Doctor Who

 

Dr. Who – love the show!   JoAnn Fabrics started carrying several prints recently and I found two compatible ones to use for making one of my ‘Books For Cats’.   This time around though I had to up the size, usually I cut two layers of fabric at 6 x 5 inches and the folded book is a nice small size, but the print with the Tardis that I want on the cover has images too large to use that way.  Here’s the print I wanted on the outside –

The Tardis is a little over 2 inches tall.  Trying to stay with the other format would have partial Tardis’s showing up on the cover, so I had to increase the book size. 

 

For the inside I had two choices, either Daleks or Cybermen.  The Dalek print was all in browns on white which didn’t match well with the space/Tardis colors.  The Cybermen came in black and grey with a blue energy unit on their chest so I went with those.  Here’s the image (for some reason it's spacing weird on the site today) – 
    

 

Both are high thread count cotton and will stand up to cat claws.   I didn’t use any of the flannel prints they had available. 

 

They look simple enough but each ‘book’ requires seven passes through the sewing machine *sigh*.  Once at the top to join the inner/outer fabrics right sides together. One pass each for the wording to be sewn down (and threads clipped). Once to sew around two of the remaining three sides. You then turn everything right side out.  Fill the inside with loose catnip but not to a bulging state, just a few tablespoons worth.  It has to lay flat when the book is closed.  One more pass to close the open end (without catching on the catnip inside).  Then you shake the catnip around till it’s divided roughly evenly on both sides, fold the ‘book’ closed and sew down the back to make the book binding, again without sewing through any catnip stems inside. 

 

Very simple.  Many, many passes through the sewing machine.

 

Basically it took 2 hours to do the first four passes on 25 books so the process is not quick.  To make the 25 I used every bit of the fabric – 1 yard of the Tardis print and 1 yard of the Cybermen print. Both were layered together so I could just cut and sew without having to match up pieces.

 

As for the text/words – I use my Word program and typed out phrases such as:

Hello! I’m The Doctor

Run You Clever Boy

Bow Ties Are Cool!  Fez’s Are Cool!

Reverse The Polarity Of The Neutron Flow

Hand Me My Sonic Screwdriver

 

I did those in 16 font, printed enough out to have two lines of text for each book, ‘fake’ laminated both sides with clear contact paper since any time printer ink gets wet it blurs way, and then cut out each phrase and just sewed it down in two places over the Cybermen print.  No title on the outside this time.  In the past I’ve used organza ribbon, the see through kind, sewn down and the words slipped under it, but with the lamination I just dropped the ribbon step completely. My needle didn’t have any difficulty attaching the strips of paper firmly.