Take a plain old notebook, some embroidery thread and with some simple stitches create a unique design!
I had seen a lot of sunburst style mirrors around (like this one from The Forest & Co) and I really love the shape, but wanted to use it for something a bit different. Now I’m also obsessed with notebooks. I have sketchbooks, ones for business planning, for recording how I make my jewellery and ones for blog post ideas. I can never get enough. We hadn’t had any stitchy tutorials for a while so we ended up with a sunburst embroidered notebook!
You will need:
-Plain notebook, mine are from Tiger, but Moleskine and Paperchase would be great options too!
-Embroidery needle
-Embroidery thread / floss
-Pencil & eraser
-Pin
How to:
1.Choose your central design; I’m choosing a circle but any geometric shape works! Lightly draw the outline of your shape on the front of your notebook.
2.Take a drawing pin and place on a beading mat, cushion or other padded surface and prick holes at the at top, bottom and either side. You can measure and draw pencil lines if you want to be really precise, but you know me, I just eyeballed it!
3.Then make holes halfway in between those
4. Keep on adding evenly spaced holes making sure you leave at least a 1mm gap between each one (any less and you risk the cover tearing as you stitch)
5.Now for each and every hole, draw a line outwards so you can make a corresponding hole further out, varying the length.
6.Take a length of embroidery thread on your needle. I needed about 150 cm, but this will vary depending on the size of you notebook, the size of shape and the length of stitches. You can always add more thread in if needed.
7.Bring the needle from the inside of the notebook to the front and leave a 15cm tail. You can start anywhere on the inner shape, it doesn’t really matter.
8.Take the thread outwards to its corresponding hole to create your first stitch, then bring the thread back out the front at the next hole.
9.Continue working your way around the shape until you are back where you started.
10.Open the notebook up so you can see the underside of you stitching. Tie the two loose ends together in an overhand knot, then take the ends under the threads on the inside shape to finish. Cut off any excess.
11.You can play around with different shapes (so think circles, squares, triangle, hexagons, hearts and even stars) and threads (a metallic would be lovely!). They also make great little presents, because lets face it, everyone loves notebooks right?
If you have a go at making your own embroidered notebook or have any questions feel free to comment below or message me on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook! Happy Making!