I made this book shortly after Christmas. It came from an issue of Stitch magazine and my mom traced the pattern pieces and scanned the instructions for me. For such a seemingly-simple project it was very hard to follow the instructions. Some of the shapes are supposed to be appliqued with folded-under edges and some are fused and zig-zagged. The pieces are so small that they really should have all been zig-zagged. I found it very hard to turn 1/4 inch under for the 5 hexagons.
Putting the whole thing together was also difficult. The instructions tell you to put the pages together in a different way from the way they are presented in the final product. You make a long piece that has the number 1 and the 5 hexagons on it, then when the book is put together, the hexagons line up with #5. I feel like it would have been better to just make the pages as they are in the final product and bind it some other way. The binding of each page was tough and the edges are all wobbly and uneven.
All that said, I will probably never make this project again let alone try to troubleshoot it's construction.
My friend Hillary likes the book and I'll give it to her so James can learn his numbers with the tiny hexagons. I'm sure he won't be bothered with the fact that some shapes have even edges and some are zig-zagged!
I just saw this post today, and ironically, I'm just finishing up MY version of this counting book! I have one more page of binding to sew on, then I'll post some pictures. I think yours is really cute! I also agree with some of your comments about the pattern - next time I'll use fusible webbing for all the numbers and shapes. But I think I WILL make this again!
ReplyDeleteVery cute, Emily. I just love Stitch magazine. But the one time I actually used a pattern from it I had problems too. The pieces didn't fit together, the instructions were bad. I think I'll use it just for inspiration from now on.
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