A possible new project

Hello, everyone.

The wedding dress being done, and delivered, it's time to be doing other things.

Some studying is being done on a possible new project.

Proof of concept:

It doesn't have quite all the layers of fabric under consideration, but the layout and the method seems to work fairly well. Two layers of the flannel on the front and back cover, 1 layer at the spine, 1 layer of the muslin between the linen and flannel.

And the cover stays on when the book is opened.

Using a hymnal that was on hand--a hard cover book with some thickness to it--to stand in for the possible book to be covered, I tried out the pattern for the cover and most of the layers of padding, underlining, and outer cover. This is some green linen that was left over from another project, with quilting muslin under the linen to firm up the grain for stitching and some cotton flannel underneath so the stitches will have somewhere to go when the book is opened up on a hard surface.

I tried out stitches on another piece  of the linen, using painter's tape to get some straight lines, and also tried out some colors of cotton floss and a couple of stitches.

The 1" (2.5 cm) tape gives a straight line, and the blue tape is easy to remove and reuse. (It's a low-tack tape.)
I'm not sure that the tape is the way to get a good diamond grid, though--perhaps just use the ruler to make the lines?

Pale lavender: 1 strand, outline stitch. Pale green: 2 strands, chain stitch.
Dark green: 2 strands, outline stitch. Purple: 2 strands, chain stitch.

It's not clear yet what the design will be. If the project goes forward, it will be a nearly-matched pair of covers, for a set of similar-sized books. I'm leaning toward the linen for the face fabric, just because it's so easy to clean and accepts the stitching easily.

Other fabric options have been suggested, like polyester doupioni or light polyester jacquard. I think the second might be harder to stitch through. And the first, while it's interesting to look at, might have a scary affinity for hand lotions when it's in use. It's not always easy to get oils out of poly fabrics. The linen can soak in Oxyclean, get a gentle rinse, and then soak in soap, followed up with a rinse bath or two in bowls of clean water. Then get drip dried--not tumble dried--and have almost no wrinkles at the end of the session. There will be too much built-in structure for machine laundering and drying of the covers.