Friday, November 13

How I make my Fiber Books

Here's the method I've devised to make the Take it Further Fiber Book and the two volumes of Take a Stitch Tuesday stitch sampler.
The Take it Further Fiber Book is my first fiber book ever and this is how I went about making the book.

Using running stitch I mark the 'pages' on the cloth. Each page has two halves or portions , one on the left and one on the right.
The size of the portion where the embroidery stitch is done is 3.2" x 5.75" with a 1/2" space between the two portions (the running stitch done with black thread) . Each page has a line of blanket stitch done around it. The blanket stitch is the means to joining the pages.
Once a sizeable number of 'pages' have been completed they are cut and seperated leaving a small seam allowance of about a quarter inch or so on all four sides beyond the blanket stitch.
For The Take it Further Fiber Book I ironed fusing onto the back of each page so they are quite stiff. I've decided to leave out the fusing in the Take a Stitch Tuesday books because the pages are about an inch or so smaller and since two layers of fabric make-up a page, the pages are fairly stiff.
The blanket stitch along the 1/2" portion between the left and right halves/portions of the page are not joined so that the page can fold.

Corners of pages must be matched and pinned and then the pages need to be joined, sewing and connecting blanket stitches on both pages.The left hand portion of the first page is left and you begin by joining the right hand portion of page 1 with the left hand portion of page 2. Once that's done you join the right hand portion of page 2 with the left hand portion of page 3 and so on.
In doing this you create little pockets. If you find your page is too floppy then you could slip pieces of card paper into the pockets if you want a stiffer page.
In the Take it Further Fiber Book I used black thread to join the pages and every five or six stitches I introduced a clear seed/sugar bead. In the Take a Stitch Tuesday books I'm joining the pages with a clear plastic thread which is as fine as a single strand of hair. Not sure what the name is but it can be used on a sewing machine.

For the cover itself I used a single piece of felt which simply wraps around the book. I edged the cover with blanket stitch and embroidered the front cover and the spine portion of the book.
The left hand portion of the first page is stitched onto the inside of the front cover (visible in picture above) and the right hand portion of the last page is stitched onto the inside of the back cover.
The 'pages' are joined to the cover only on the inside of the front cover and the inside of the back cover. They aren't stitched or connected to the cover on the spine section of the cover.

I hope I've been able to describe the method I employ to create my fiber books clearly for you to give it a try. If there's something confusing or unclear leave a comment and I'll try and sort things out for you.
I've stitched the pages of the first volume of Take a Stitch Tuesday together and I begin the embroidery for the cover this weekend, so next week Volume one will be ready to view.
Have a great weekend.

On a separate note - I've become an affilate of Amazon and Flipkart. You will see the banners on the side bar. Should you wish to shop online I would appreciate it if you could click on the Amazon or Flipkart banners/buttons and make your purchases.Amazon and Flipkart will pay me a small percentage of the value of your transaction without increasing the cost for you by even a cent. Thank you and happy shopping.

77 comments:

Bindhu Unny said...

Hi
I could not visit your blog after the TGDC madness, though at that time I had wanted to be regular reader of Million Little Stitches. Now when I started reading, I got confused. I guess to get a clear idea on fibre book and TAST I've to go to the older posts. And I'm going to do that.

Cheers
Bindhu

Caterina Giglio said...

just found your blog and I love this little book! fabulous!

ArtPropelled said...

Phew that is a lot of work! Your stitching is so even. I imagine the repetative stitching is like doing a meditation. Beautiful, beautiful work!

Hashi said...

Your work is stunning. Thank you for sharing with the world.

Anonymous said...

Loved the book when I saw it on stitchin fingers, now I know how it is out together, and love your method. Thank you for showing us how to do it.
Judy B

Maya Sara Matthew said...

Hi Bindu, nice of you to come by and leave a comment. Must stay in touch TGDC seems like ages ago.Hope alls well with you.

La Dolce Vita thank you

Robyn you're right some of the repetitive sort of work is the time to meditate and contemplate.

hello Hashi,thank you for your comment , comments keep me motivated.

Chris Daly said...

Hi Maya, I think this book is such a creative idea. I love the tutorial you put together.

Carlie said...

I just found your blog and I love your stitching book. It is fantastic and very inspiring.

Diana Trout {Nan.DT@verizon.net} said...

Wonderfully rich and inspiring piece of work. I so enjoyed looking. Am itching to stitch!

Tracey said...

ohhhhhh my goodnes. You are amazing. I envy your patience with such sweet teeny incy wincy stitches. My patience for such things is currently minimal but is a work in progrss. Lovely blog. I will be popping in more often!

jude said...

i love the book idea....

Bethany @ The Paper Pony said...

This is just such an amazing and inspiring piece of work. Thank you so much for sharing it with us.

