my weeny way : w edding g uest book

the ring pillow was so well approved by my friend :) and she'd asked me to make her a matching guestbook for her reception! :} i should have inclined to say no after all the roller coaster ride of making the pillow but then the new challenge was something (i think) that i can manage coz in a flash all i think about a guestbook was just a ring-binding stack of nice papers inside with a pretty nice cover! lol. and the binding is so easy to get done in a shop too! sounds so easy peasy right! but not when i was about to start! :/ i've been deceived by my simple minded again~ dork!

so, i'm cracking my head to "make this work" (so tim gunn) lol :) hmm. well, some sketching i did after i'd finished the guestbook. it has produced a very thrilling & satisfying result so i guess i share it here. my weeny-way of making a wedding guestbook (my first!) .

• decide the size of your guestbook. mine was 24 cm X 17 cm. the number in bracket is the seam of the front fabric that need to be glue to the inside to cover the guestbook. this [4] is the center opening to place the ring binding book inside. *the size depends on the size of the ring. measure the ring like below pic. i forgot to take pic during the process. you should have 0.5-1cm larger than the ring size. **all these numbers also indicated the size of your cut out fabric to cover.
  
  

• cut out a piece of thick interface of the size of your guestbook include the [a] space exclude the seams. glued 2 thick carboards on left and right. then cut out a thin-medium batting foam and glued on the front of your guestbook on top of the interface. refer sketch above & pics below.

(batting glued on top)

• covered the book with fabric that already decorates with embroideries .*** never secure the fabric in front with glue; this will leave visible ugly marks/stains. glued a strip from the same thick interface to fit the center space. **** roll it before you glue so that it give you a curve rounded corner when you close the guestbook.
  

a soft spongy feel on the front cover with the batting on top.

• now, you'll have a very neat covered guestbook on the outside. the inside job is so much easy. ring binded your pretty chosen papers in a stationary shop. it costs me just a dollar ;) *****make sure you have 2 thick sheets on the front and back. these 2 will be glued to the cardboards. my stacks were the size of a half A4. they were smaller than the guestbook but i like it that it gives a little dimension.

• make sure you have added the trims/ribbons for the front and whatever you like for the closure on the sides before you glued the ring book in.
  

everything that show in front of your guestbook is glued inside, on the cardboard. same with the ribbon i'd used to tie at the sides.

• last step, before you glued the ring binded book inside. make sure the holes are aligned with the carboard. you need to push the fabric cover to the center from both sides like the pic below . so that, you'll have a nice curve at the center when you open the book flat.
  
  
  
  

this is it! a complete simple wedding guestbook! i think this is a very meaningful wedding gift for a bride. it's easy to make one and all the material are inexpensive too :)

weeny-way of bullion in embroidery

i'm not so fond of doing flowers but i need to do them alot when i'm smocking because these little flowers are so awesome in little girl dress. sweet little daisies and roses and little buds in varies colors are a great finishing touch and come in so handy-dandy too. and all these are forming from a bullion knot. i'd learn to make this when i started smocking. my 3 magical roses are made from these. so now you know they aren't that magical after all huh` lol :) but i'm so happy that you like them.

i've made a little pictorial showing how to use bullion knots in making 3 types of flowers; rose, daisy and loop flower. you can download the pic and zoom it larger for better pictures.

• 1
  insert needle from right to left and leave the needle in the fabric.

• 2-3
  wrap the thread around the needle clockwise 6 times (number of wraps are depend of the length of your bullion knot; shorter for center & more wraps for petals). slowly pull out the needle through the wraps.
• * if you feel too tight to pull out the needle, simply turn your needle a little anti-clockwise to loosen the wraps.

• 4
  a drawing to show placing of knots in a bullion rose ; 1 stroke = 1 bullion knot

center = 2 same length bullion knots placing alongside

2nd outer petals ring = 3 bullion knots; 10 wraps each

3rd outer petals ring = 6 bullion knots; 12 wraps each

• 5
  anchor

• 6-10
  repeat steps to make another bullion knot for center

• 11-18
  repeating steps of making bullion knots for outer petals

• 19
  one complete bullion rose with adding leaves. leaves are just 2 bullion knots placing alongside

• 20-23
  steps showing a french knot as a center of a simple daisy with bullions

• 24-28
  steps for loop flower with longer wraps (25-30) . anchor the loop nearer to the starting point to form a ring. secure the loops with a wrap of the same color thread. i'd showed using a red color thread

so that's it. hope my words are clear for you to understand. thanks :)

my weeny way of using interface

the 1st sorrowful mystery-

christ's agony in gethsemane (luke 22, 39-40)

when i need to do a more complicated picture embroidery, like this one which need more precision, it would be easy to use an interface. i like to use a more thinner paper like the one i'd showed below. a very common wrapping tissue-like paper. soft & cheap. it's so easy to tear off by hand and i think it's more economy to use, since it's something that need to thrash out at the end. a softer and thinner interface would be more suitable if you use only one strand of thread in your embroidery to minimize the tension between the stitches and the paper when you tear it off later. (to avoid loosen the stitches)

a more finer needle is require when using interface.

a) draw or copy the picture you want to embroider on the paper.

b) start to embroider.

c) tear off time! using your hand, tear off the outer part of the embroidery. then use a needle to carefully rip off the inner part of the embroidery.

so this is it! my a-b-c-with-interface. :} i'm posting this just to share my weeny way and my teeny experience in embroidery. i'm sure there are more tutorial by more expert crafter out there! :) if you know one, you are so welcome to leave the link in the comments section. thanks!

my weeny way~

i like embroidery. a lot. for me, to embroider is like to draw. i love to draw but i don't draw well :{ that's why i love to do them by stitches! because in embroidery, everything would eventually come out pretty cute in their unique form even though it's not matched with the original pattern if you follow one.

well, recently someone saw this in my flickr and asked me how to do it. thanks so much! i'm so happy when someone took interest in my stuff! the first thing that pop in my mind was , 'i don't know.' weird right?. i don't know how to put it but i really don't have a step-by-step reference at all. that's another reason why i like to embroider. i can do it so-free-hand. lol! it doesn't require any special tools or notions or books or much planning at all. (but those japanese embroidery book are so hard to resist!! :p) i'll enjoy a hobby more when i don't require to spend much $ on them :)

so, in short,

a) i'll draw out whatever i want to embroider on a paper. only the main object. i never draw on the fabric.

b) start to embroider, adding details or whatever i like to alter from the drawing. i'll adjust the sizes of the object in this step.

c) lastly, adding the 'scene' .

one great tutorial i would like to recommend for those who want a neater cool way to embroider : at futuregirl . the tutorial is about embroidery on felt. but i don't think there's much difference in fabric though.

below is my a-b-c-so-free-hand result. lol! another word would be a-lousy-lazy-way-of-work! :)