Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Yellow Embellished Bookcover

 

 

 

 


This is the first bookcover that I've ever tried...

...and to make it, I followed the Journal Cover directions in Uniquely Felt.

I had hoped that the silk petals and other silk bits...

...would felt into the wool but still really show.

Unfortunately, I used roving that was too dark...

...and the designs were nearly obliterated.

To the rescue?...

...embroidery!

I stitched around each flower and along the yellow edging on the front cover...

...adding beads to a couple of the flowers as centers.

Because I struggled a bit with the partial resist...

...there is a little bit of book showing along the top and bottom of the spine.

(You can see this more clearly in the previous post.)

Getting silk pieces 'veiled' enough to 'felt in', but not disappear entirely...

...is a technique that I still need some practice (HELP!) with. :)

The cover fits a standard hardback book perfectly, though...

...and since I only ever embellish under duress, maybe it wasn't such a bad thing after all!?!?!?

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5 comments:

Jasmine said...

I love it. I am going to be trying some journal sleaves myself soon. I am hoping to joi9n in with Clasheen's Crafty Swap which is looking like being a journal cover this season. I also need small projects that I can do indoors as I have no craft space organised yet :(

If I get any inspiration on your silk problem I will let you know.

Heather Woollove said...

Jasmine--I'm doing Nicola's swap, too...that's one of the reasons that I wanted to try these now...to practice!!

FeltersJourney said...

Hi Heather, it may not have been what you envisaged but it is a beautifull journal cover! I love the colours and the embroidery.

I often find that silk doesnt really need veiling to felt in. Try working a small sample piece with your silk fibres, bits of hanky & cap etc but without veiling them, so long as they arent TOO thick they should felt in well. For thicker fabrics like 100% silk velvet I just overlap the edges slightly with fibre. So long as you spend time rubbing it (through soapy plastic) so the fibres can penetrate, you should be fine.
Let me know how you get on
x

Heather Woollove said...

Thanks, Deborah! You're right...when I've used silk hankies, they DO felt right in, but
I am always afraid with petal pieces or places where it's silk- on-silk-on-wool...that the silk won't 'stick' to itself and it won't felt in properly. I'm sure you're right, though, that I was veiling too much with this project.
I'll give your ideas a try the next time I do a silk one!

Little Miss Adventure said...

I like the felted book cover. I am going to email my OH your blog, as he wants to make sewn book covers for his notebooks, but has also been looking at felted iPad cosies.