Stitch and Surface embroidered books

 For a final project this past session, my Stitch and Surface students at Fleisher created embroidered handbound books. The idea was very open-ended, but most people chose to do a decorative cover for a blank book. Fran Schatz (above) used sun-printed fabric from last semester to embellish with buttons and couched ribbon for a "color" themed book. The inside pages are all sheets of felt in a rainbow of colors that she may continue to embroider. This fabric book has pages stacked on the cover with a machine-stitched binding down the center of the stack

 Gail Corbett's notebook, "Seeing Red" has satin stitched letters and a selection of raw-edge appliqued circles from the same striped fabric tilted like sunspots on the retina. The fabric was adhered onto bookboard, the inside pages are craft paper, and it has a 3-hole Japanese Stab binding. Funny story- the last center stitch was so tough to pull through, I offered to help and ended up breaking the needle!!

 Sharon Mastrobuoni created a blank notebook with an arrangement of fabric yoyo's and 4 different border stitches. Her covers were sewn with a contrasting fabric, bookboard inserted into the resulting "pockets", and final edge blind stitched closed before doing the Japanese Stab binding through 5 holes. Believe it or not we had another broken needle on this one!

Tiffany Robbins' book has satin stitched text and a feather stitch vine down the side. Her covers were adhered to book board, but she has a signature of fabric on the inside, using the coptic binding down the spine. After working on this one with her I realized coptic binding is way easier on paper than on fabric! It came out great anyway.

I love to see how my embroidery students grow and innovate with fabric and thread! If you'd like to join me next semester there's one or two more days left to register at Fleisher. I could still use a few more students for the class to run! Don't miss out on a new adventure in thread.