Madison - Day 138 (Book Binding Method)

Hey, Hey, Hey! I am going to show you how to make your own book, and how to bind it! I hope this is easy enough, if not please comment what is difficult and I will try to help you!

Start with a single sheet of 8 and a half by 11.

Fold it in half

Then do it to the rest of your paper, once you're done it should look something like this.

Take something like a hair clip like the one in the photo, and gather all the paper. Make sure it is all even and lined up correctly.

Place inside book press, or under heavy text books. If you want to see how I made my book press, comment down below and I will show you!

Measure where you want to have the holes to go. I did half and inch from the edge, then 1 inch, 1 inch, 1inch, then 1 inch and a half in the middle. The do the same on the other side.

Use a ruler and make a marked line on the stack of paper, this is so all the holes will line up when you poke them.

Take five single pieces of folded paper

And put then together, so it is like a small booklet. You can make however many pages you want but the should be even to how many pieces of paper you have.

Once you have your booklet, you need to punch the holes through. I am using the same needle to poke the pages as well as sew them together.

Get a good amount of string and tie a knot at the end then sew in and out like how you would normally sew. Start on the inside so the knot will not be seen.

Then sew back again over the gaps you missed and end by tying a knot.

To add the second book let you will need your string on the outside of the pages, and go through the top hole on the page.

Now this is where is gets a little tricky, once you have sew one stitch go down through the loop on the right.

Then up through the one on the left.

Then go back through the hole that it came out of. Repeat the rest of this booklet.

This is what the inside of the booklet should look like at the end of the fist stitch like shown above.

Once all of the first page is complete, add another booklet and do one stitch. There should be three booklets now, put your needle in between the first and second booklet, do not poke a hole through then, just go in between.

The needle needs to be pulled all the way through the two pages.

Come back up around the stitch, if you don't do this it will not work.

Repeat until it is looks like this. Don't worry if it down not work the first time, I have had many fails in my book making.

Put it once more into the book press or under books and get ready for the gluing.

These are the materials I use, a paintbrush, a paper plate or bowl, and some Elmer's multi purpose glue. I love it and it is really cheap.

Put a small layer of glue on the spine and repeat a few times, but wait until the glue is dry before reapplying.

Now good job you  made it! WHEW! You can stop there if you wish, but I will show you how to make the books covering.

Now take any kind of scrap book paper you want, I would suggest you use that unless you have a more strong paper.

 Flip it over and place the book on the edge of the paper.

 Make some measurements, put the book on the edge then make a line on the spine using a ruler, then put the spine facing down on the paper and draw a line, then once more put the side of the book down right where the edge of the spine was and draw a line. And I usually give myself a little room on the bottom just incase I slipped up.

 Now on the outside of the spine line, make another line half and inch from it.

 Then cut off the excess paper.

Fold the first line on the outside in.

 The fold the second line as well, the outside line you can now turn over to the outside, as shown above.

 This is what is should look like on the inside of the scrap book paper folds.

 Now hot glue the spine to the middle part of the backing.

 Then glue half an inch on the paper to the side of the book. ( On both sides)

 There you go! your book is finished!

 Here is my first book...

 I sure made a mess of it...

 yikes!

 Really bad for my first try.


Tell me how yours went! I would love to hear!

-Madison