Amending, finishing pages and construction begins

Hours have been spent reworking, sewing, unpicking, re-sewing, adjusting and finishing the pages of But's story in order to put the book together.

The tennis ball on page 9 bugged me because it looked flat. So I changed it from this

 

to this:

 

 

 I felt happier with it and sewed the edges of the page with cream cotton ready for construction

Buttons got sewn on and amendments added, such as a whole button on the final end page

And completing some pages that needed some attention. This page I started and it shows compared to the others. It has been adapted a few times and if I had time I would do it again, but this is the best I could do at this stage.

And so it continued, sewing in ends, changing things, adding buttons, felting, stitching where necessary until I could take my folded Calico and start constructing. One advance of working with textiles is that I can use pins to get pages in place. So on my knees, armed with my pages and pins I got to work

By pinning it, I could ensure there was enough space when opening the pages. I didn't want the pages to be tight and it was important it opened like a book.

I have decided to sew it by hand as a sewing machine would struggle with the bulk. If I can, I will blanket stitch the pages together so that it has a gold/bronze glint rather like an old Bible with pages dipped in gold paint.

The next big issue ....the cover. I want it to look like an authentic button tin, but also act as a book. So I have been researching button tin lids and looking at the bric-a-brac stalls at Stroud's Friday market, which helped.