Pin Project 3 - my first bookbinding project

I’ve always wanted to have a go at book-binding. In particular, I was very much taken by the beautiful leather-covered journals I saw on Etsy. So when I came across this great tutorial on long-stitch binding, I pinned it to my ‘Things to make’ board on Pinterest.

A friend had given me a lovely bit of lavender coloured leather a while back to experiment on – not sure what it is – I think it is dyed calfskin. It’s suede on the inside and lovely buttery smooth on the outside. I bought some 140gsm off-white cartridge paper, cut the A4 sheets in half and folded the A5 halves into small groups of pages or signatures.

As the leather was so soft, I glued some white cardstock onto the inside to give it a bit more body.



Then I hand-stitched the signatures into the cover.



It was fun sewing and knotting each signature individually.



Here is the resulting journal.



I attached a long strip of leather to the over-flap with a few cross stitches.



The strap wraps around the journal.



This little journal has 200 pages (well 200 sides) in it.



I love the long-stitch pattern on the spine.



The tutorial was easy to follow and I was super-duper happy with the end result. I have to now figure out what I want to use it for and I also have to make a few more of these lovely books as they would make wonderful gifts.

I saw, I pinned, I did!