Dangerous sewing results in bookwrap

Thriftily, for many years I collected frayed silk threads and other threadends, meaning "someday" to put them between layers of watersoluble fabric and stitch them into fabric. For some years I've had no watersoluble on hand. Recently some very fine net came to hand ... so why not put the threads between layers of net? This would in any case avoid the danger of the silk dyes running when the watersoluble was dissolved.

I put the embroidery foot on the machine and stitched away happily, getting into the free-machining rhythm. But the net dulled the colours of the thread, and it all looked pointless and ugly -

"Can this marriage be saved?" was the title of a series of articles in one of the women's magazines my mother bought regularly in the 1960s (maybe it was Ladies Home Journal?) -- and that's what I asked myself of this project.

Another bit of net and rather a lot of threads were at hand ... so this time I snipped in some vivid bits of fabric, thinking that if it was quilted in circles, the centres could be cut out to bring out the brightness of the fabric underneath.

As soon as I started stitching, however, there was a loud noise and I felt a little prick on my cheek -

That's a mighty small hole in that foot, but it had been working fine for the first piece; I must have pulled on the fabric suddenly and misaligned the needle so it hit the edge - and shattered - and a piece flew toward my face. Scary!

Surely there's a bigger foot around somewhere? Indeed yes - but only the one on the left is for a high-shank machine, and it's the one I took off this machine. The others (including the duplicate - how did that happen) must be for other machines, the ones I don't use -

A foot with a bigger toe is on order. Meanwhile, I changed the needle and checked the position of the foot carefully, then continued sewing happily (and more carefully - not tugging the fabric), trying to vary the size of the circles somewhat, and changing bobbin threads as the spools ran out.

Looking at the result, what disturbed me was the scribbles of heavy thread, so I dug out the ones that weren't firmly stitched in. By adding some more threads to the left side, the piece was big enough to make an A5-sized bookwrap - cut to size and with satin stitch around the edges. (Putting a cord round the edges first makes it firmer.)

The pouch on the left (its edge stabilised by ribbon) holds the front cover of the notebook, and the back cover slips under the ribbon on the right. All that remains is to add some sort of fastening* - this narrow ribbon seems not to be quite the right thing -

Next time, the flap could be just a bit wider. The bright bits of fabric do make a difference - not just for their colour, but for the change in scale against the indeterminacy of the thready background.

* some ideas for fastenings:

• button with elastic – or ponytail elastic bands http://magsramsay.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/more-bookwraps.html
• Velcro pad http://mixedmedia-jem.blogspot.co.uk/2008/11/take-it-further-october.html
• tab on flap goes through tab, perhaps back on itself to Velcro or button shut http://pinterest.com/pin/10203536626050376/
• leather laces as penholder http://pinterest.com/pin/10203536626050269/
• ribbon around two buttons, envelope-fastener style, or just one http://pinterest.com/pin/10203536626050212/
• cords through rings http://changingthreads.blogspot.co.uk/2008/04/seem-to-have-got-computer-problems.html
• one cord that loops around its starting point  http://bookwrapgems.wordpress.com/category/judy-fairless/
• suede strip (or fabric with nap or texture, for grip) - eg http://shirleygoodwin.blogspot.co.uk/2007/11/ready-to-go.html
• snap fastener, or magnetic fastener
• elastic sewn to back (top to bottom) or spine (loop)