Tibetan Terrier Notebook Cover

My friend has a Tibetan Terrier whom she absolutely adores, so when it was coming up to her birthday, I decided I wanted to attempt something with a Tibetan Terrier on it. Her favourite colours are turquoise and lime green, so naturally I had to go in search of some fabric specifically for this project. Luckily we have a wonderful shop called Paulines Patchwork which sells material by the fat quarter as well as by the metre. It is so well organised in there that you have to stand and admire the array of colours before you set about finding that 'just perfect' material for the task. Not sure if I've said this before on the blog but it still remains true...it's like walking into a sweet shop without the calories! Yummy! I already have the lime green, so it was a case of finding a co-ordinating stripy material and a plain turquoise. And as usual, a rummage through the bargain section led to the purchase of a few oddments to add to my ever diversifying collection! When I leave that shop with material safely tucked up in a bag, I always feel like the cat that got the cream!

The next day I couldn't wait to get started on this new creation. We sat down and started a bit like Blue Peter...with pencils, scissors, paper and tracing paper in hand we set about creating a template for the Tibetan Terrier. The design was then drawn, reversed, onto the paper side of the bondaweb, which was then ironed onto the wrong side of the turquoise material and cut out. Meanwhile, we stitched the stripy material onto the lime green. We could have joined the two edges of the material (as in quilting) but we decided that we wanted it to feel like a quality item...no expense spared kinda thing! Then came the difficult thing....how to get the lines from the template to the material. Normally, I'd draw them on, lifting the tracing paper as I went but with this template it was proving more tricky. Then the common sense advisor (my partner in crime!) came up with the idea of using a pin to poke through the tracing paper along the lines, to leave an impression on the material - strange but it worked a treat! Then it was just a case of dot to dot! (Told you it was a Blue Peter job!)

Then it was just a matter of stitching on the lines - easy! Not! I ended up sewing most of it by turning the hand wheel round, stitch by stitch. I really wanted to free-motion it but was too scared to do it that way in case I messed it up! I will have a go at doing it on the tibetan terrier design another time when there isn't a deadline to meet! Now as for the cotton we used? We used the cotton that is multi-coloured (greens and blues as in this particular one) called Gutermann Sulky. Now we thought this would add a special touch to this pressie. In the end, we don't think it did! I think it would have looked much better had I'd stitched it in a plain colour, probably green. Unfortunately, we haven't time to make another one on this occasion, so we'll have to let it go as it is. I think maybe the multi-coloured cotton would better suit doing a close zigzag stitch, as in machine applique perhaps.

As always, we had to do one bit of unpicking! Had forgotten to account for the extra thickness that the wadding on the front and back cover adds to the overall dimensions of the removable cover. So when we tried to put the book in the cover, it didn't fit! A huge weary SIGH from both of us, especially as it was nearing 8pm at this point and we still hadn't had any tea! So near but yet so far! Got it right second time and hey presto, a pressie for my friend's birthday! Have had to delay posting this blog entry until her birthday though...just in case she reads this!