Tutorial: 3-hole Pamphlet Stitch
3-hole pamphlet stitch books are the simplest books on the planet to make. Theyāre 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): thatās when the 3-hole pamphlet comes to the rescue!
Here are some tools you will need:
(from top to bottom, left to right)
awl (or a thick, sharp needle)
self-healing cutting mat (or something to protect your surface from your x-acto cuts)
phone book (optional and not shown)
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, bakerās twine, etc)
Ok. Once youāve 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 youād 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 youāve 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 donāt 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 itās easier to accidentally punch the holes off the fold, but, it is possible. Hereās what the hole punching will look like phone book style:
Next, itās 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 donāt have to wax your thread, in fact many bookbinders donāt, 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 youāll 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 Ā¼ 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 youāre 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 donāt have to cut through every layer of paper with the first cut. In fact, you get a better cut if you donāt! 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 surfaceāthis is where I use my self-healing matāso you donāt 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 donāt 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 youāre done! Congratulations! You just made a book! (If your cover is a little springyāit doesnāt want to stay shutājust 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, doesnāt it?
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