At last I have a completed project to share with you. And it’s one I’m quite happy with. It’s another book cover, once again for a gift. This one was for my father, who wanted his own after seeing the ones I made for other family members. It was his birthday during the Easter week-end so I decided to gift him one.
He got quite passionate about Japan when we got to live there, reading lots of books about the country, so it was one possible starting point for the cover. Especially since I still had some of this fabric, and was on a short schedule so embroidery was quite out of the question. As I didn’t want it to be an exact copy of the one I made for my husband, I decided to use the square fabric motifs as appliqués on a solid background.
At first I thought I’d just use the motifs, but it looked a little bit empty and sad. I played for a bit with the design to see what I could add, and then I realized I could use the small stripes I got left after cutting as ribbons. It was perfect: since they’re thin you can’t distinguish the motifs so it wouldn’t get too busy, and at the same time the colors match exactly! After some fiddling around I found a layout that I liked and sewed everything in place with a zig-zag stitch. In the end it adds a sort of modern graphical feel to the cover that I quite like, with the colored motifs contrasting against the black background.
Mr Robots helped me pick the inside fabric. It’s the red serge from my two-tone skirt. I feared it would be two thick but it wasn’t, and the colors look great together. I also tested minor adjustment to my pattern, to allow for thicker books while still maintaining the folded side in place: putting two elastic bands instead of the only one that’s in the pattern. They’re placed on each side of the initial elastic. If use prove that it’s better I’ll post the details here.
My father seemed happy with his cover. And Mr Robots is almost jealous, he’s starting to think he should have asked for a fancier design for his cover. 
If you want to make one yourself, you can find the tutorial here !
What a nice cover! *.*
I have to admit that I quite agree with Mr Robots, I love the style it gives to this cover only having a couple of the fabric motifs.
Well done!
I’m sure your father loved it.
Are you taking any orders?
Say for a phone sleeve or an Ipad Mini cover or both? :p
Ha ha! Thank you my dear! ^^
As for the order, since it’s you I might be able to do something, as long as you don’t mind waiting because I know I’m slow (and have other late projects to finish first). ^^; But you’d have to help me with dimensions. And I guess it would have to be reinforced or something, especialy for the Ipad cover. I’ll have to check what people are using for such covers.
Yeah!
And actually no for the reinforced cover.
My iPad is almost never leaving home, it just to protect it a little while in my bag ^^
I’ll email you about that, but really I understand you have a lot on your plate right now!
Great cover. I have a few objects made by Japanese and I admire the subtlety and finesse of their art and craft.
Thank you very much! ^^