Fabric Journal: Lesson 6

 Binding Your Journal

The binding style I used on my journal is quite a simple one.  While it looks like a Long Stitch binding, it is actually a series of simple 5 hole pamphlet stitches. Each spread is sewn into the cover individually, so you don't have to worry about long threads getting tangled and making a mistake close to the end of the binding.

The following video will show you how to make a template for punching your pages and cover for stitching.

Making Sewing Templates for Binding 

Punching Holes for Sewing

This video reviews the making of templates and shows how you use them to make the holes in your pages and cover.

Since you will have 5 pages to sew into your journal you will need a template with 5 columns of holes to indicate where the pages are to be sewn. You will make two of these templates. One will be taped to the inside of the spine area of the journal cover and one will be taped to the outside of the spine area.  This will help you see the holes when you are going from the inside to the outside and back again. Fabric has a way of closing up and making the punched holes difficult to see -- the paper lets you see where they are. 

Each page will be sewn in using a 5 hole pamphlet stitch.

The tails of the thread will be trimmed to a 1/4" after the thread has been knotted with a square knot and the next page will be sewn into place. 

Binding Your Journal

This video shows the actual binding of pages into the journal with the 5 hole pamphlet stitch. 

If you wish, you may put extra reinforcement in the spine area for added support. (I put an extra strip of felt along the spine) This will make sewing a little more difficult but will make the spine stiffer.  It is optional and will not affect the operation of the journal. 

Finishing Touches

Finishing Touches

When your journal has been bound, there are still some things that may need to be done.  If you have made your cover decoration separate from the cover, that will need to be attached and the closure will need to be added to the journal if you are planning to have one. The video above shows the final touches I added to my journal.

Tag for the Journal

This video gives a brief look at the tag that was made for the back pocket of my journal and quickly details the steps that were taken to make it.

Extras

The fabric accordion book doesn't need binding, it just needs to have it's covers attached to the pages.  The covers are simply fabric wrapped pieces of stiff interfacing that are slightly larger than the folded stack of accordion pages.  You don't want any of the pages showing when the covers are closes.

The Finished Accordion Book

Finished Circle Journal

Finished Shabby Chic Journal

In the after-class discussion for Lesson 6, we talked about how to measure for binding templates when the embellishments on your pages made them thicker at one end than the other.  The following video describes that process.

Creating Binding Templates for Pages of Differing Thicknesses

Sometimes the pages in our journal do not end up the same size.  That can make aligning the sewing holes so that stitching that crosses the facing pages looks the way you want when the pages are sewn into the journal, difficult to accomplish. The following video shows how to transfer the sewing station holes so that facing pages of differing sizes will align.

Aligning Facing Pages

We also discussed creating image transfers on fabric using gel medium and inkjet images. The following video provides a demonstration of the technique and the results. 

Image Transfers on Fabric

iq

Fabric Journal: Lesson 5

 Preparing the Cover

The purpose of the cover is to provide protection for the pages of the book and to provide an idea as to the contents within. To that end, you need to consider several things:

1. The materials you are going to use to make the cover
2. The dimensions of the cover
3. The closure for the cover
4. The decoration on the cover
5. The binding style you plan to use

Material

This will be your choice.  My cover was made from a thick felt but you can make your cover from fabric of your choice.  As long as you feel it is thick enough to provide some protection for your book it will be suitable.  It can be several layers of fused fabric, fabric with interfacing, a thick fabric, a quilted fabric,-- there are suggestions in your handout.

Dimensions

The following video demonstrates how to measure your pages to determine the dimensions for your cover.

Calculating Dimensions for your Cover

There are also instructions in your handout.

Measuring for My Cover

This video demonstrates the measuring required for the cover of my new fabric journal and the resulting cover piece.

Closures

Another way to protect your pages is by having a closure on your journal. This keeps your cover securely fastened around your pages. 

The following video shows different examples of book closures.

Closure Options

Decorations on the Cover

Just as you decorated your pages, you should plan on decorating your cover. When planning your decoration placement, keep it away from the area where your closure is going to be (unless your closure is part of the decoration) and from the spine area of the cover. You are going to be sewing the pages through the spine so you don't want to place anything in that area that will make sewing difficult.

The next step is binding the journal.

Extras

For my Shabby Chic fabric journal I decided to use a textured fabric and line it with a cotton canvas. My cover was going to have a flap with a strap and buckle closure.  I contemplated raw versus clean edges. The following video shows the measurements necessary to complete my cover and the finished product.

Shabby Chic Journal Cover

Fabric Journal: Lesson 3

Preparing Fabric Motifs

Decide on the fabric motifs you are using. I used watercolour like drawings of several different flowers from a shower curtain.  It was lightweight, wrinkled and shiny synthetic fabric . This time I have a heavier, double ply, reversible fabric with only a single motif. The first time I used only one fabric, this time I'm using two different fabrics. 

You can use what you want, how you want, to create the effect you'd like to create.  You can even draw your own motifs directly on your fabric page or on a secondary fabric and apply it to your page -- or both. 

I used Wonder Under fusible web but there are other products on the market. (Misty Fuse, Heat and Bond Lite etc.) You may use whatever product you are comfortable using. 

