Checks n' Cherries Needlebook

Create this handy dandy little needlebook to store your needles while traveling!

Materials:

• Felt
• Bandanna or material of choice, a fat quarter will do fine
• Ribbon of your choice
• Chipboard (the board I used is a bit thinner than chipboard, but serves the same purpose)
• Glue
• Crochet thread or pearl cotton or all six strands of embroidery floss
• Needle
• Scissors or rotary cutter
• Cutting mat and ruler

Dimensions:

Chipboard:
Cut 2 pieces - 2 1/2" by 3 1/2"
Cut 1 piece - 1/2" by 3 1/2"
Cut 1 piece - 1/2" by 2 3/4"

Felt Pages:
Cut 4 pieces - 3" by 5"
(mine are red)

Felt "Batting":
Cut 2 pieces - 2 1/4" by 3 1/4"
Cut 1 piece - 3/8" by 3 1/4"

Inside Felt Cover:
Cut 1 piece - 5 1/2" by 3 3/8"
(mine is green)

Decorative Ribbon:
Cut 2 pieces - 6 1/2" long

Let's Craft!!

Step 1

Glue the felt batting pieces to the 3 /12" long pieces of chipboard.

Try to center them as best as possible.

I'd like to take this time to note that while I'm fairly good with crafting and tutorial writing, you can see that my photography skills are still developing. I'll try to get some better pictures later :)

Step 2

Because I'm picky about certain things, I marked the center of the bandanna fabric as well as the center of the chipboard spine.

I then placed the covers about 1/8" from the spine, leaving a 3/8" border of fabric all around.

Step 3

If using bandanna material, do not glue the batted chipboard pieces directly to the fabric. I used Fabri-Tac and it seeped through, leaving unsightly dots.

Glue the corners first.

Now glue the top and bottom, then the sides. Take your time if you want nice, neat corners but it's not really necessary as they will be covered up by the felt for the inside cover.

Step 4

Using the 2 3/4" piece of chipboard, sew it to the felt pages and felt inside cover. Layer it in this order: chipboard, felt inside cover, then the felt pages. Try to keep your knots small because you don't want added bulk in the next step.


Here is a shot of the finished insides.

Steps 5

Glue about 1/2" of the ribbon to both covers

Step 6

Starting in the center, glue on the felt inside cover.

Step 7

Close the book to bring all the pages together in the center. Hold them together and trim all the pages to the same (or close to the same) length as shown below:

Finished!

(I know... I need to take a better picture)