Rainbow Book

Designer: Deb Perry

It is a lot of fun to teach kids the colors of the rainbow using ‘ROY G BIV’, a cute acronym my husband told me about one day.  This book was sewn entirely out of fabric ‘Fat Quarter’ and embellished with buttons, paint, and chipboard.  With my acrylic ruler, cutting mat and rotary cutter, I was able to cut fabric and trim edges quickly.  Now my seams are much more accurate and my projects are completed faster as well.  Love that!

Difficulty rating

• Required supplies:
• Easy Squeeze Glue Gun
• 45 mm Comfort Grip Rotary Cutter
• 12" x 18" Self-Healing Cutting Mat
• 3" x 18" Acrylic Ruler with Two-Color Grid
• No. 5 Softgrip® Micro-Tip® Craft Scissors
• Heidi Grace Designs: 12-70877 Winnefred Street Chipboard Alphabet*
  Heidi Grace Designs: 12-70876 Cherrywood Lane Chipboard Alphabet*
• Heidi Grace Designs: 12-70875 Wild Daisy Road Chipboard Alphabet*
  Heidi Grace Designs: 12-70874 Urban Acres Blvd Chipboard Alphabet*
• Fabric Fat Quarters**– Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet
• Acrylic Paint – Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet, White
• Buttons - Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet, Black
• Small Paint brush
  Jumbo Rick Rack - White
• White Embroidery Floss
  Needle
• Sewing machine
  Iron
• Fabric marking pencil
  Paint Pen – White, Fine Point
• Permanent Marker – Black, Fine Point

Instructions (Print version)

1. Unfold each Fat Quarter.  Using self healing mat, rotary cutter and self healing mat trim edges even.  Press flat.  Fold in half.  Press flat.  Unfold and position fabric with 22” sides laying horizontally.  Use acrylic ruler and white marking pencil to trace a horizontal line 5” down from each side of center fold.  With wrong sides together press fabric to this line.  Repeat the same for both sides of fold.  Press flat.   Fold in half at fold.  You should have a rectangle of fabric measuring approximately 5”x22”.  Fold right side on to left.  Press flat. Repeat for each color of fabric.
2. Stitch ends together creating a 5/8” seam allowance.  Trim and press seam open.  Turn inside out and press with seam directly in middle matching the fold line.  Turn fabric over and stitch down the seam line, which creates a crease in the future page and helps them to keep their shape.  Repeat for each color of fabric till you have 7 mini booklets.  Fold in half and stack the books in ROYGBIV order.
3. Using a zig zag stitch, sew the second half of red to the first half of orange.  Likewise, zig zag the second half of orange to the first half of yellow. With the pattern sew the remaining pages so that if you opened them up they would form an accordion.
4. With folded book together, turn so that facing you is the spine.  Lift up each color and create a fine glue line, adhering all books together into one large book.  Cut 2-6” pieces of jumbo Rick Rack.  Fray and coat ends lightly with glue.  Hand stitch a black button to each end with embroidery floss.  Glue one end to the TOP of book front and back.  Repeat with second piece of Rick Rack, this time to Bottom front and back.  (see photo for placement)
5. Punch out chipboard spelling out the color and number for each page.  Place on a scrap piece of cardboard and paint chipboard. For example:the word RED and number 1 are painted red.  Let dry in between coats, as it will take several to cover patterns and make the number opaque. When FULLY DRY, outline each letter with white paint pen.  Adhere to each page (see photo) with glue, leaving room for button placement. Paint small and medium squares of chipboard white (for front and back). When Dry add words to small sqaure(see front cover photo) and rainbow/words (see back cover photo)
6. Loop a piece of  embroidery floss through the holes of each button and tie with double knot. Group colors and flue to each corresponding page with floss facing up.  (see Photo).

*Note: I happened to have Heidi Grace Chipboard lying around, but any small to medium sized chipboard would work.

**Fat Quarters measure 18” x 22”.