How to make a simple book or journal

I know I should have been making things for the fair but I am easily sidetracked it seems. I spent yesterday morning doing some more dyeing (walnut, madder, onion skins) and whilst it all dried I made another little book for a friend's birthday present. Meanwhile those angels sat on my sewing table, heads here, wings over there, bodies somewhere...........

As promised I'm going to show you how to make a simple little book. You will need some bondaweb, some cardboard or mountboard, fabric for the cover, nice thick paper for the inside cover, sugar paper or other for the pages, an awl and some embroidery thread. This book measures 25cm by 17cm.

First we will make the covers which hinge at about 4cms in from the left side. So cut two pieces of mountboard 25x17cm and with a craft knife cut off 4cms on the short side:

Then moving then about 2mm apart sellotape or better masking tape them back together. This provides the hinge. Try it. Repeat for the back. Then cut your fabric slightly larger than the board, iron it smooth and iron on the bondaweb. Remove the paper side of the bondawb and place the mountboard on it:

Now mitre your corners (I love that expression) and then iron the fabric over the sides of the board:

The left one has been done already. Then cut out some nice paper and glue it to the board side of the covers:

So the outside is fabric and the inside is as above. Now you need to cut the inside pages slightly smaller than the covers. Assemble the whole lot like a sandwich remembering to put the hinged side on the left. My friend had a great way of placing the holes on the cover. She took a piece of greaseproof paper and cut it out the same size as the hinged bit, so in my case 17x4cm. She folded it and marked where she wanted the holes and then she put this on the cover and made the holes using the paper as a template! Like so:

As you can see I don't have an awl and I'm a bad girl telling you you should have one. I used a screwdriver but I WANT AN AWL FOR CHRISTMAS if anyone from my family is reading (with a nice wooden handle, maybe antique) oh sorry I'm digressing. Anyway, press down hard and make those holes which should go down to the pages. Remove the cover and press down and make the holes in the pages:

If you've pressed hard enough you'll make marks on the back cover so remove the pages and press these down and make those holes. Define your holes from the back and front again and reassemble the book and then sew the whole lot together with strong thread, raffia or whatever. That's it.

A few more pics of my book - the inside cover:

the back cover:

I think these books would make great photo albums and how about making a Family Christmas Album with nice christmas fabric on the outside. I've been keeping one for about 6 years now and each year I put in a copy of the card I've made, a few photographs, who was present and what everyone received, what we ate, where we spent it, the odd recipe - you can add anything you want. I think it's a great sort of heirloom, a record of family time spent together. I guess you could do a birthday book for each child too and give it to them when they leave home - here is a record of all your birthdays dear. Now why didn't I think of that 13 years ago?

Do ask me if I haven't explained anything clearly enough and don't forget to show me your books. I'd love to see all the permutations this how-to will produce.

Before I go another big THANK YOU to all you imaginative types for all the names you've come up with. I'm mulling over them all but I think I need to get the fair out of the way first to give them my full atttention. Meanwhile my sales are going really well, I've nearly run out of curls - I've sold 41 bags so far and maybe 5 left on ebay!!  I have dyed more fibre but this cotswold isn't as curly as the one I had before so I'll be OK for bags of the carded stuff for a while - even though I've sold 40 of those too.

I'd really like to say a big thank you from the bottom of my heart to everyone who has supported me by buying the wool, sending encouraging comments, wishing me well  - I really feel your love and support in the air ladies.

Comments

[Donna]

Thank you for a great tutorial! I even have an awl that I keep forgetting I own so it wouldn't have occurred to me to use it to make the holes. I think bondaweb is probably what we call fusible webbing, another great suggestion, I would have struggled with glue.

[Jennifer]

Beautiful book with such fun paper! I love the papers you use for covers! Thanks for the tutorial - I learned how to do these a few years ago but had forgotten the finer details. Cheers!

[carolyn]

Someone commenting on Molly Chickens' site recommended your site so I came over to take a look. Excellent timing as I found this great tutorial which is going to help me finish off the Christmas present list. Thankyou.
Carolyn

[littlejennywren]

Wonderful tutorial,I might even try it myself.

[Renata]

Oh wow,so simple and such a result.Only to have such a fabric.But hopefully I will be able to buy some soon.

[Blake]

I've used http://www.familymemories.com/ photo book software to create 5 books - the quality of the printing is amazing and I would fully recommend them for creating a coffee table book, wedding book, family photo book or whatever. Great stuff! It's perfect for scrapbookers.