Color Book Tutorial/Sew-Along, Part 3: Sewing The Cover and Trimming the Pages

This is Part Three of my Color Book Tutorial/Sew-Along.  For an introduction to this tutorial plus the finished book and links to all the other parts of this tutorial, see this post.

It’s time to finish sewing the pages by sewing the cover pages and then trimming all the pages in preparation for assembling the book.

1. Choose the solid colors that you will use on your cover.  I chose not to use brown, gray and black because I wanted my cover to be really bright.  Additionally, even getting seven colors onto the square is a little more tricky than five. You’ll have to use really narrow strips and small triangles if you want to do all ten colors.  (See my caution below about the triangles though – you’ll need to make them fairly large to keep them from disappearing in the trimming process.)

Arrange your colors to your liking and then pile them up from bottom to top.

2.  Sew your cover pages using your 9-inch square pieces of muslin and the same method that you used to sew the inside pages.  (Directions are here.) Sew two similar but not identical blocks, varying the widths of the colors

Note how the colors are in the same order but different widths (one block with thick pink, one block with thin pink, etc).

3. Cut each block in half diagonally across all the colors, from corner to corner.

4.  Swap sides and rotate the triangles so you have alternating colors in each square.

5. Sew the triangles back together, with a 1/4″ seam and press seams open

Your cover pages are done (except for the embellishments)!

6.  Trim all twelve blocks so that they are perfect 8×8 inch squares.  Use your rotary cutter and ruler.  On the cutting mat, center the block over an 8×8 section. Without moving the block, trim on all 4 sides to ensure that all corners are 90-degree angles.

This was my second cut – you can see that I’ve already trimmed the top edge.

When you have finished trimming each block, the front should look like this:

Ignore that black pin in the corner.  That comes later!

and the back should look like this:

Here’s another example from before:

and after:

7. When sewing your title pages, make sure to cut your top and bottom triangles larger than you think they need to be.  I didn’t make mine quite big enough and you can see here that after trimming, there’s not much left of orange, sadly.  By the time I lose another 1/4 inch on all sides for the seam allowance, there won’t be much left.

After you’ve trimmed all twelve pages, you’ll have a beautiful pile of trimmings too!

Now, get ready to sew some curves!
(That’s for the next tutorial.)

KIOS: Grooming, Part 6: Family Cloth and Mama Cloth

This post is part of my series, “Kickin’ It Old Skool: Why and How We Are Old-Fashioned” or KIOS for short.  If you’re new to the series, please read my disclaimer before continuing on.  I’m keeping a table of contents to this series here so you can see what I’ve already written about and what more there is to come.

Warning:  This post contains content related to bodily functions.  If you’d rather not start your weekend this way, you may want to stop reading now.

First, a word about labels:  Generally, using cloth wipes for toilet paper is called, “family cloth” and using cloth pads instead of disposable pads for menstruation is called, “mama cloth”.  I think those labels are unfortunate because they imply that you have to be in a family (whatever that means) and/or be a mama to use them.  This is clearly not true.  Any person can use cloth wipes and any woman who needs pads can use cloth pads.  I’ve decided to use these labels in this post for lack of better terms but know that I would prefer to be more inclusive!

Family Cloth

While we’re talking about things that generally happen in the bathroom (such as infrequent flushing), it seemed appropriate to also discuss our minimal use of toilet paper.  As you may have read in this post about cloth wipes, Ellie and I also use cloth wipes when we’re at home, rather than paper toilet paper.  Toilet paper is part of the fun for Ellie when using a strange bathroom!   Our toilet paper use has dropped dramatically, which is a nice help for the budget.  The hardest part for me about using cloth wipes is simply remembering to use them.  We keep a stack of them on the back of the toilet but have used toilet paper for 30+ years, my hand just moves automatically to the paper roll.  Finally, after about a year, I’m getting to where I rarely pull off paper without meaning too.

Just be careful not to put the cloth wipes into the toilet!

Mama Cloth 

Several years ago, I started using unbleached, organic cotton, environmentally-friendly feminine hygiene products when I was menstruating.  I didn’t like the idea of putting bleached anything right next to my body (particularly because we had stopped using bleach to clean our house around the same time).  If you still want to use disposable products, then using something like this is definitely a great alternative.

Just before Mark was born, a very kind friend gave me several reusable cloth pads, intended for menstruation.  For no reason, I’d never really considered using “mama cloth” but thought, “why not?”  After Mark was born, the softness of the pads made my post-partum recovery that much nicer and easier and I became a convert.  For me, it makes sense.  We try not to use disposable paper products or basically anything disposable that has a workable reusable alternative.  Mama cloth is a logical step for me and I’m not sure why I didn’t take it sooner!

***************

About cloth wipes:

This post is a great “introduction” to using cloth wipes instead of toilet paper.  Her three main reasons for using cloth wipes are ours as well:  it’s frugal, it’s earth-friendly, and it’s more effective and feels better than paper.  (That same site has several posts on the topic.)

