How to Score a Line

How to Score a Line

Scored cardboard, paper, papercraft, scoring, score, knife, tutorial

Not sure how to score a line?  This week on How To? Wednesday, we are talking about scoring… but not scoring in a game or sport!  To score means to make a mark or a line, and this handy skill is great to have when you are doing paper craft.

If you need to fold a piece of paper or card with a nice crisp line, it is best to score it first, especially if you are using card.  Sometimes when you fold card it won’t fold the way you want it to, and it can be difficult and leave a bumpy fold. When you score, it leaves an indent or fine groove in the paper or card.  When you fold a scored card, it will want to follow the indent or groove, making it easier to fold.

Our favourite tool to use is a blunt knife, because most people have one, and they are always handy.

Learn more from our instructions and diagrams – How to Score a Line that you can see here or by clicking the button below.

Scored cardboard, card, paper, papercraft, scoring, score, knife, tutorial

Happy paper crafting!

How to Cover Books

book covering children tutorial

book covering children tutorial

Not sure how to cover books?  This week on How To? Wednesday, we are talking about book covering.  My Australian friends might find it a bit strange to see this post now, because we are half way through our school year.  However, we have already had two children come home in the past week, needing a book cover for a new school book.  Of course, much of the northern hemisphere is about to start their school year, so it is a timely post for them.

With four children here at Imagine. Make. Believe, we find that there are usually more than 50 school books to be covered at the beginning of the school year.  That is a lot of books!  We could use plastic slip on covers, however they are not so cheap, especially when you need lots like we do. We usually cover and decorate all the books in the holidays as a holiday activity, and the kids have fun because they get to make their own book covers.  More about that on Free Fun Friday this week!

Up until this year, Janelle used to cover all the books… and that would take forever, but she showed the kids how to do it this year, which made it so much quicker! Instead of covering books, she spent the time sorting and labelling all the stationery and books, and covering any books that needed the clear sticky backed book covering.  All of the children, including the 7 year old (our youngest), covered their own books and they all did a great job.  So the big task that used to take days, was over in an afternoon!  

We thought other children might like to give book covering a go, so we have written some instructions on How to Cover Books that you can see here or by clicking the button below.book covering children tutorial

It is also a little taste of what you can expect in our Imagine. Make. Believe magazine, with diagrams, clickable links, and a list of materials and tools including extra options.

To see what we use and how we decorate our book covers see our Free Fun Friday – School Book Covers post!

How to Check the Grain of Your Fabric

How to Check the Grain of Your Fabric

Welcome to “How to” Wednesday! Leading up to our Imagine. Make. Believe digital magazine launch in September, we thought it would be great to teach you or give you some tips on some of the basic skills you will need to do the projects in our magazine. Of course, we hope you will find them useful to use at other times too!

Imagine Make Believe Craft Children Kids Sewing

Our first “How to” is about fabric. Fabric has something called ‘grain’. The grain of your fabric is about how the fabric is woven.  On most fabric you will see lines of threads that make the fabric.  Some will be horizontal (going across), and others will be vertical (going up and down).  This is called the ‘grain’ of your fabric.  In most sewing patterns, you need to know which way the grain of the fabric is going.  The arrows on the diagram and the photo below show the grain of the fabric.

How to Check Grain

The arrows could be pointing in the opposite direction but the grain of the fabric stays the same.

Photo fabric how to check the grain

When you are lining up a pattern, especially square and rectangle shaped patterns, you will need to line up the edge or arrow (if there is one) on the pattern or template, with the grain of the fabric.  If you don’t, you may find that the fabric is harder to keep straight when you are stitching, as the fabric will stretch when you don’t want it to.

How to Check Grain

Sometimes you will have a scrap piece of fabric that is not cut in the direction of the grain. Check to see which way the threads are running.  Note the direction of the threads or grain (and arrows) on the two diagrams below.  The edges of the template are not going with the grain of the fabric in the first diagram.

How to Check Grain

In this case, the template needs to be turned to go with the direction of the grain of the fabric.

How to Check Grain

We hope you have found this “How to” helpful and we would love you to come back next week for the next one in the series.

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