Finished - The Embroidered Notebook Cover

Happy Memorial Day to all of you in the US! 

As I mentioned in the last post, I changed the flowers in the original monogram to match those in the fabric.

 

I made the flowers into generic bullion rosebuds with little French Knot buds along the stems.

The finished notebook.

So, what do I like/dislike about this project? First the likes: I managed to match the silk floss with the fabric roses pretty well. I think the rosebuds came out quite nicely. I made the cover to fit a larger notebook an 8 1/4 inch by 5 inch Moleskine. It also covers the same size notebook by Gibson, which are generally more readily available at large office supply stores. It fits quite well, as I made a muslin to figure out the sizing for the pattern. It's pretty much the same pattern as I used as a child covering my schoolbooks with brown paper bags, just sewn together instead of taped.

Now the dislikes: I really need more practice in satin stitch monograms. This isn't too bad, but it's not great, either. The thorns could be sharper and the curves smoother. But as practice makes perfect, I'll have to set up another project soon. I used silk threads on linen, with cotton floral. Now the darn thing has to be dry cleaned. I think I'll just keep it for taking notes at my needlework guild meetings, that should keep it fairly clean. Since it covers a black notebook, I could have lined the monogram oval with a heavier interfacing. But that I can remedy, I think I'll stitch a piece of the beige linen to the back of it to give it a bit more opacity.

So there it is! While it's not a completely original design, it isn't copied line for line from a pattern. This is as much of a semi original design that I've ever done, so it's been a stretch for me. Maybe this will encourage me to design something a bit more original.