About washing:  We wash our cloth wipes with our cloth diapers that we use on Mark.  When I wasn’t washing cloth diapers (after Ellie stopped wearing diapers and before Mark came), I gave them a rinse by themselves (to get them relatively clean) and then washed them with our towels and other laundry.

About what to do with the wipes once they’ve been used:  We keep a trash can in our bathroom, with a cloth bag inside of it.  We throw them in there once we’ve used them.  It’s the same place we put Mark’s dirty diapers.

Don’t they smell once you’ve used them and before you wash them?  Remarkably, no.  I was worried about that myself when we first started using them but that’s never been a problem.  The diapers do smell sometimes, particularly if it’s very hot and humid and the bathroom door gets closed for too long.  But just the wipes by themselves never smell bad.

Also, see my post here for instructions on how to make your own wipes.

***************

About mama cloth:

About washing:  During my post-partum recovery, I just washed them with our wipes and will continue to do so.

Where to get them:  This post has links to lots of other places online for directions on how to make your own.  If you don’t want to do that, here’s a post with a review of four different mama cloth companies.  And, of course, there are literally thousands of options on Etsy.

***************

Soon, look for a guest post on the wonders of the Diva Cup, a reusable tampon alternative!

And Now, It’s Official – She’s Really Growing Up

For the past two nights, Ellie has slept through the night.  By “STTN”, I don’t mean that she didn’t nurse because she’s been night weaned (off and on, with more and less success), since last summer.  By “STTN”, I mean that not only did she not nurse but she went to sleep at bedtime in her own little bed (next to me) and she woke up in the morning and I realized that I hadn’t had to comfort her or fix her blanket or pull her into bed with me or otherwise help her go back to sleep again through the whole night.  For the first time ever!

Hallelujah!

In other growing-up news, last night she nursed for bedtime, then needed a snack, then ran back into the bedroom, told Nik that she wanted to be in the bed by herself (i.e. she didn’t want him to cuddle with her and help her go to sleep), and then she went to sleep by herself in about five minutes.  This too was a sleep milestone for us.

She is talking like a fully fluent English speaker.  For example, on Tuesday, after eating an applesauce walnut muffin, she asked for more.  I had some in mini-loaf form so I gave her a slice of that too.  She took a bite, looked at me, and said,

It’s pretty similar to muffin?

It’s pretty similar to muffin?!?!?!?!  Actually, yes, it’s identical, in taste if not in form!  I’ve noticed that “similar” is becoming one of her favorite words.  Clearly she’s not going to get away with pretending to not understand directions anymore!

Her pretend play is becoming more and more elaborate.  Half the time I don’t even know what she’s asking me to do so I just try to play along as best I can.  On Tuesday, she was feeding her bear in an old booster seat that had been left at our house.  She actually played happily for hours with that thing.  Mean old mama put it in the car for donating yesterday and she was not happy with me!

Bear was hungry and thirsty!

All in all, our little girl is not so little anymore.  We love the new Ellie (tantrums and independence assertion and all) but I can’t help missing the little girl Ellie too.  I suppose I will be like this her whole life – loving the new but missing the old!

Comments = Answered!

To Jana, Karyn, Elizabeth, Mom, Nicole, and anyone else who has left a comment in the last few weeks:

I think I’m finally caught up with answering your questions/comments (and in a few cases, asking new questions of my own).  I’m sorry it took me so long.  Thanks so much for leaving comments.  I love getting your feedback and input!

To everyone who left Giveaway Day comments – thanks so much for all your great ideas!  I definitely won’t have time to respond to you all individually but I do appreciate it!

It Might Be A Good Idea…

for me to start paying attention to what I put my son down next to
(now that he’s a rolling machine):

That’s only a suffocation hazard, a sharp object, and a full, heavy water bottle.
No big deal.

The Winner For Giveaway Day 2013!

Thank you so much for all your great recommendations, everyone!  If you too are looking for inspiration for what to sew for boys, check out the comments on this post and you’ll find lots of great ideas.

The random number generator chose #127 (out of 134 comments – wow!).

Congratulations to Peggy, who said, “I don’t sew for boys (used to when mine were younger), but now I am sewing quilt tops for my group, World of Charity Stitching.”

Peggy, I’ve sent you an email so get back to me soon with your address!

Thanks everyone! Happy Sewing!

(P.S. If you’re looking for recommendations for sewing for girls, you can see the list that I made from Giveaway Day 2011, back when I only had one child and clearly too much time on my hands! )

An Early Mother’s Day Tribute

To my mother, my mother-in-law, my sister, my sisters-in-law, and all the other mothers in my life, here’s my Mother’s Day gift to you:

(Obviously, I can take no credit for this video.  Check out the other cadamole videos – he has lots of funny ones!)

Isn’t that AWESOME!??!?!  I got teary-eyed while I was watching it (even as I was laughing)!  Mom, you did that for all five of us!  I did that for Ellie and Mark!  Every mom has given that gift to every one of of her kids!  So cool! (Plus I love that harmony!)

I love you Ellie and Mark, even if you never have paid your rent!