Varenikje said...

I love your embroidered book! I do have a question, however. This is so confusing to describe: In the first picture, the pages are not sewn together, but there is a blanket stitch around the page (actually 2 pages). In the photo, the top right hand blanket stitch is pink, the lower left hand is light blue and the lower right is light green. It looks like the top left page is going to be orange. And both sides of the page (actually, two pages) have blanket stitch both in picture 1 and 2. Photo 3 shows several of the pages attached to each other, and each of the pages has blanket stitch around it, but I can't figure out how the pages were attached to each other. Thanks for your help!

Kathy P

Maya Sara Matthew said...

Kathy the consecutive pages ( see picture 5) have been whip stitched together with a clear transparent thread. So if we start at the top you'll see a page with mustard blanket stitch joined to a pink one, the other half of the pink page is attached to one half of a purple page and the other half is attached to a page with green blanket stitch page .....goes on. I hope this clarifies things for you.

Maya Sara Matthew said...

Thank you Chris.

Carlie thank you,blogs are so inspiring and motivating I find.

Diana what are you stitching?

Thank you Jude, your work inspires me no end. I look forward to your posts on Spirit Cloth everyday.

Bethany thank you.

Silver Sisters said...

Thank you so much for posting the instructions. It is an ingenious way to make a book. And a beautiful book, by the way.
I have visions of embroidered children's books now!
gisele

Joey's Dream Garden said...

Hi!
I love your embroidered book, and to see how you put it all together is wonderful and so useful! I would love to make something like this but I don't think I have the patience. Your little book is a truly lovely work of art.
best wishes
Joey

Crayons said...

Embellisher
This is indeed a delightful entry. Even though I'm not a stitcher, I did wonder about the structure of your books. It seems like precision is the operative word. What a fabulous addition to this universe. Thank you for taking the time to explain it.

Judy Martin said...

Thank you very much for the complete tutorial that you gave out so freely for how to make this book. Cloth books are wonderful because they are so intimate and allow the 'viewer' to hold and touch the cloth and the stitches and proceed through work slowly - never as slowly as it took to create, but slower than just looking at a quilt or painting. I shall share this idea with my art quilting class this Tuesday. Thanks again!

5 Foot Runt said...

Very cool book! I just love it!

Maya Sara Matthew said...

Gisele I hope you get to turn your visions of childrens books into reality.

Thank you Joey,Caroline and the 5 Foot Runt.

Judy I couldn't agree with you more about the tactile properties of a fiber book, it stimulates the viewer in a totally different manner from a traditional book.

Mithun Jayaram said...

hats off to you!
incredible work!

Megan Laidlaw said...

Um. I really hope you still read this. LOL

I plan on taking this idea and making it into ABC books for my kids. I'm trying to figure out a few things before I start though.

1) The running stitch between the pages, is just to denote the pages, and that area doesn't actually connect to anything when finally put together, does it? Does it just kind of fold into itself later on, or do the centers keep popping out? Basically, should I plan on just stitching them to the spine?

2) What fabric did you use for the pages to make it not too flimsy? I was thinking of using a high quality muslin for my kids, but I'm just curious as to what fabrics other people use.

Sorry if I'm annoying. I'm a self-taught sewer, and am still in the process of figuring out what I can and do with fabric and thread. lol

madeleine said...

I love books of any kind, especially the tactile onces,
thank you EMBELLISHER for doing this so clear, I can make paper books, guess it is on the same principal.
Hope you don't mind, I will make a book like yours and write it out for my students, as an alternative or suppliment to their class project
Happy holidays
Madeleine

Gumbo Lily said...

The books are a work of art in themselves and a practical work book as well.

Varenikje said...

Okay, I have looked at this post a number of times and I am still not understanding how the fronts of the pages are attached to the backs of the pages. It looks like there are 2 colors of blanket stitch running along the outer edges of all of the pages. How do you do that? Or are they somehow sewn together? I understand that you leave the book binding edge open. But the other edges of the pages, I don't get. Sorry!

Unknown said...

Amazing idea and workmanship!

Unknown said...

Very beautiful. www.stitchesstories.wordpress.com

Anonymous said...

Love this blog!! Do you have a newsletter? Lissag123@verizon.net. Please sign me up if you do!

Lynda said...

Wow how fantastic is that! definitely a project I want to do :-) <3

Lynda said...

Wow what a fantastic idea! definitely a project I want to try :-) <3

Anonymous said...

I think this is amazing! Your fiber books are wonderful!

Unknown said...

Is there a way to adapt this pattern so I can use many old embroidered pieces that my grandmothers made? I have dresser scarves, pillowcases, doilies, etc.

Maya Sara Matthew said...

