How To Make A Family Cookbook

This idea is right for those who are looking for a unique present for a cook. Often, these cooks to whom we, most often, want to give such a present are our moms and grandmothers that collect the recipes they like the most in an old notebook or file. A cookbook made with your own hands will be a great way to express your feelings to the person.

You’ll need:

• A self-binder file.
• A piece of cloth. You’ll need approximately a piece that is twice bigger than the total area of the chosen file.
• Mouline threads.
• A fork or a spoon for the decoration.
• A thick paper or a cardboard.

Let’s Get To Making A Cookbook Step-By-Step

Let’s start with aligning the flatware. Depending on what you have chosen, a spoon or a fork, you’ll need to wrap it in a towel and peen it with a hammer. You need to hit it carefully bit the hits should be rather strong. This way you’ll align all the curves on the surface of the flatware. Your spoon or fork should become completely flat. In case you have chosen a fork, you may use round pliers and bind the teeth in spirals. This is an additional decoration.

Now, we need to measure and cut out a piece of cloth. You’ll need to cut out a rectangle of the necessary size. It should be in accordance with the size of the folder plus 2,5 cm allowance. Mark all the angles of the file in any way that is convenient for you. The main thing is for the marks to be invisible. This way you’ll be able to orient to these marks and it will be easier for you to keep the necessary allowance.

Once you have marked and cut out a piece of cloth and you have marked the angles, it is time for choosing the design. For example, we may suggest you an embroidery according to the sample. You do this with your own hands.

You transfer the sample on to the cloth with the help of carbon paper. There is one more old way of doing it – you need to use a glass (the lighting should be bright).

In our case there is a word that we embroider. You may choose whatever you want. It may be either an applique or anything else that you like. You need to embroider the sample transferred on to the cloth. While you are working on it, you may use threads of different colours. There may be threads of contrasting colours or transitions. Moreover, you may make several rows of decorative stitches.

In order to make your decoration more complicated you may use a sewing machine. You may make several vertical zig-zag stitches on the cloth. You orient yourself in accordance with the marks you made earlier and locate the rows appropriately. In order to be on the safe side you may make additional orienting marks on the cloth. This way the stitches will be smooth for sure. You do so in case you feel not so sure and you do not have lots of experience working with a sewing machine.

Now, it’s time for fixing the ready flatware on the cloth. You may do it with the help of glue or you may stitch it. Besides, you may use both these ways in order to fix flatware thoroughly.

After you have decorated the cover, it’s time for fastening and fixing it on the folder. Put the folder on the cloth in accordance with the marks you made earlier. You need to double in the cloth and glue it along the lower and upper spine. You need to make cut offs on the cloth in the angles. The cut offs should be in the form of a latin letter V. After that, you glue the cloth. You need to do it carefully. Keep an eye on the way the cloth is pulled on. The cloth shouldn’t be pulled on too tightly and asymmetrically. However, it shouldn’t sag either.

Cut 2 rectangles out of the thick paper or cardboard. The main thing is for the rectangles to be a little bit shorter than the walls of the folder. They shouldn’t get on to the spine. Otherwise, the folder will be hard to close or, it may be even worse, the cardboard may tear or come unstuck. The size of the cut out rectangles should be bigger than the size of the folded cloth.

Once you have measured and cut out 2 identical rectangles, you need to glue them to the walls of the folder. You need to pay special attention to the process of gluing the corners.

One more variant is to wrap the inner rectangles in a cloth and glue them. You may embroider something on this cloth additionally.

Wait until everything dries thoroughly. Then, you may give the article as a present to someone.