Sunday, October 27, 2013

Making a Bucket List Booklet, Part One

I was going to wait until I made the leather cover to post about this, but I don't have any leather pieces big enough to make the cover. I had to order some and it'll be a while before I get it, so I'll go ahead and post what I've done so far.

Last year I started a bucket list--you know, a list of things to accomplish before you kick the bucket. Last week I decided it was time not only to finish and organize the list, but to turn it into a little booklet.

There are all kinds of good tutorials online on how to make and sew a booklet together. I recommend this one for being particularly clear (it's a PDF, unfortunately, which means it's probably going to lock up your computer for a few minutes). Here's another good one that isn't a PDF.

The first step, of course, is to make up your list. This is fun and leads to a certain amount of wistful introspection and blessing-counting. I had my list partly made, and I used Pinterest to help me come up with more ideas. I was conservative in my list items--I didn't include just anything that sounded interesting, I wanted my items to be both feasible and things I genuinely want to accomplish. I did include some items that I've already (recently) accomplished.

After I made my list, I typed it up the way I wanted it to appear in the booklet and printed it off on heavy cardstock in a variety of colors. This was way more complicated than it sounds since I wanted my booklet to be the size of a regular sheet of paper folded over. I won't go over how to deal with your word processing program and printer to make sure everything prints where it's supposed to, except to say if you're not comfortable doing that kind of thing, you would probably be a lot happier hand-lettering your pages.

In books like this, where the pages are sewn together rather than glued onto a binding, the pages are separated into signatures. Each signature is made up of a set number of pages. My signatures consisted of only three sheets of cardstock folded over to make six sheets (12 pages) since the paper I used was heavy. I made six signatures. The first and last signature actually do have an extra sheet so I'd have a free page to use for gluing on the cover. That gave me an extra two pages I could actually use.

After I printed out the pages and folded them over carefully into signatures, I made sure the signatures were together in the right order (and right side up), then weighted them with a book so they wouldn't shift, and marked the edges (see the tutorials above for why I was marking them).


Then I took them into the garage, where I used my awl to poke holes where I'd marked them. I've done this before, incidentally, so I knew to open up the signatures after poking the holes, to make sure they poked through evenly to the other side, and if not, to poke the holes back through in such a way as to make them more even. I'm sorry, it's been a long weekend and I have a headache and can't figure out better words to describe that process. Make your holes small, is what I'm saying, because they never go through straight and you want to be able to enlarge them to make them as centered as possible.


So anyway, once that was done I made sure again that the signatures were in the right order and right side up. Then I cut a very long length of heavy-duty thread (waxed linen thread is best, but I had extra strong cotton/poly thread so that's what I used), probably a good five feet long. It turned out to be too long, but I'd much rather have to deal with a very long thread while sewing than have to pull it all out and start over because I ran out of thread. Using an embroidery needle (sharp but with a fairly large eye), I sewed the signatures together. Don't pull the stitches too tight. You want to make sure your pages will open without tearing. I checked frequently as I worked to make sure the pages were neither too tight nor too loose.


It's a lengthy process if you've never done it before, but when you finish you can feel proud of yourself. You've obviously got a book almost made when you're done.


After that, I cut a piece of cheesecloth and clamped my newly sewn signatures between some heavy books. See this tutorial page for directions on gluing. Basically you cover the spine with glue (I used Gem-Tac, of course, but Elmer's works fine) except for about half an inch on either end--what will eventually be the top and bottom of the spine, once it's a book--then place the piece of cheesecloth on and add a little more glue on top of it. Then let it dry overnight. Don't add all that much glue. I smeared it on with my finger, which works a lot better than dribbling it straight on.


For the front and back covers--which will not show in the end, once I make the leather cover--I used two pieces of thin cardboard the same size as the paper I'd used, folded over. This is going to sound extra confusing, but seriously, if you've read this far, you can figure it out. You want to glue the cardboard over the endpapers, with the ends of the cheesecloth inside the fold of the cardboard too. Here's a picture.


The picture's not as clear as I'd like, but the spine is on the left next to the glue bottle. I've already glued the underside of the folded cardboard to the back of the purple sheet, which is the endpaper. After I took the picture, I put a little glue down on the purple sheet and placed the cheesecloth on top to hold it in place, then glued the top inside of the cardboard and pressed it down well. (I also belatedly put a sheet of paper in between the cardboard and the first page of the booklet, to keep any glue from oozing onto it; but I didn't put glue all the way to the edge of the cardboard and I didn't use tons of glue.)

Then flip the booklet over and do the other cover the same way. Then weight the whole thing down with heavy books or whatever, and let it dry overnight.

Then wait impatiently for your green leather pieces to arrive so you can make the actual cover, which is hopefully going to look awesome.

Sunday, October 6, 2013

Tutorial: make a needle case with pockets



I made a tiny travel sewing kit right before DragonCon, something I could tuck in my bag in case of costume malfunctions. As it happens I needed it a couple of times. It wasn't fancy--I threw it together in about an hour--and I didn't take pictures as I made it so I didn't think about talking about it here.


That's what it looks like, above. This week I thought about what project to make and decided to make another sewing kit. I looked around online to get some ideas and decided a needle case with pockets would be even better.

I have some brown felt that I bought a bunch of on sale and haven't figured out anything to do with yet. It has a cool pattern and I decided it would look good at the main part of the piece. I have some reddish-brown cotton that looks good as the lining.

The needle case is about the same size as the original sewing kit I made, roughly the size of a small postcard. (In fact I used a postcard to help me cut out the pieces). The finished size, opened, is 5 1/2" wide by 4 1/4" high. I cut the main piece of felt exactly that size, the lining a little bit bigger all around. I also cut the lining much longer so I could fold it up and make a pocket. And I cut a smaller piece of felt for the middle.


Now, I am not a very organized person and I probably could have had an easier time with the lining and pocket if I'd made them two pieces instead of one. You can see from the pictures below that I had to fold the edges under one way to sew the lining to the back, then fold them the other way on the bottom part of the lining when I folded it up to make the pocket.


I sewed the lining on first, all the way around, using a nice neat topstitch. At least, it started out neat and got sloppy pretty fast as I got impatient. I don't know why I decided to hand-sew this, but I did. I watched an entire Sherlock Holmes movie while I did, and part of Kick-Ass after it was over.


Then I decided the case should close with a button and loop. I have some cool wooden buttons that are reddish, so I chose one and some brown cord that I really like (I think this is the third project it's ended up in). I sewed the button on, then made sure the loop was positioned correctly and sewed it up in between the front and back of the pocket. Then I sewed the other side of the pocket up.


After that, all I had left to do was sew the felt piece on in the middle. I trimmed it with pinking shears to make it more decorative, then carefully marked where the piece folded in the middle when I closed it. That took several tries. Then I put a seam in all the way down the middle. And that's it, it was done!

I'm happy with the way it looks and I think I did a pretty good job making it. I don't need it, so it may eventually end up on etsy when I have enough stuff made to reopen my shop.