Hello Bonny, I've been giving your comment some thought and I've formulated an alternate method but I'll have to create a tutorial.
One thing you'll have to do is cut or re size some of the dresser scarves, pillowcases etc so that the 'pages' of your fiber book are more or less of the same size.
let me work on the tutorial, I hope to have it up soon.Pop in from time to time and I'll make a note to get in touch with you when I post the tutorial.
Thanks for visiting.

Nena said...

Olá!
Que idéia maravilhosa,parabéns.
Bjo,Nena

Lisa at Greenbow said...

I do watercolor journals. I think this is a fantastic take on journaling. I have dabbled in embroidery. This book is and inspiration to me. Thank you for sharing.

Elaine said...

This is great. Please can you tell me what fabric you have used to stitch onto. Thanks (Also look forward to seeing Bonny's tutorial as would like to use some of my son's baby grows).

Laricruz said...

Hello Maya! I´m not sure I understood how you cut the pages and sew them together. Can you explain that to me? It´s a beautiful book!
Congrats!

Anonymous said...

Picture #2. Reverse Butthole Bar. Awesome.

WOOLA OOPS said...

Very pretty ! I love it ! :)

maggiegracecreates said...

I came here from a facebook link and LOVE this tutorial - not I have a much better idea of how to make my pages --- I've wanted to do a small tactile sampler book for a long time, but was so unsure of HOW. thank you. I have pinned this to my journals tab --hope that's ok with you

Pedaço de mim said...

Hi!
I've found your blog because a friend posted in Facebook. Awesome that embroidery book. Thanks so much for sharing.
Cheers from Brasil,

Unknown said...

i really liked ur fibre book but could u kindly post the tutorial i too do embroidery work i hv done on bedsheet, tablecover, dresses, etc but i feel like learning more n more about embroidery thank u kindly let me know when u post tutorial for fibre book

Anonymous said...

In image 5 opposite the bullion stitches what is the stitch please? I've tried to work it out-not sure if it's a type of Cretan stitch or a type of herringbone. From the image it is a little hard to decipher.
Love it all thank you for sharing
Anne in New Zealand

Maya Sara Matthew said...

Hi Anne,
You're right it's a variation of the Cretan stitch. it's the Half Cretan.
Thank you for visiting.

Unknown said...

Thanks for sharing. When I was a young girl, (I'm 60 now), I embroidered swirls and swirls on a piece of fabric and used it to cover a footstool I had. So many people made fun of me. How I loved embroidering. Kinda of dropped the creativity part but continued to stay with the stitches as formerly taught.I cannot wait to get crazy. Your work inspires me.

Unknown said...

Потрясающе!!!
Спасибо за идею! Это мало того что красиво, но и очень удобно!

June Gregory said...

I love these books. My team and I have been doing something on a much smaller scale with our Young Embroiderers in Muxton near Telford in Shropshire, for the last couple of years. it is a great way to teach the children how to change the appearance of the stitch from the basic start. Once the work is complete for each of them we will assemble them by stitching pages together we have used medium weight calico and we are planning to do a fringed edge with decorative stitches about 1/4" away from the fringing.

Thank you so much for showing us this wonderful piece of inspiration. I will show them your work at our next session in November.

Very best wishes
June Gregory

Baye said...

Love me some serious inspiration! This is ART that makes me wish I had much more time to create.

Anonymous said...

I don't see a link to follow you by email which would be great. Am I missing it?

Cloudy Stitches said...

This is so inspiring! I found you on pinterest
Thankyou

inkyfingy said...

What a wonderful design, thanks so much for sharing...just found you on Pinterest...I will be looking out for you now!

Jodi said...

I am new to crazy quilting and embroidery and I just found your site with book. I have a few questions, did you make the pages using muslin? and did you use some interfacing on the back of each page?

When you joined the pages together how did you do this? I am assuming you folded over the seam allowance but then what did you do to join via the blanket stitch?

Thank you and I am in awe of your work.

Jodi

Deidre Eyles said...

Your wee books are adorable!! So much time and attention to detail! They are really lovely!

crazyQstitcher said...

It has been a pleasure to visit and see some of the work you've done. I'll be back to see much more.

Thank you for generously sharing your fabric book tutorial. I'll be gathering supplies for this and hoping Sharon does run a family stitch series next year.
I am sorry that I had seen none of your Year of Stitches previously but like what you are doing with it. I like the embroidery re the electricity failure.

Meena said...

Is there any video to show how you have stitched this book.

Meena said...

Is there any video to show how you have stitched this book.

Anonymous said...

Fabrics, Beads, & Threads:
I adore your fabric books. I am trying to create one so I can practice many lovely embroidery stitches. It has been years & years since I have embroidered and practicing the different stitches will be beneficial, creative, meditative, & loads of FUN! I will also ask the question; have you thought of doing YouTube videos to assist us stitchers that own slow, bad memory, tragically aged brains and are having trouble understanding some of your instructions. I'm sure your instructions are perfect, however, my brain is not defined as perfect and I need HELP, please. I love your blog also. Good Day.

