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 :)