Course Description

Join textile artist Suzette Smart for a creative three-day workshop exploring the art of fabric collage and hand-stitch. You’ll design and construct a folding textile book that can serve as a needle case and a beautiful way to showcase vintage sewing ephemera. Additional pages can easily be added later, making it a wonderful base for stitch samplers or future projects. For improvers who love collage, collecting, and adding stitches.

Suzette will begin with a run-through of the book’s structure before guiding you through designing and making your front cover. Learn how to measure and prepare your cover and inner fabrics, along with the wadding. Choose from animal, bird, or house templates as the focal point for your design, then explore ways to enhance it with fabric collage, vintage papers, and hand-stitching.

On the second day, with your outer cover set aside, you’ll move inside your textile book. Discover techniques for adding pockets and windows—perfect for keeping embroidery floss, needles, or other small treasures safe.

Finally you will Continue developing both the outer and inner covers with layers of collage, hand-stitch, and personal embellishments such as charms or mementoes. You’ll work towards completing your textile book and, if you wish, begin adding extra pages to use as stitch samplers or for future creative exploration.

Suitable For

This course is suitable for beginners or improvers alike.

Requirements List

• Foundation fabric for cover and inside your book. Choose a fabric suitable for hand stitching. I sometimes use a vintage piece of linen. You need to allow for 2 pieces of fabric at 19.5 cm x 7.5cm and cut on the day
• Hand sewing kit, threads, Frixion pen and scissors
• Bondaweb
• Wadding. Allow for 19.5cm x 7.5cm and cut on the day
• Fabrics, lace, ribbon, vintage paper for collage
• Sewing ephemera, charms you would like to include
• Sewing machine for sewing up seams etc. (Suzette will have 1 x sewing machine for seam sewing)
• A workshop iron and ironing mat if you have and baking parchment to protect iron

Suzette will have bondaweb and wadding for sale as well as charms, some vintage linen tea towels and sewing bits and pieces.