Needlekind strife specibus: the cover

I have a new theme.  I think I hate it.  Yup, I hated it. Fixed it.

Homestuck fangirl needlebook continued:

Once I had the inside cover panels done, I needed to actually install them onto the binder.

First, I made little bridges at the top and bottom, connecting the two panels. These will sit above and below the binder hardware, covering that little gap of cardboard, and also the raw edges.



Slip the whole thing over the hardware, tuck the edges under (remember, the hardware is only attached to the cover at the two large rivets. There's tons of room underneath),

Using the seam ripper to slip the excess under the hardware

...and glue down.  I used 3M Super 77, because This to That included it as a suggestion for gluing fabric to paper. ...I sort of regret using it, or at least wish I'd been more careful, because I got some overspray onto the pouch pockets, and now they're sticky.  I'll have to test goo-gone on a scrap to see if I can clean it off without making more of a mess.

At any rate, needing to clean up doesn't stop me from moving on to the next bit: the outer cover.

I finally decided to just have my image printed professionally (yay, drug store instant photo printing!) to sit under a piece of clear vinyl. I've trimmed the photo to size, and cut out a piece of vinyl a little larger than the front cover, and a piece of taffeta significantly larger that the whole cover.

Sew the clear vinyl down along the spine of the binder

outer cover and the binder with the inner cover sticking out

Align everything and hold in place with pins and binder clips (Not shown: it was ugly, and I didn't have enough hands)

Use a zipper foot to stitch through the excess of both layers, right up against the cardboard, allllll the way around.  I'm stitching from the inside, because I want the outside surface to be as flush as possible.  Also, the binder won't lay flat face down, so I really have no choice.

Turn it around, and....

Damn.

DAMN!

The photo slipped.
I should have glued it before stitching.
I should have stitched the image side first, to reduce chance of slipping.
I should have...it doesn't really matter. I didn't.  So now I need to fix it.

I can't just rip out the stitching, re-set the image, and sew again.  Vinyl and photographic paper are both utterly unforgiving when it comes to being sewn.  But, the edge is going to get a layer of bias tape, so extra holes in the vinyl won't show (badly).  It'll be okay, as long as I line things up really well when I re-do it.

The photograph may have to be scrapped, which is a shame.  ...mostly.  I'm not sure it shows in the photo, but the glossy surface of the photo and the clear vinyl aren't playing well together.  They're sticking in some spots and not in others, and it looks dirty.    I think re-printing with a matte finish may solve that.  Also, the contrast between the greens was less than I expected.  I may have to adjust the color levels of my image.

So I need to get the photo out, but I don't want to lose the alignment of the vinyl.  Easy, I'm going to stitch again, just outside of the current stitching line.  That will give a little slack, but not so much that I have to re-set completely.  Pull out the stitches, open one full side, pull out the photo.

You'll notice that I planned on cutting down the jagged bit of the photo as an afterthought, and I didn't think to do anything differently when doing the alignment stitching.  It's okay, the new stitching line worked like perforation and the trapped bit just tore out, no problem, no fuss.

Re-printed the image, on satin paper instead of glossy this time. Cut it to size, insert, re-stitch.  Not bad.  I did wander onto the surface of the image in one spot, but I've decided I don't care.  It's so small, it'll barely show.

Time to install the zipper, which means first preparing the zipper.  The zipper by itself doesn't fill the whole gap around the edge of the binder, so the first thing I'll do is add strips of the taffeta: Two for each half, so all of the seam allowances are sealed between layers.

Splayed out so you can see the layers.  Obviously they were lined up to sew.

 Trim all seam allowances to 1/4", including my new zipper gusset.

I also cut some bias binding at this point because I thought I was going to stitch it all in one go. heh. Nope.

Stitch the zipper all the way around, still using the zipper foot.  The corners were tricky. That's all I'm going to say.

Now to bind it: Stitching down the binding was very much like stitching down the zipper

Stitch it down

Wrap it around

 Realize, belatedly, I should have installed the zipper after stitching down the first layer of binding. Also, something I've been wrestling with the whole time while sewing the cover in place: The hardware of the binder interferes with stitching, I can't get close to the top and bottom of the spine.  Also, with the zipper sewn in the way it is, the binder won't lie open flat anymore (oops), so I had no choice but to sew the binding over the spine by hand.  Which I put off for several weeks because it seemed hard.  When I finally got to it, it wasn't actually that bad.

And the binder's done!

Note the zipper tab to the left. That allows the zipper to open past the spine, which allows the binder to open fully.  Or would, if I hadn't stitched the zipper across the top.

I also realized, a little too late, that I forgot to sew down the elastic for a tape measure.  Either I'll glue down a piece of felt for needles instead, or...use the appalling curved needles that I hate? That's a terrible option.  Ah, well, burn that bridge when I come to it.