Embroidered Needle Book

Not long after I began to embroider, I realized it would be really, really handy to have a place to stick my embroidery needles. My one (at that time) pincushion is a mess of pins and sewing needles, and I wanted to keep the embroidery ones separate. Obviously, I needed a needle book. Meanwhile, I'd discovered Wendi Gratz's Rainbow Girls via Mr. X Stitch. My daughter and I both fell headlong for those little girls. I decided I'd make one the cover of a needle book, and my daughter selected the Yellow Girl.

The way she was leaning, along with her sunburst hair, she reminded me of a flower, so I decided to stitch her bottom in stem colors and keep her top yellow and flowery. I stitched her on linen first and then cut one cover piece from the linen, with an inside piece of yellow flannel.

I sewed those pieces right sides together, with the ribbon sandwiched in between, hidden on the inside. When I turned the cover rightsides out, there were my ribbons, ready to act as a tie closure. (Just make sure you fold the ribbon over so you don't accidentally stitch the free end to the opposite seam! The ribbon pieces are longer than the book is wide.)

Then I added a piece of green felt and sewed down the fold with embroidery floss to make an easy binding.

And my daughter has been trying to take off with "her" girl ever since, so I'm embroidering all six girls into something special just for her.

I adore Wendi's Shiny Happy World Shop. It's full of cute little projects aimed to help everybody learn to sew and embroider, and many of them are free. If you're teaching a child to sew or learning yourself, her blog is quite a resource. More projects from her shop will be featured here as soon as I finish them!