project: easy felt needle book

After finding my grandma's needle book (or one of them, anyway), I wanted to make one that you could make too. The original was a leather cover, and you could certainly make one with leather if you want. But I went with felt. It really is one of my most favorite materials to work with!

Start to finish, this will take you about 30 minutes tops. Not bad!



Here's what you need:

Felt (I recommend wool felt)
Embroidery floss
Perle Cotton
Scissors (regular and pinking)
Needle (you may want to have both tiny and large)

Needle Book Template PDF



Cut out one cover piece, a needle and pin, and three page pieces. Use a pinking shears to cut one edge of the pages.

Also, cutting these thin shapes for the needle and pin can be tricky. One method you may find helpful is to trace the pattern onto freezer paper and iron the shiny side to your felt. Cut through the felt and paper at the same time, then remove the paper. But if your shapes come out a little "wobbly" don't fret. They can be straightened out as you stitch them down.



Fold the cover piece in half to see where to place the pin and needle. Lay them on the cover so they cross over, then stitch around them with tiny stitches. A small needle works best here.



Stack the three pages and wrap the cover around them. You can pin these to hold it all together, but I found that it wasn't necessary.



Thread a length of perle cotton through a larger sharp needle. Pierce through all the layers of felt near the book "spine", about an inch or so from the top. Leave a tail of a few inches showing at the front.



Bring the needle through to the front, about an inch or so from the bottom edge. Go back through the first hole to the back, then come back to the front through the second hole, as shown above. This will hold everything together nice and securely.



Tighten the thread up, and tie a square knot in the perle cotton. Trim the ends.




Your needle book is ready for pins and needles! The back of your applique will show (although you could fuse some fabric to the inside of the cover to hide it), but it shouldn't be too conspicuous. Sometimes it's nice to see some "behind the scenes" in your work!




There you have it. A simple, swift needle book! Hopefully this will actually help prevent lost pins and needles. The other night, after some late night stitching, I rolled over and found a pin in my bed. I was more than a little thankful that it didn't poke me!