Pattern/Technique: Jungle Friends fabric panel by Stacy Iest Hsu for Moda Fabrics (purchased from Stitch Supply Co.)
Modifications: none
New skills: n/a
Lessons/Notes: The grain on the fabric panel was quite off in places, making some of the pages warped. For the large pages I compensated for this by cutting out the page, folding it in half so that the short edges were aligned, then ironing toward the folded edge (essentially a version of the Harriet Hargrave method for straightening fabric grain in Quilters Academy vol. 1).
Note: I’m now realizing that maybe it would have made more sense to try straightening the grain for the whole panel before cutting out any pieces, though I didn’t notice it was so far off until after cutting - definitely a thing to pay attention to if I make another one of these.
This project called for a lot of interfacing and fusible fleece so I got to use up a bunch of that weird papery Pellon Featherweight I bought a while ago. I may have misread the instructions for the cover page, and interfaced the interior side with single-sided interfacing, but I don’t think the extra stability hurt anything.
Sewing both sides of the pages together was a little tricky with the non-stabilized fabric side up (quite a bit of shifting/stretching), but much easier with the fusible fleece side up.
Used my trick of marking the start/stop point of my seam with red pins.
Sewing around tight corners is a skill I’m trying to improve and I saw better results when sewing at a slow but steady pace (vs. stopping frequently) and really bossing the fabric around curves. Just have to continue to practice.
What I’d do differently: Check panel grain distortion before cutting out pieces. Overall this was a really quick and satisfying little project - I’d love to make another one in the future.
Care: Machine wash, dry flat
