My First Slow Stitch Needle Book

I did not have a decisive plan when starting my needlebook. I pulled out a pile of pretty patchwork fabrics, vintage fabrics and sheets, vintage hankies and embroidered linens, wool felt, doilies, yo-yo’s and some EPP motifs. Next I pulled out a selection of threads, deciding to limit my selection so as to not overwhelm myself with too many options. I would not use everything I pulled out, but what I didn’t use I knew I could save for my next needle book or slow stitched project!

I decided to start with the cover and opted for a vintage linen napkin in the prettiest of pinks. I decided to fold it in half so that it would form the outside and inside cover of my needlebook. I stitched on my EPP panel and chose the sweet little ‘sew’ image from a Poppie Cotton fabric piece. I decided to embroider over the design which adds a cute touch. I invisible stitched then did a decorative blanket stitch around the piece. Next I added a few little fabric scraps from one of my recent quilt projects which I invisible stitched down, then added a little piece of crochet cut from a doily and some flowers. I added some decorative stitches and quilted with Kantha stitch over the hexie piecing. A little fabric yo-yo and strawberry tag that wraps around to the inside completed the cover.

For the inside I used two pieces of vintage sheet hem pieces to create some pockets, one large pocket and smaller pocket with divisions to put glue pen refills or tulip needle cases in. For the inside back I invisible stitched down a beautiful antique Armenian Needle Lace, which a viewer on YouTube told me is handmade with needle and thread, pre WWI and the genocide of the Armenians and their culture by Turkey. Lace collectors value the pieces that they can find. I also added a little rainbow 3/8″ hexie flower. With the cover complete, I folded it back in half (I worked on it open) and blanket stitched around three sides to close the cover.

With the cover done, it was time to work on the inside pages. For my first double page spread I used a vintage hankie I found in a local op-shop. It’s a very fine linen and has an applique and embroidered L with bow and flowers which I thought was quite serendipitous when I found it. You can see how I created the cover in my YouTube video Part 1.

To make the double page spread I worked on the hankie fully open and planned out what I wanted where. I didn’t want to do anything on the quarter that had the applique/embroidery, so designed the next quarter of the first page turn. Here I added some patchwork fabric scraps, and a vintage sheet scrap, all invisible stitched down. Next I stitched down a piece of felt and then selected the ‘bloom’ patch from the same Poppie Cotton fabric. I blanket stitched this on to the felt, but left the top line of the patch open to form a pocket (you can see in more detail how I did this in my YouTube video Part 2). Lastly I added some sweet little motifs and decorative stitching.

For the next quarter of the hankie I appliqued on a jewel flower star, adding a decorative running stitch. For the last quarter I invisible stitched down another scrap of vintage sheet, a piece of wool felt stitched down with beautiful Variegated thread by Shifting Sands. The final touch was another piece of scrap patchwork fabric and a yo-yo. With everything stitched down on the hankie I folded it back in half and did a running stitch all the way round in a pale blue cotton to fix the page together.

The next double page spread I worked on used a beautiful piece of Sue Spargo wool felt in colour Seaspray. The first thing I did was create a pocket that wrapped around one half of the felt piece using another vintage sheet hem scrap. These are great for making pockets as the hem is already neatly done for you.

Next I chose the ‘bake’ piece from the Poppie Cotton fabric that had strawberries on it. I love strawberries and so turned this into an ode to the strawberry page, adding in some patchwork fabric scraps and a little half inch hexie with a strawberry fussy cut on it. I used invisible stitch to sew them all down. On the other side of the felt to the strawberry page I invisible stitched down a small tatted doily. Lastly I stitched down some pretty flower trim that extends across two pages.

The last page I stitched together was created with a piece of beautiful vintage fabric I bought from Bec of SewBe Curated and a pretty daisy patchwork fabric. For this page I simple sewed the the two fabric pieces together using a running stitch. Prior to stitching, I stitched on cute little fabric patch that has baby deer as the selvedge colour codes.

Now that I had embellished the pages, it was time to combine them altogether in order. Whilst doing this I decided to add another half from a beautiful bright vintage hankie, and then chose a lovely vintage embroidered tray cloth to be my central page.

To combine all of the layers I held them together around the edge with wonder clips, then using a pale peach cotton thread did a medium sized running stitch up the middle. I did a double stitch at the start and the end, and I was careful to try and make my stitches straight and even on the outside cover as well as on the inside middle page. It was a little tricky, but I got there in the end and I’m happy with the result.

With my needle book done I had one last thing to completely finish it off which was adding a tie, which I had forgotten to do while stitching closed the cover. I picked out a small bright yellow braid from my stash and jade green button that matched the ‘sew’ fabric panel and simply stitched them down on the front cover edge. I think the braid and button are the perfect scale so as to not distract from the cover itself.

If you have thought about creating your own slow stitched needle book, inspired like I was by all of the beautiful ones seen on Instagram, YouTube & Pinterest (where I now have a board devoted to them Here!), then my advice is to collect some pretty morsels of fabrics, felt, vintage linens and doilies, some orphan EPP or quilt blocks, bits and bobs, trims and yo-yos and just jump in and have a play. This is definitely the first of many I will make, in fact I have already begun my second one which is also going to have an EPP cover, this time, diamonds!

I have two videos that follow along the making of my first needle book on YouTube which you can watch here:

Needle Book One – Video 1

Needle Book One – Video 2

Thanks for being here and Happy Stitching.

Miss Leela x