DIY: Simple Bookbinding - Make Your Own Notebook! ( + my travel diary!)

So, I needed a travel diary. I adventure to Typo. I find a gorgeous little travel journal, I pick it up and skim through the pages. I smile. I turn it over and look at the price tag. I am appalled! I put it back out, and leave the store immediately.

There is nothing I like on Ebay.


There is nothing I fancy on Etsy.


Even Amazon fails me.


This left me with no other choice.....


I must make one myself.


And this is how I did it!

 

 

You're gonna need:

 

 

 

 

~ Something to use as a cover. I made this myself with a piece of cardboard I found and covered with vintage wallpaper that I already had. You can use a manila folder, old book covers, or you can do what I did and find a piece of cardboard and either leave it plain or cover it with fabric, paper, wallpaper or whatever you take a liking to.

~ Thread and a needle with an eye big enough to fit the thread through. (TIP: lick the end of the thread and squeeze it flat to fit it through the eye of the needle.

~ Something to use as an awl (which is a bookbinding tool). So basically, something strong and pointy to poke small holes with. Kay?

~ Paper

~ Scissors

~ A pencil.

 

Alrighty, so you got your stuff? Let's go!

 

 

 

Step 1

 





 

Decide on how many pages you want, and then half that number and fetch that many pieces of paper. I wanted 24 pages, so I got 12 pieces of paper. Put all these pieces together and fold evenly. You want the fold to be sure of itself, so grab a bone folder or a knife or ruler, and use the back of it to get that fold nice and...uh...folded. Not just curved.



Step 2

Put your paper flat on your open cover, and position it so the fold in your paper aligns with the fold in the cover. Grab your pencil and mark where the holes are going to go on the paper. I did mine about an inch apart all the way down. Hey look! I got a text message!




Step 3

Now it's time to poke some holes! Get your sharp pokey thing and make a hole in each dot.

 

 

 

Step 4

 

 

 

Place your pages on your cover like you did before. Making sure your pencil is sharp, put the point in each of the holes in the paper to mark where the holes will be on the cardboard. Clever, huh! You also want holes right at the edge of the paper on the cover as well, so mark there too, like I am in this picture. Then poke your holes like you did last time!

Step 5

Cut a length of thread, tie a knot at the end, and thread it through your needle (remember my tip from earlier in this post!)





Step 6

 

 

 

Now for the fun part, let's sew! Okay so, to start, poke your needle through the first hole at the top of the paper in the cover, and pull the thread through until your knot catches. Now, come back up through the next hole, and pull tight. Then go down through the next hole, and pull tight, and up through the next and so on until you reach the end like this:

 

Now, we do the same thing again but coming back up the other way. So, down through the next hole, pull tight, up through the next, pull tight.

Step 7

 

 

When you reach the end, make sure that everything is pulled tight and your pages are secure. Now we want to tie off our thread. To do this we take our needle down through the first hole where the knot is, and bring it back up through the next hole. Pull your thread through, tie it off with the tail of the knot at the hole with a good, strong triple knot. You can even dab a bit of glue on it to be extra sure. Then snip off the excess string and.....

 Voila!

You have a book!




Now, if you want a button and string clasp like I have on mine (see in picture at top of post), it's really easy! Thread your needle and tie a good strong knot like last time, and from the inside of your book, thread the string through the centre hole that you made and pull it through until the knot catches. Okay so that part's done. Now pick a button, and sew it on to the cover like in the image on the top of this post. and there you have it! A button and string clasp.


Now go use it!



I hope you found this tutorial helpful.



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God Bless!




Annabelle





<3




xxx