If you have ever sewn anything in your life like clothes, plastic canvas or needlepoint, then you will be a pro at sewing your scrapbooking paper. If you haven’t ever even picked up a needle before, that’s okay too. It’s not hard to learn a few basic stitches to get you going. All you need is a pencil, paper piercing tool, needle and floss.
While sewing paper can be a little trickier to sew than fabric would be it’s still not hard to learn. One thing that you have to keep in mind is fabric is forgiving and paper is not. Once you commit to paper, you’re stuck. You can’t poke a hole and then change your mind about where you want the hole.
Templates
One of the easiest ways to get a pattern is using a doodling template. Take a pencil and lightly mark the area that you want to pierce. Go all around the pattern making dots instead of fully tracing the pattern. Once you have it marked with a pencil it’s now time to take your paper piercing tool and pierce all the holes by following the dots. Once your holes are ready, you can begin sewing.
Freehand
You don’t have to use a template if you don’t want to. You can simply freehand any design. It’s easiest if you create your design using dots. This way you don’t see the lines on your finished product. Floss is very thin so it will not cover all your marks. When you’re using the dot system, you simply pierce each dot and then you won’t see it. Now just follow the holes and complete your sewing.
Frames
Sewing frames are both easy and fun. It makes your photos really pop off the page. Matting your photos help them pop off the page, but that can get pretty boring after a while. Sewing your frames instead can create a fresh new look. Using a ruler to create straight lines, mark dots all around the photo. The length between the dots depends on the type of stitch and the size of the photo. Match your floss to a color in your photo, instead of matching it to your paper. This will help the stitch stand out more.
Easy Basic Stitches
If you don’t know how to sew, some basic stitches are probably all you need to know. The back stitch will probably become your favorite stitch when it comes to scrapbooking. Starting with your second hole come up from the backside of your paper. Tape a small piece of floss to the backside of your paper to hold it in place. Then take your needle and go down on the first hole. Then bring the needle back up the third hole and down on your second hole. Create this same pattern throughout all your holes. Ending on the backside and taping down the extra piece just like you did in the beginning. Some other basic stitches to learn would be: the cross stitch and the quarter stitch.