The cover design and end result

To set the scene of But, my intention for the "book" structure was to make it like a button tin yet have an old fashioned book feel to it as well. I looked at these button tins for inspiration. Both my maternal and paternal grandmothers had button tins that were old biscuit tins. They were round in shape, but the one I have developed over the past 14 years since my eldest daughter was born is rectangular and I felt this was a good page format to use.
Originally I did think about making a box for the book to go inside and made a prototype to explore this, however in the end as the pages were finished, I decided on creating a cover that looked like the top of a button tin.

These are some vintage button tin lids which inspired me

 

 

I personally have a button tin like the pink one here and it acts like a book, so using this format I felted an oval and wrote buttons on it, and used a small oval on the spine like the ones seen on an old book.

 

 

This is the final product which I was thrilled with. The final leg was the hardest as I couldn't machine stitch any of it. I spent at least 15 hours hand stitching the whole thing together and blanket stitching the pages with a bronze/gold thread to finish it off.

 

I chose the purple and gold to reflect the tale from "pit to palace." But starts off as the outsider, not belonging in the button tin yet ends up in far higher place - a place where he was destined to be - which is in the Royal palace.