There are directions for use of Wonder Under on your handout and a video on the Reference links page. 

Here is my video showing how I prepared and used my Fabric Motifs in my new journal:

Preparing Fabric Motifs

Applying Fabric Motifs

Extras

I'm currently working on an eight panel accordion book made from unbleached cotton. I've been experimenting with motifs taken from ordinary tissue paper.  When backed with Wonder Under and fused to the fabric, they become strong enough to stitch through and don't tear when being applied.

Tissue Motifs

Butterfly Motifs - the next steps

Several questions were raised during today's Lesson. The following video addresses those questions.

Lesson 3 Questions

Fabric Journal: Lesson 2

 Adding Colour to Your Pages

This is the wet and messy portion of the project so prepare your workspace accordingly.  Have paper towels on hand for clean up and put plastic down to keep your area dry and clean.  Depending upon the media you use, the colour may stain your hands so gloves may be an idea. Definitely wear a coverup or apron.

Don't forget to refer to the Reference Page for links to additional videos for more colouring techniques by professionals.  They do a better job than I do and you'll definitely learn more tips from them. 

The following videos show how I have added colour to my fabric:

Adding Colour to Fabric

Adding Colour to Fabric Part ll

Finished Results of Adding Colour

More Stencil Work

When the colour is dry, remember to heat set your work.  I always place my work between pieces of parchment paper to protect both my work surface and my iron. Look at the manufacturer's directions for the heat temperature for your particular product. 

I almost forgot, in the Adding Colour Part  ll video, I mentioned Pastel Dye Sticks and Fabric Crayons.  The following video shows my experiment using them to add colour to unbleached cotton.

Pastel Dye Stick and Fabric Crayon Experiment

Sorting Your Pages

Once you've added colour to the background, you will want to make sure that you put the fronts and backs of your double page spreads together.  You might have planned this order in advance, before you added the colour or this might be something that you decide after the colour has been added.  In the case of my first journal, it was something that I decided after the colour was added.  I played around with my pages until I came up with a pleasing combination.

Not only will you need to take into account the front and back of the spread, you will also want to see what the facing pages look like.  Facing pages are the folded pages that are next to each other when a book is opened.  Fold all the double pages in half and stack them up in a pile and open them one by one, as though they are pages in a book.  What do the facing pages look like when they are side by side?  What does the back of one page look like next to the front of another?  Those are facing pages.

When you have the colours of the facing pages arranged in a way that is pleasing, you'll need to remember the order.  I used a small piece of masking tape on the wrong sides of the pages to label them 1A 1B,2A 2B, etc. so I wouldn't have to go through that process again. That way, when I was working on the fronts and backs individually and out of order, I had an easy way of getting them into the order that I wanted.  "A" was the front, "B" was the back and 1,2,3 was the page order. 

Now I could go to the next step, which was planning where to put my fabric motifs.

Extras

As promised, the questions from lesson 2 were videotaped when demonstrations were provided.  The video is below.

Lesson 2 Question/Answers

An additional question came in about designing for facing pages.  That is easier to show than it is to explain so here is the video demonstrating how to plan for designs that will cross facing pages.

Another Question Answered

I am currently working on an eight panel accordion book made from unbleached cotton.  I used the dye based watercolours to add background colour to the long strip of cotton I'm using for my background. 

Applying Accordion Book Background Colour

Fabric Journal: Lesson 1

 Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

Now that you know what the course is about and you have your materials list, it's time to make some decisions. These decisions will help you collect the materials you'll need to make the journal that you want to make -- one that is personal to you. 

This video will take you through those decisions:

Design Decisions

You have been sent the instructions for Making a Fabric Journal by email.  If you have misplaced the document, a copy can be found here.

Making a Fabric Journal

Making Your Page Spreads

It is always best to work on pre-washed fabric. This will prevent your fabric from shrinking when you tea stain, dye or in any other way add colour to it.  When you tear or cut your page spreads to the size you would like them to be, it's nice when they stay that size after colour has been applied.  Some fabrics, unbleached cotton being one of them, can shrink significantly when hot water is used when applying colour in the form of tea stain or dye. 

I usually tear my fabric into strips of the page height I want and then tear or cut into the width for the double page spread.  Since I know I am going to be working with raw edges, the torn edge is fine for me.  You can prepare your pages in whatever manner you wish.  Just remember,  if you plan on finishing your edges you will need to adjust for a seam allowance in the dimensions of your page before cutting or tearing.

Prepare enough fabric so that you have enough for a front and back for each double page spread that you want to complete.  That will give you 4 pages. You should always have an even number of pieces of material.  If you want 20 pages for example, that would be 5 double page spreads which would mean 10 fronts and 10 backs that would eventually be fused together. 

Extras

For my Shabby Chic fabric journal I decided that I was going to put my pages into signatures with 4 sheets each.  Since my unbleached cotton muslin was very fine this time and I was not planning to fuse front and backs together but work on a single piece of cloth and let the stitching show through, I decided to give more body to the fabric by coating both sides with white gesso. The coverage would be thin and it didn't have to be complete because I would be adding fabric, paper, lace and other ephemera to the page before the journal was complete. 

