A handmade book makes a great gift, but can also make a nice scrapbook of memories. In college I made three of these as part of my photography course, to display final-piece prints.
Like most of the tutorials that will appear on this blog, a handmade book is really quite easy to make!
Time needed: 30 minutes (approx) to make blank book, plus decorating/filling time.
You need:
Paper or thin card to form the pages of the book
Thicker card for the cover*
Fabric to cover your book
Scissors
Multi-purpose glue
Paper glue e.g. pritt stick
Needle & thread
Pencil
Ruler
* In this tutorial I used card from an old packaging
1. If necessary, cut paper/card to the right size. Length = twice the desired width of your book, width = desired height of your book. Fold each piece in half.
2. Follow step 1 for the card you're using for your cover. Note: this piece should be slightly bigger than the pages.
Gather all your pages and the cover together.
3. On the inside page, make dots at even intervals on the fold line for where you will stitch the book. Push a needle or pin through all the pages on each dot.
4. Starting on the outside, stitch the book together using a running stitch, being sure to leave a few inches of extra thread at the beginning.
5. Sew back and forth along the spine until the pages are securely joined, and knot the ends together.
6. To cover the book in fabric:
Lay the book, open, on top of your chosen fabric and cut around it leaving about an inch on all sides. Cut small triangles out of the fabric on the top and bottom, level with the spine and cut off the corners.
9. Repeat steps 7-8 for the back cover.
10. Your memories book is now ready to decorate and fill with pictures, poems, cinema tickets--anything you want! You might need to flatten your book to make it stay shut, depending on the thickness of the card used.
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