Tuesday 19 June 2012

Leather Journal Tutorial (the easy version!)


I've been wanting to try to make my own book for a while now, in fact ever since I saw my sister with a really cool looking leather bound writing book, especially when I knew how expensive it was!

The one sentence that has my husband's eyes rolling more than (most) any other: "I could totally make that myself!"

And so I did!

Here's how to did it, I got:



Leather remnants (from the luggage tag and Flynn Rider bags)
Printer paper cut in half (A4) there's four stacks there not pieces!
I also used my unpicker (used in sewing, not sure what it's real name is...)
A piece of coordinating card 
Needle and coordinating thread



First fold your paper in half to your desired page size.


Use your paper as a template for how big you want your leather cover, but add a little on the top and bottom.


I used my "unpicker" to make holes through all the paper (I just placed each pile inside each other).





Cut a piece of card slightly smaller than your leather, smear with PVA/white glue and stick in place.


Fold in half while it's still wet, but don't crease, you just want a bend like below...


Then place the paper inside the book.


Using the holes in the paper as a guide make holes in the cover so they line up.


Then sew through your holes tying a knot in the end (you can see mine on the left). 


Go through a few times till it feels secure, then tie a knot and trim.

Aaaaand you're done!



I'm actually quite pleased that I was able to not only make something for my 22 year old brother that he liked, but also be able to do it without spending!


7 comments:

  1. Love it and in fact would love one myself, nothing quite like starting a new notebook :)

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    1. That should be your next project! Something for yourself :) And I made this quite quickly while the kids played, took less time than I thought.

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  2. Your unpicker is called a seam ripper:)

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  3. Love this! Especially love the corner detail :)
    I call mine an "unpicker" too :)

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  4. Great job, & I'm sure your brother was very pleased. Kudos on sewing the leather, it is not easy to sew on. I sewed professionally in a former life.....lol, so I know! Also, just so you can be technically correct, that "unpicker" is a seam ripper & worth it's weight in gold! I'm visiting from Toni's One Project at a Time.
    CAS

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  5. Haha, "unpicker", I love it! Great job on this journal, I'm super impressed! I'm glad you linked this up at The Fun In Functional!

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