abookfull

a blog about books

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Today I used my bookbinding skills to repair my belt! I’ve had this belt for over a decade and the thread finally wore out. I used waxed linen thread (I decided to go for a fun sea foam instead of the basic black) and a simple Japanese stab stitch to sew it back together. Good. As. New.

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I've been interested in making jewelry with hidden Morse code messages. These are two necklaces I've made using different beads as dots, dashes, and spaces between letters and spaces.

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Perfect binding with scrap paper

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A stiff-leaf book made with scrap wheat paste paper and wrapping paper cover.

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This is an accordion guestbook I made for my friends who got married in December. They picked out the fabric for the covers and the photos (which I attached with photo corners). Because of its accordion structure it can be easily opened and displayed on a mantle or bookshelf.

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For Christmas I wrapped everyone's gifts in square scarves I got at the thrift store in the Japanese cloth wrapping style. Colorful and reusable! I checked a book out from the library and taught myself how to do it (though I can't remember the name of the book now). You can find info about it online.

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I stamped these cards for my little brother who's in California. I started with the lighter colors and worked down to the darkest ones. The cards are recycled craft paper cards I got from Hobby Lobby. I think they came out pretty great, if I do say so myself. If my fingers weren't so sore after making these for him I would have made a set for myself as well.

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This is my friend Erin's favorite childhood book (yes, she has been a nerd for her entire life, and yes, that is why we are friends). Her mom, a first-grade teacher, brought this book in to show her class and in classic kid-style they ripped the spine off. No "before" pics, but here are a few "afters."

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My aunt sent me these books to fix for her husband. The spines had fallen off due to years of wear, so I put some new spines on them. I think they turned out pretty nicely.

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I made this flower arrangement in a class at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx. It has a decorative artichoke, five yellow roses, three sunflowers, purple basil, dill, scented geranium leaves, and another decorative leaf I can't remember the name of. It smelled amazing.

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A photo album I made for my friend for her wedding shower.

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I recovered this Book of Mormon for a sister missionary in our ward. She picked out the fabric and I backed it to use as book cloth. It turned out really nice, but I think the thing I was the most excited about was the fancy way I came up with to close the envelope I wrapped it in: I can't explain it, but just know that it was inspired.

Side note: it really irks me that commercially bound books ignore paper grain. It makes them so much less satisfying to rebind. Also, if it ever gets flood damaged, it will never completely flatten out. Ever. Trust me.

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I made this Ritz Crackers book.

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I made a monster envelope eating gift tags. Yum!

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Tutorial: 3-hole Pamphlet Stitch

3-hole pamphlet stitch books are the simplest books on the planet to make. They're the kind of books that people often use staplers for, but sometimes you want to make a book that is too big to fit in the mouth of your stapler (or you just want to be awesome): that's when the 3-hole pamphlet comes to the rescue!

Here are some tools you will need:

(from top to bottom, left to right)

bee's wax (optional)

ruler or straight edge

scissors

needle

awl (or a thick, sharp needle)

bone folder (optional)

x-acto knife

self-healing cutting mat (or something to protect your surface from your x-acto cuts)

phone book (optional and not shown)

Materials:

inside paper (this is called the textblock)

slightly heavier paper for the cover (I just used a piece of a file folder)

thread (I use linen bookbinding thread, but you can use embroidery floss, sewing thread, baker's twine, etc)

Ok. Once you've got all your tools and materials gathered, the first thing to do is to fold your text block (inside paper) and cover paper together. Mine are close to the same size already, so I just took them and folded them in half. If your materials are more disparate in size, cut them down to a little larger the size you'd like first, then fold them together. (You want to leave the paper a little bigger than you want the finished product so you can trim it all down at the end and have everything all lined up nicely.)

After you've got your book folded, the next step is to punch the holes so you can sew it together. Take your book and nestle it into an old, open phone book. Or, if you don't have a phone book, you can place it on the table and hold on to the table side of the book with one hand while you punch the holes in the fold with the other. This is a little more difficult and it's easier to accidentally punch the holes off the fold, but, it is possible. Here's what the hole punching will look like phone book style:

Next, it's time to sew! Cut your length of thread a little more than twice the height of your book.

At this point I also wax my thread. Just take your thread and put it across your bees wax, with one hand holding the end of the thread and the thumb of the other hand holding it down to make sure it runs through the wax. Pull with your thread hand to run the thread through the wax, then do it again, starting with the other end of the thread.

You don't have to wax your thread, in fact many bookbinders don't, but I find that when my thread is waxed it helps my knots stay tighter, and that means my books are tighter, too.

Thread one end of the thread on to your needle and insert it into the middle hole, going from the inside of the book to the outside. Then you'll go into the top hole from the outside to the inside, the bottom hole from the inside to the outside, and back into the middle hole from the outside to the inside. Make sure you leave enough of a tail to tie a knot at the end.

If that was a little confusing, hopefully this diagram from Stacie Naczelnik at HubPages will help clear things up:

Once you have both ends of the thread back on the inside of the book, you will tie a simple knot, making sure to cross over the thread going down the length of the book. Trim to a length of no less than 1/4 inch.

Close your book and use your bone folder (or scissor handle, or even just the side of your thumb nail) to press down on the fold and make it nice and tight.

Now you just need to trim off your excess paper and you're done! Close your book and decide how wide you want it. (I just used the width of my cover as a guide and used my straight edge and x-acto to trim off the excess textblock paper.) You don't have to cut through every layer of paper with the first cut. In fact, you get a better cut if you don't! Just keep your straight edge steady and cut from top to bottom as many times as you need to cut everything off. Make sure you are cutting on a protected surface—this is where I use my self-healing mat—so you don't accidentally cut up your table!

Now open the book, and do the same with the top and bottom. (My book was already lined up on the bottom, so I just trimmed off the top.) Make sure you don't trim down so far you cut through any of your holes or your book will fall apart and that would be good for no one.

And you're done! Congratulations! You just made a book! (If your cover is a little springy—it doesn't want to stay shut—just put it under a stack of books overnight and that should help it learn to stay closed.)

Ta da! You are now a book maker. It feels good, doesn't it?

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Jell-o box books. You can buy them at abookfull.etsy.com.

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My mini Brownstone accordion books. You can buy them at abookfull.etsy.com.