Anonymous said...

Hello Maya, I have just a few questions: Do you list the supplies that you used such as the fabric, type of threads, The size in inches of each page which I understand is a double page equaling two pages. I only seen measurements for the stitching areas. Unless I missed your more detailed measurements such as the cover size also you used gelt for. i do not mean to criticize by unless I missed something a lot of detailed information has been left out. Most importantly a list of supplies and how much fabric you used to complete your entire book. I and others I believe would find this extremely useful. Plus the finished size of you book in width, length and height. There are very few textile/fabric books on the market. Most are bookbinding books for journals and such. Anymore detailed more specific information you can share on this post and update it since it was a few years ago and I am sure your skills, knowledge techniques and experience have advanced since this post. This directions are very high level. Can you get more into the nitty gritty steps if it is not too much trouble and also if you have the time and do not mind. I know I would greatly appreciate it tremendously. Thank you in advance for your time and consideration.

Karen said...

I just wanted to thank you for sharing your fibre books methodology. I have just finished a hand stitched art and holiday photo fabric book, it has taken me almost 2 years to complete but at the beginning it was your beautiful fabric and stitched books that inspired me to start. Thank you

Stephanie Sams said...

the pockets that are made when creating your book are a good place to include notes about the embrodery on those pages.

Mermaid33 said...

This is in believably wonderful !!!!!
What fabric are the pages please ? I noticed several others asked the same but can't locate replies .
Thankyou

Mermaid33 said...

This book is great and your explanation. Please what fabric is used for the pages
Thankyou

magarli said...

Hola, acabo de conocer tu blog, me parecen maravillosos todos tus bordados y me ha encantado la forma de guardar los bordados en ese magnífico libro, tengo que ponerlo en práctica, gracias por compartirlo y seré una fiel seguidora, un abrazo y felicidades

Maya Sara Matthew said...

For so many of you who have asked, I use an even weave cotton fabric called 'gada' in India. It's also called muslin fabric which fashion designers use to create their toiles.
it's unbleached fabric which comes in various weights.

Lucie said...

Oh Golly, I was searching the Internet for Embroidery Sampler ideas and found your blog. First thing I did was check the comments to see if the comments were still coming in. It's late, I'm sleepy but can't wait until I give this a try. You're amazing and thanks for sharing.
Lucie
iweararedhat.blogspot.com

Toody said...

WOW! Have I been searching for info on how to make a fabric book!!!

This is excellent. Thank you "SEW" much!!!!

Toody Cassidy, Cape Town, South Africa

Anonymous said...

Hi Maya, do you happen to sell blank fabric books? My friend does embroidery and I know she would love one of these! If not do you know if there are places that do sell them?

Maya Sara Matthew said...

I'm sorry it's taken so long to respond to your query.
No I don't make blank fabric books. :(
I'm not aware of anyone or any place that sells such a thing.
So sorry, but it's not so difficult to make a fabric book.
I'm sure your friend will find a tutorial on YouTube to follow.

Margaret Baker Ford said...

I plan to use this medium to create a tactile book for my sister who has Parkinson's. She was a 5th grade teacher, and is an avid reader; she will be comfortable reaching for this to keep her hands busy. The meaningful content is my next challenge. Thank you!

Judy said...

Which fabric did you use for your pages? I have started a sampler of the stitches I'm learning on TAST and wanted to put them in a journal form. Thanks

Unknown said...

What kind a cloth are you using and from where you buy that clothes??

Anonymous said...

Absolutely love your book so beautiful. Only found it when researching how to finish my Covid walks appliqué journal, which is not nearly as detailed and done by machine but after viewing yours do feel inspired to take it further. Thank you for sharing.

Anonymous said...

This is so inspiring. I found your blog on Pinterest when looking for fabric art journal ideas. I love the way you have constructed the book and in particular, the way you have joined the pages. I can’t wait to give this a try!

evdbcx said...

Dear Sara,

seeing your tast textile book via pinterest inspired me to follow in your steps (just a copy cat, not as an artist), thanks for showing your beautiful work.
However, so seems to have stolen it without even mentioning you.
I don't know what's to do about it, but at least here's what I've seen:

http://simplecraftidea.com/how-to-make-sample-stitch-book/

sorry about that.
Yours, Eva

Margarida said...

Hi
I would love to make this book. Would you be able to tell the size of the fabric for each page? What fabric did you use? Thank you

Irene said...

Simplesmente maravilhoso! Amo livros, amo bordados e você traz muita inspiração. Obrigada por compartilhar, abraço do Brasil.

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