Fabric testing for book cover project

Hello, everyone.

Y'all may remember that there is an embroidered book cover project being considered.

The other day DH and I went downtown and looked at a new-to-me fabric shop. It was quite nice--good variety of fabrics in a variety of types. Loads of sales people, too. (Unusual for fabric shops, honestly.)

I wanted to buy some sample fabrics to test. Well, it turned out that the shop has a minimum cut size. (And it's not the size most quilters get for most of their fabrics.) I ended up buying enough to do one book cover, probably: 1/2 (almost 1/2 meter) in two red fabrics, a red poly that could be a lining and a tomato-red handkerchief linen.

Poly on left. Handkerchief linen on right.

I am currently thinking that the poly will make a good liner layer for the book cover, instead of using Kona cotton for it. (Kona will still be the underlining layer that is right under the face fabric.)

4 inch square cut and serged for shrink test

After machine wash and machine dry, the 4 inches have become 3 7/8 inches.

Well, any linen or cotton was going to need preshrinking.

Picked up a piece of red Kona cotton, too, at my local Hobby Lobby store. (Don't have any red flannel for the padding layer that is proposed, but that will likely come.) It will also go through the wash before being used.

I think that the project proposal is ready for a presentation of concept package to be prepared. (To include the proof-of-concept cover on a hymnal, embroidery samples on assorted stuffs--I'm just accumulating stitch samples in a Ziplock bag--and the fabric pieces.

Right after I preshrink that red cotton and the rest of that half-yard of red linen.