synthetic crepe and ripples and ruffles nicely.

I’ve listed this on etsy now, though I'm going to swap the notebook for a red one. I’ve already cut and machine stitched the other piece for making a camera case, so as long as it stays cooler, I’ll work on the blanket stitch around that next.

Pink!

 I did try to post this yesterday, but Blogger won't let me upload pics from my computer to add to the post, I hade to use Flickr URLs and Picassa. Is anyone else having problems?

On my last post I showed you a sneaky peek of the ripples and ruffles of the nuno felted piece I made for Ann's challenge on The Felting and Fiber Studio site. Well, here's the finished piece in full:

Here it is from another angle:

It's kind of double-nuno because I started with some pieces of cotton gauze that I'd dyed a while ago. I wanted it to be extra sturdy to make a camera case out of it:

I really liked how it turned out, so I thought I'd make a similar piece. I measured this one carefully to make a book cover out of it. I also added some wisps of orange, beige and white to the merino at each end to match the patterns and colours of the fabric.

You can see the texture more from this angle:

And of course, a supermacro close up :)

I have just one more piece I made from this fabric, but it is still drying. If you're interested in learning more about felting with synthetic fabrics, nuno felting in general or the techniques I used, please have a look at the info about my e-book, Beyond Nuno here, thanks :)