Project: Woven Pipecleaner Book Cover
Most of us have happy childhood associations with pipecleaners. But they have solid crafting possibilities for grown-ups, too. This project involves weaving pipecleaners together to make a sturdy sort of fuzzy fabric, which lends itself to all kinds of crafty uses. For example, as the cover for a little notebook.
What You’ll Need:
- About 30 pieces of pipe cleaner, each measuring 12”. You can use any color combination you like.
- Small wire-cutters and small needle-nose pliers, like the kind you use for jewelry-making.
- Roll of masking tape.
- A small, perfect-bound notebook, like one of those black-and-white composition books. The one I used for this project measures 3” x 4.5”, so all my measurements here are based on that size. It’s not hard to size up or down.
Some Safety Notes:
For all their friendly fuzziness, pipecleaners have wire at their centers, and they can be pointy-sharp at times. Use caution when handling them. In addition, it’s always wise to wear eye protection when you’re cutting any kind of wire. Children should have the help of an adult to make this project.
How To Make It:
1. In order to weave the pipecleaners, we’re going to start by creating a makeshift little loom on your work-table. Take about 15 pieces of pipecleaner, and lay them out side-by-side on your table. They should be about 1/16″ apart, and their tops and bottoms should be lined up. Laid out this way, they should measure about the same width as the cover of your notebook. (And if you decide to size this project up or down, just make sure you use an odd number of pipecleaners.)
Now, take a good-size piece of masking tape, and tape the the top edges of these pipecleaners down to the table. Burnish the tape down well, so none of them pop out while you’re working. You should have about a half-inch of your pipecleaners trapped under that tape.
2. Next come the horizontal threads of your weave, known in weaving as your “woof” threads. Take a fresh pipecleaner, and weave it in and out of the vertical pipecleaners on your tabletop. Start your weaving about halfway down the vertical pipecleaners, right in the middle of your project — it’s easier to begin down here, where you have more room to manuver the pipecleaner.
It’s just like any other weave: you go over the first pipecleaner, under the second, over the third, under the fourth, and so on an so on until you reach the end. Now, pull this pipecleaner through until you have the same amount of leftover length on both sides of the vertical threads. Take one end of this pipcleaner in each hand, and slide it all the way up to the top of your weaving. Get it nice and tight against the masking tape. Now, press the vertical pipecleaners down with your fingers, sort of molding them over that horizontal one. Good. You’ve done the first row.
3. You’ve probably noticed by now that pipecleaners like to grab each other, and it takes a little assertivenes to slide them over each other. Well, once you’ve woven your first row, you can bend the vertical pipecleaners a bit so they’ll accept the second row more easily.
Start on the right-hand side of your weaving. Find the first vertical pipecleaner that you wove that first horizontal over. So you should see this vertical pipecleaner sticking out beneath the horizontal one. Take that vertical pipecleaner, and give it a gentle bend straight upward, forming a right angle where the horizontal is. Then, skip the vertical next to it, and repeat this process with every other vertical until you reach the other side. When you’re done, you should have half of the verticals sticking up, and the other half lying flat, in alternating order.
3. Now, take your second horizontal pipecleaner, and all that bending you just did will make it very easy to snuggle it perfectly into place, right under the first horizontal one. Now you’ve done the second row. And so, you’re going to bend those vertical pipecleaners again, but in the opposite direction of where they are now. Again, just start at one end, and take all the verticals that stick out from under, and bend them upward. Take all the ones that were bent up for your last row, and bend these back down flat. When that’s done, you should have another perfect little spot to snuggle in your third horizontal.
Repeat this process until your weaving is the same length as your little book. A couple of tips for pipecleaner weaving: first, it’s really easy for your verticals to get bent out of shape, so check them each time you add a row of weaving, and tweak them as you need to so they stay straight. Second, the longer you weave, the more your horizontals will want to get tighter and tighter, until they bunch all up on you. So, as you add each row, be sure to make sure it’s the same distance from the last one as all the others. And lastly, you’ll notice as you weave that the whole thing wants to curl up. Keep bending it flat as you work — this will result in a more perfect weave.
4. When you’re done weaving, pull up the masking tape very caretully so it doesn’t pull any of your weaving out. Now you’re ready to finish your edges. Let’s start with the edge that’ll be against the spine of your book. Start at one end of your weaving, and bend each and every loose end back and away from you, so you end up with a clean edge. Now, flip your weaving over, and trim each one of those folded ends very short - about 1/8”. When you’re done trimming, give each one of these bends a good pinch with your needlenose pliers. This makes them lie very flat, so you won’t even be able to see the raw edge you’ve folded over.
5. Now for the other three edges! First, trim all the loose ends on those three sides to about the same length - 1/2 inch is perfect. Now, position your weaving on top of your notebook’s cover, so the edge you finished in the last step lines up with the spine. Starting at the top and working your way to the bottom, bend each of those loose ends right over the cover of your book. This will not only finish the edges, it’ll adhere the weaving to the cover. Bend them tightly, and pinch the bent ends with your needlenose pliers.
6. Finish the inside cover (and cover up the ends of the pipecleaners) by gluing a piece of felt or heavy paper over the pipecleaner ends. Releat the whole process to make a back cover for your book.
Variations:
Of course, you can bind you own book to go inside this cover. And since pipecleaner weaving is both sturdy and pliable, it holds all kinds of shapes. So, imagine the stuff bent into a cuff bracelet. Or napkin rings and placecard holders for a children’s party. You could fashion it into a wallet. Or a business card holder. Or coasters.
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