Below is a video of the page preparation.

Preparing Shabby Chic Fabric Journal Pages with Gesso

Welcome to Making a Fabric Journal: An Online Class

 Overview

Journal Cover

This is my first time hosting an online class, so please be patient with my attempts to bend technology to my will.  My goal is to be able to provide supporting documents and videos that will allow you to work independently between Zoom sessions. 

I am very new to video making so I can't vouch at this point for the quality, but hopefully the old adage, "Practice makes perfect (or at least better) will hold true".  

I will also be providing links to videos (by others) for techniques that you may find useful when creating your journals and I'll be available to answer questions by email.

First Page

Caveats over, let's begin

Here's an overview of what I'm going to show you during this class:

Intro to the Class

Here's a video of the materials that are required to make a fabric journal:

Materials Required to Make a Fabric Journal

You can get a printed Materials List here:

Materials List

See you at the first class, Thursday, February 11 at 1:30 pm

A Zoom invitation will be sent to you.

Double page spread

Facing Pages

Useful Reference Links

Links You Might Find Handy for Your Journal Project

As you work on your journal, you might want to refer to the following videos/tutorials to help you with various techniques for stitching or using different media to apply colour to your pages and adding your fabric motifs to your journals.  I've collected some resources I've found useful in the past and posted them here on one page for your convenience. 

Embroidery

Mary Corbet's Needle 'n Thread "How to Videos"

A comprehensive page of embroidery videos from simple to complex stitches that you might find useful for decorating your journal.

Sharon Boggon's Stitch Dictionary (Pintangle)

Sharon's site focuses on contemporary hand embroidery and she hosts the Take a Stitch Tuesday (TAST) Challenge which is international.

Hand Embroidered Lettering and Text Tutorial

Mary Corbet also provides a 15 lesson tutorial on different ways to embroider text

Adding Colour

Make Your Own Liquid Ink from Derwent Intense Ink Blocks

This is a video by Derwent showing that you can finely grate some of the ink block and add water (it was suggested by a viewer of another video that distilled water be used because it did not contain any minerals or additives that tap water contained -- I can't speak to that) and create your own liquid ink.  The video suggests spraying but I don't see why a diluted ink couldn't be sponged on as well. This would be permanent when dry.

Using Derwent Inktense Blocks and Pencils on Fabric

This video by Derwent shows how the colour from the Inktense blocks can be added directly to natural fabrics.  If the colour is put on dry, a wet brush is used to dampen the ink and sink it into the fabric.  Additional colour can be added to the wet fabric -- it will be more vivid when added this way. When dry the colour is permanent.  You'll notice that bleeding of the colour couldn't be controlled when water was used.

Inktense Blocks over White, Golden Fluid Acrylic Stencil Shapes

This video is here only because I am always astounded by this lady's artistic skill every time I watch it.  She makes it look so easy.  I can do the stencil part. I have the spray bottle with the water and I have some Inktense blocks.  I even have some pictures of flowers I'd love to be able to reproduce -- but that's where the similarity ends.  Once the stalks were done, it would be game over ... but I do love to watch and dream.  Enjoy the video.  Maybe you have the skill. This would make an incredible journal page, wouldn't it?

Using Acrylic Paint as a Fabric Paint

This video is from Plaid Crafts explaining one way to use Textile Medium with Acrylic paint.  Instead of premixing the paint and medium together, the official demonstrator, prepaints the motif area with textile medium and then adds colour, using the medium to thin the acrylic paint where necessary.  The Textile Medium dampens the fabric, allowing a longer working time so different paint colours can be blended and worked into the fabric fibres. 

Some Out of the Box Tips on Using Fabric Paints on Cloth

This video shows how to make gradations of colour by watering down paint, using stencils with paint, using opaque and transparent paints for effect, paint on dry versus wet surfaces and happy accidents.

Using Transparent Fabric Paints and the Sun

Same great artist, Lisa Walton, shows techniques using transparent paints to create interesting effects using the sun. This would make great backgrounds for journal pages if the weather were different.  Just an FYI video.

Applying Fabric Motifs to Your Journal

Using Wonder Under

Video from a Pellon demonstrator showing how to use the product.  Tip: if you can't find the edge of the paper to remove it, use a straight pin to score the paper backing across the middle of the motif. This will give you an easier way to remove the paper. *Keep the "how to use" directions pinned to the remainder of the Wonder Under -- if you don't use if frequently you can forget what it is and how to use it. 

Where it Started for Me

The Work of Frances Pickering

She is a British Textile artist who creates incredible hand drawn and stitched fabric and paper books.  Her journals are amazing and when I saw her artwork I was inspired to try and create something of my own.  I've had a fair bit of experience creating handmade books and journals but I've always had problems with the content and it was the content and techniques used that drew me to Frances' work.  If you are on Pinterest, do a search of her work - you'll be inspired, as I was.

A bucket list wish would be to take a workshop with this woman -- the next best thing was to buy her books: Page After Page: Making Individual Books and Journals and Under the Cover: Paper and Fabric Books.

Gallery of her work