Bind yourself a book

In case you're looking for something to do today.

You'll need the following materials:

* Paper for interior-- heavier paper, like resume paper is nice, but you can just use regular computer paper, graph paper, lined paper, etc.
* Cover paper-- heavy paper like card stock
* Ruler
* Scissors/paper cutter/exact-o knife
* Pencil
* Straight pin
* Bone folder/mechanical pencil or dull nail-- something to score paper with without cutting it
* Needle
* Sturdy thread-- like button thread, upholstery thread, or linen thread

1. Cut 13 sheets of paper in half along their shorter edge. You will have 26 sheets of 8.5 x 5.5 when you are finished.

2. Fold these sheets in half to form five booklets of five sheets each (do what you will with the loner).

3. Open each booklet and along the interior crease, very lightly with a pencil, make a mark at 1/2", 1", 1.5", 2", 3.5", 4", 4.5" & 5". You should have 8 dots along the inside of the crease of each booklet.

4. Take your straight pin and use it to poke a hole through all five sheets of each booklet at each marking you have just made. Set your booklets aside.

5. Cut a piece of cover paper that measures 9" x 5.5".

6. Lay your cover out so that its longest sides are horizontal. Using your ruler and something to score the paper without cutting it, score your cover at 4.25" from the left edge and 4.75" from the left edge. Make a crease at each score line.

7. On the inside of the cover's spine you are going to lightly create a grid in pencil. Lay your cover out so the spine is horizontal. Mark the same measurements you made in step 3 on your paper and draw a vertical line at each of those marks. Pivot your cover so the spine in vertical. Measure the middle of the spine section and draw a vertical line there. Use tiny measurements (or just eyeball it as I do) to draw two more vertical lines on either side of the center line equidistant from each other. 

8. At each intersection of the grid you just drew poke a small hole through your cover paper. This will give you five vertical lines of 8 holes each... for the five booklets with 8 holes each along their spines.

9.  Cut a piece of thread about 55" long and thread your needle.

10. Begin with one booklet, sewing into the farthest hole on the right from the outside of the cover in through the cover and then into the booklet. Be sure to leave a sizable tail, you will eventually need to come back and briefly sew with it. Continue along the booklet sewing in and out of each hole as you reach it. Note: you do not need to worry about keeping your thread tight at this point. Sew carefully, going first into the cover hole and then with space between the cover and the booklet into the booklet hole. You can tighten things up at the end of the row.

 

11. When you reach the end of the section, you will end with your needle and thread on the outside of the cover. Sew into the hole next to the one you just left and begin sewing in the next booklet. When that one is sewn in it will look like this:

12. Sew the third booklet in just as you did the first and second.

13. When you reach the end of the third booklet you will do something slightly different than you have before. It is important that you take a minute here a tighten up your sewn sections up to this point. You will end the third booklet by coming up out of the final hole. If you sewed into the next hole to begin the fourth booklet you would have a dashed line of sewing at the ends of your spine which you don't want. So instead you are going to sew your needle back through the stitch you created when moving from the first section to the second. As you come through, sew your needle under your working thread to create a little loop.  Here is a photo of how to sew the little loop:

14. Continue sewing the fourth booklet is as you have with the past three.

15. At the end of the fourth booklet you will repeat what you did in step 13, sewing a loop into the neighboring stitch.

16. Begin sewing in the final booklet. When you reach the fourth hole though you are going to thread your needle under the four previous long sections of thread and then come back over the top and through your working thread to catch your thread and make a loop an draw the stitches together. Position the loop as closely to the center as you can and continue sewing.

17. When you reach the last hole you will come up through to the outside of the spine. Wrap your thread back through the neighbor stitch as in step 13 and then go back into the final hole of the final booklet. Tie off your thread to the last stitch inside the booklet.

18. Go back to the tail you left on the first booklet. Thread your needle with it and loop in back through its neighbor stitch as in step 13. Sew back into the first hole of the first booklet and tie off into the first stitch as you did with the last stitch in the last booklet.

Fill your book with all kinds of good things... addresses, recipes, secrets, fabric swatches, garden plans, drawings, poems, to do lists, jokes... sky's the limit.

Obviously this can be adapted to different sized books, more booklets within, more sewing along the spine, etc. You can also use more than one cover paper and do some cut-outs, as below. If you get really ambitious, these books look amazing with a leather cover. Or I've been thinking about a well stabilized cloth cover. If you make one let me know, I'd love to see it!

 

Comments

[Harmony Williams]

wow what an awesome tutorial. Great blog.