Tuesday, February 10, 2009

A somewhat dodgy tutorial!

I thought I might show you the steps to create these little page protector pockets that I've been using in my Monkey Mia album (see post below). They're not hard, but this might save you thinking too hard if you decide to make some. So, rather than just write the steps, I thought it would be great if you could see pictures too. I sorta forgot how bad my photography is :)

So just ignore the photography, and focus on what I'm trying to say...ok? LOL

  1. Take your page protector, a sharp pencil and a ruler. Measure halfway across the page protector, mark a point, then rule a line down the centre. Do the same horizontally, so you end up with a grid of four.
  2. With your sewing machine set to a small-medium stitch length (I used mine set on 2), stitch from the top of the page protector to the bottom, leaving the ends of the thread quite long.















The image below is what it looks like after you've done this step :)
















3. Cut a scrap piece of cardboard to the approximate width of your sewn pocket. Flip your page protector to the back, then slip this piece of scrap cardboard past that marked pencil line that you made in step 1.















4. Use a blade and a steel ruler to make a cut in the page protector. This cut will extend from ALMOST the side edge to ALMOST the sewn line in your page protector, and will be approximately 3mm below the pencil line you drew in step 1. Do the same to the other side of the sewn line, remembering to only cut ALMOST to the edges.

5. Flip your page protector over to the front again, and sew across the page protector on the pencil line you made in Step 1, leaving your threads quite long.
















The picture above is what it should look like :)

6. Now tie off the threads on the three outside edges of the page protector, and snip off.






For the threads on the left side, I pulled the top thread through to the back, and tied it off securely.
Too easy?
My only other tip is to adhere the photos back to back before they go into the page protector-it just makes them look neater.
I would LOVE to see what you do with this...I think the possibilities are endless! Think different sizes, fun embellishments ...it's all good.
TTFN xxx

2 comments:

Linda said...

Thats not dodgy. Did you take the photos as well?
Do i go backwards to lock my stitches as well?
xx Linda

Chris Millar said...

I agree, that's a fantastic tutorial!!! Well done Suzi! And thanks!