DIY Network

Needle Books Keep your needles handy and organized. From "B. Original" episode DBOR-208

If your pincushions are getting crowded—or you're just sick of having a procupine's worth of needles sticking in the lid of your sewing box—Michele Beschen's needle books can help you get organized in style. Made from small books or crocheted potholders, they keep needles corralled and help you be organized while you B. Original. Scroll down for her how-to.

Make charming needle books from small scrapbooks...

Or crocheted potholders from the flea market.

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Potholder Needle Book

Materials:

2 knitted or crocheted potholders
embroidery thread
needle
wool or felt

Figure A

• Use embroidery thread to hand-stitch the potholders together along one edge.

• Cut pieces of wool or felt that are about 1/2" smaller than the potholder covers. These are the book's pages.

• Stack the fabric pages evenly and position them inside the cover. Sew a seam along the spine-side edge of the pages that attaches them to each other and to the bottom potholder (figure A).

Scrapbook Needle Book

This project uses a small scrapbook or any small book with a cardboard cover bound with string.

small book with a cardboard cover
batting
felt
glue gun and glue

	Figure B
	Figure C

• Remove the pages and the binding string.

• Wrap a piece of batting around the front and back of the cover. Trim excess batting; be careful not to cover the binding holes with batting.

• Position a piece of felt or other fabric over the batting.
  Pull the fabric tight around the cover and hot-glue to the inside of the front cover. Notch the felt in the corners to create tight edges, and trim away excess felt as you go (figure B).

• Cover the inside of the front cover with felt.

• Repeat the process for the back cover.

• Replace the binding string and add some trim or buttons or ribbons to deck out your creation even more. You also can use thet fabric cover to bind the book instead of using the scrapbook string (figure C).