'Jungle Book' slip case - completed

The slip case is now finished - here it is with the book in it, showing the spine:

When I showed it made up but without the book it might have looked the wrong way round, as though the opening was on the wrong side.  In fact, it's that way on purpose, so that when the book is in it the spine is on display while the embroidery forms the front.

Presented a bit more nicely on a stand:

This is the first slip case I've made for a while - I think I should do a few more!

'Jungle Book' slip case - making up the slip case

Time to assemble the slip case itself.  This is a sort of box that the book can slide in and out of, and so needs to fit the book quite snugly.  After some careful measuring, I cut mount board to fit:

These pieces will form the front and back, top and bottom, and the spine.

They all need to be covered in fabric; I have the front, of course, as that's what I've been embroidering, but for the others I've cut more of the same green dupion.  I've also lined it with the same fine linen even though it's not going to be embroidered, to make it the same weight as the front:

These pieces plus the embroidered one were laced onto the cut mount board pieces in the usual way:

The don't look too pretty on the back, though, and so need to be covered.  I have some lovely second-hand silk saris from Catfluff, and one of them - a yellow-orange colour with a printed design of little stylised buildings and plants - was just perfect:

This won't really be seen as it'll be on the inside of the finished slip case, but it's always nice to know it's there.

I cut some yellow felt to size:

Cut some slightly larger pieces of the sari silk and tacked them onto the felt:

Then ladder stitched them onto the back of the covered boards, covering the lacing:

With all the pieces ready, I could start assembling the slip case itself.  I first ladder stitched the front, spine and back together:

And then added the top and bottom:

Finished!

I'll show you how it looks with the book tomorrow.

'Jungle Book' slip case - Mowgli (again)

Here's where we left things last time, supposedly with everything finished:

It's not right, though: compared to the palm tree, Mowgli just disappears.  I just worked the figure in outline as it was too small and fiddly for goldwork, but it needs more than that.  So, to make it stand out more, I've filled in the outline with split stitch in a dark gold-coloured stranded cotton, Madeira 2213:

I think that works better, don't you?

'Jungle Book' slip case - palm tree branches

I thought this was going to be fiddly, and it was!

The branches themselves were straightforward enough, using lengths of pearl purl:

The leaves were a little trickier.  These are in wire check purl, which is smoother than the bright check purl of the trunk, but not as smooth as the pearl purl of the branches, and so give a nice contrast to both.  As I want the leaves to look passably organic, I didn't measure and cut exact lengths but was deliberately more random.  I'm not sure if that made it easier or harder!

Anyway, here's the first branch, so you can see how it's working:

And all the branches completed:

And some final beads on the turrets that I ought to have done earlier but forgot about:

That ought to be all the embroidery completed, but there's something I'm not happy with.  I've been trying to convince myself that it was fine, but it isn't.  More work needed.

'Jungle Book' slip case - tree trunk

Onto the palm tree.

Using short lengths of bright check wire (the same as for Mowgli's hair), I added the trunk of the tree as a series of short sections:

The zig-zag finish of the wire gives a nice rough effect to it which I like.

I've also stitched through the design for the rest of the tree, as you can see.  I think it's going to be a bit fiddly!

'Jungle Book' slip case - Mowgli

As it's a bit complicated, I'll be doing the central section a bit at a time, starting with the little figure of Mowgli, seated at the base of the tree.

Here he is outlined in running stitches, ready to be stitched over:

The figure is quite small and quite a fiddly shape, so I've decided to keep things simple and just use chain stitch in Gutermann metallic thread no. 24 to outline it:

As the figure is shown from behind, howefer, I've added a bit of detail by filling in his hair with chips of bright check purl wire, and a staff of wire check purl:

Mowgli is sitting in some grass, for which I've couched one length of the same thread as the building:

He's sitting under a palm tree - that's next!