I am feeling well enough to sit at the computer for a while now. Most of last week was spent just laying around. My head ached so badly I just couldn't do anything much. I think it will still take another week or so to get over my reaction to that food additive. But I did go into the Guild and on the sale table saw this needle book that caught my attention. It had been made out of curtain fabric with a beautiful bead used for the closing. I have all those soft furnishing sample pieces and I thought I would see how that would make up. I am quite pleased with the result.

This needle book is based on a Octagon. Luckily I have a template that came with a book I bought years ago, but they are not hard to draw up.

My fabric is heavier than that which was used in the original piece, so to get the finish I wanted I had to use the largest size with 3.25" edges.
I used a lighter weight patchwork fabric for the lining and some left over batting for the leaves. A bead for the closure and 3 strands of stranded cotton to make the cord. I cut this 75" long so that there was a little extra to play with.

I cut one main fabric and one lining and pinned these together at each of the corners.

I then sewed these together using a .25" seam, leaving one side open to turn the piece through to the right side. Before doing this I took a little of the fullness out by notching each point.

After turning through I slip stitched the opening closed. If I had used lighter weight fabric I think this could have been done when edge stitching.

Next step was to press this really flat. I used my water spray and a lot of steam from my iron to achieve this.

I then edged stitched the piece using the edge of my machine foot as a guide.

Because the furnishing fabric is a bit lumpy I ran another line of stitching inside this to get the edge to sit flat.

For the leave I cut a 6" circle from waste quilt wadding and marked it into 4 quarters using a water soluable pen. I positioned this in the centre of my piece and attached this piece sewing on the marked lines.

I started stitching at the edge of the leave, reversing at the beginning and end of each line. Then removed the markings before ironing the piece flat.

The next step it to fold the 2 sides into the centre and then press well with your iron. This next step is better described in pictures rather than words. I started with wonder clips to hold the pieces in place.

But because of the thickness of the fabric found that clothes pegs worked better. After this lots of steam from the iron to get it to lay flat.

The final step was to make the cord. I did this with 3 strands of stranded cotton using an old fashioned pencil and the door knob. I made it long enough that one side made a loop when attached in the middle and threaded the bead on the other end. ( This is different to the original piece there they used a button and cord.)

And it is finished.

I intend to make these as Xmas gifts for my friends. I like the furnshing fabric, even if it is a bit heavier. A great way to use those swatch samples.