speaking of sewing journals...

...a couple of weeks ago i mentioned that i'd been commissioned to make a whole bunch of them, which was pretty awesome! melissa and wendy of SEWN in mill valley, california, had seen the little mini ones in my etsy shop, and asked me to make ten of those for them; as well as ten bigger (5x7") sewing journals. i'd never made as many as that at one time, but i was up for the challenge! turns out, when you make it into an assembly line type of process, things move pretty fast. i glued up, trimmed, and put in order all the page blocks for the small journals first:

then i made the covers, and my awesome bindery assistant (aka lovely husband jeff, lol!) helped me make them into books:

want to guess the most important tool for making these? the bind-it-all is indispensable, obviously; and my xyron is very helpful, too. but the very first thing you need for this sort of project is a mortise mask in each of the sizes you'll be making.

basically it's just a frame. you cut a hole in a sheet of sturdy index stock, the size and shape you want your pages to be. this allows you to frame up what your image is going to be before you trim. believe me, this will save you time, headaches, and especially PAPER!!! :)

i'd made the small journals before (and since!) so they were quite straight-forward. i was a little worried about the bigger ones, but really, it's the exact same procedure. make and stack all the pages:

then add the covers and finishing touches et voila!

let's face it, i'm *NEVER* going to complain about being knee-deep in vintage sewing-related illustrations, because they are just tooooooooo much fun. but now, just for a change, i think i might make a few knitting journals! ♥♥♥

sew far, sew good!

this week at shopping our stash we promise to have you in stitches; or, rather, we want you to have us in stitches! ok, ok, we'll settle for just seeing some stitching, whether you assay the real thing (via machine or hand!) or bust out your favorite pen and hit us with the faux stitching... as little or as much as you like... anything goes; just make with the stitching and then c'mon over and link up. here's what i made:

(all illustrations come from vintage sewing books, patterns and magazines, mostly from the 1970's and 80's; alphabets: american crafts, heidi swap, recollections; spiral bindings: bind it all by zutter; ink: colorbox; labels: dymo)

every once in a while serendipity really serves up something cool, and this week was my turn for that. it just so happens that i was very nearly done making some more mini sewing journals for my etsy shop when i read this week's challenge, so i hurried and finished these babies! 

she's SEW lovely

they were somewhat inspired by the "brag books" of the 1970's, but whereas those were used to show off photos of children or grandchildren, i thought these would be perfect for keeping snaps of one's favorite sewing and needlework projects. my favorite part was thinking up sewing puns for the titles!

told you SEW

the covers measure 4 x 3.5" and are made of chipboard wrapped with vintage book paper, and crowned with a fun vintage illustration. i've used my sewing machine to secure coordinating chipboard or foam letters to each cover. mostly as decoration, but in my experience, rigid letters on a rigid cover tend to want to pop off... and i hate to give 'em the chance to escape, lol! :)

SEW far, SEW good

each journal has twenty pages, the fronts of which are fun and funky sewing-themed illustrations, instructions, stitch diagrams, fabric swatches, vintage patterns, needlepoint charts, quilting blocks, or...well... if it's visual and sewing related, somewhere inside one of these you'll find at least a little bit of it!

SEW what

the back of each page is a patterned paper subtle enough to write over. my idea is that you could attach a photo to one side and use the reverse... or the facing page... to jot down the details of the project in question. i have a similar book for my amigurumi creations, and not only do i love looking back at all the fun creatures i've made, it's also practical, since i've noted what yarn and hook i've used, where i got the pattern, and anything different i did in the course of the project. that way, if i want to recreate anything at a later date, i'm all set. plus it gives me a real sense of accomplishment as the book fills up to see how many fun things i've made!

SEW what else is new

check out my etsy shop, just enough stuff for more details and additional pictures of each journal. meanwhile, why not head on over to SOS to see what my lovely teammates have done and acquire lots of lovely inspiration; remember, your project needn't have a sewing theme, you just need to include a bit of real or faux stitching!  ♥

little bundles of crafty kitsch!

i'm proud of every item that's in my etsy shop, but i have to tell you that these little miniature sewing and yarncraft project journals *MIGHT* be my favorites!

 sew far, sew good

(has project chart pages on reverse)

for one thing, they are full of the coolest illustrations i could find in 1970's craft books, 1960's sewing manuals, vintage patterns, old yarn catalogs and magazines, even kids' crafting books... so that every page is unique and fun.

 sew what else is new

(has project chart pages on reverse)

for another thing, i have raided my vast collection of DIABOLICAL PUNS for the (in my opinion!) completely AWESOME titles!

sew what

(has project chart pages on reverse)

each one measures 3.75" x 4.25", has twenty five pages and a spiral binding. the individual listings show additional photos of each book, plus a glimpse of the types of illustrations inside each one, but since every single one is different, and it's IMPOSSIBLE to photo every page of every book, there's sort of a "lucky dip" element to this, which i think makes it even more fun!

an example  of the types of sewing book pages

an example of the types of yarncraft book pages

the first ones i made had vintage goodness on the page fronts and a little chart on the subtle patterned paper page backs to record the details of each project (for whom it was made, what pattern was used, etc) but having given a couple away to friends one of the most helpful bits of feedback i got was that they didn't want to COVER the vintage illustrations with photos of their projects! (which was my original idea of how these volumes would be used.)

an example of the project-chart page backs; the blank ones use the same types of paper, they just don't have a chart!

someone else mentioned that she'd rather use hers to PLAN projects rather than record/show off finished ones. so the later "editions" just have subtly patterned papers on the backs of the pages with no charts or input from me... thus they can be ANYTHING you want them to be from journals, to planning notebooks, to photo albums, to the place you save swatches and record what supplies you own!

thrilling yarns (tan/green)

(has BLANK pages on reverse)

i'm also planning another category called "she's crafty" that will not be dedicated to any single type of project, but rather have a little bit of everything creative (painting, photography, macrame, baking, sewing, knitting, etc, etc)  all in one volume so that they can be used for capturing and recording (or even plotting and planning?!) ANY type of project.

knitty gritty

(has project chart pages on reverse)

and then, i want to make reading journals, as well... plus more travel books... and maybe some little blank books with notebook paper... and... well, i have A LOT of ideas, actually, so i hope you'll stay tuned! :)

thrilling yarns (pink)

(has BLANK pages on reverse)

♥SOLD--thank you!♥

above are the ones i've listed so far, the links beneath each take you to their specific etsy location, or you can see them all together in my shop. there are plenty more to come... and if you'd like a CUSTOM version, please email me and i'll try to tailor it to your needs! ♥