So I did promise you a little DIY for making your own little book! This is it!
These two are books I made earlier..one is a hard cover and the other one is more of a little booklet.
Today I'll just be showing you how to make the booklet but the hard cover tutorial will be coming soon.
I've been making these little ones like crazy in the past few days. It's just so much fun! I love the fact that you can just take your favourite photos, newspapers and postcards and make yourself a little special memory book. You can easily make little city guides for friends with free pages where they can stick in their receipts and photos in.
This is what the insides of my two books look like. But you can also take one big piece of nice paper and glue them on both sides so that it looks more polished. But I Like everything looking different ...although the back cover also has the same flower paper.
The first thing you do is gather the pages you want for your book. Cut them so that they have the same size and then fold them in the middle and flatten the edges!
I usually mix the pages up. I like using small squared paper, japanese newspaper pieces, different kinds of paper, pictures I like from different newspapers ( I usually use pictures from vice mag...I love the photos in there). But you can also use photos...You can either fold them in the middle to make a centerfold or just fold them on the side so there's only about a centermeter showing as the other page.
This pizza has absolutely nothing to do with the book...I just got hungry!
After you've finished folding all your pages you have to gather them into little booklets.
This time I chose to make my book out of three pieces. I had 21 pages so I chose to separate them in three equal piles.
You have to put the pages on top of each other and then fold them together.
Do this with all three little "piles".
It should look something like the picture below.
The neon picture is what I chose for my cover. It was also a Vice mag cover page.
These are some of the pictures I chose to put into the book. You can make them look however you want them to. You can put them in between random pages or place them so you can see the whole picture as it is.
I even put a photo in. It's of me and my little brother at the Oktoberfest last year. You can also glue it down. But I prefer sewing it in so I can still write under it.
You now have to mark the center page and the outside page of your separate booklets. It has to be an even number because this is where you are going to sew them together.
I drew them on one of the booklets and then used it as a template for the rest so they all have the same space between the stitches.
Begin your sewing from the outside so you don't have the knot in the book.
When you finish the first booklet...stitch into the top marking on the second booklet.
Tighten the thread and sew this booklet the same way you did with the first book. The only difference is that it's now attached to the first booklet.
At the end of the second booklet go through the knot at the back of the first booklet (so you tighten them together).
Now sew the second book to the third book just like you did before.
If you have more than three little booklets you should do a hard cover, otherwise it will be a bit difficult to sew it to the cover and you will have to glue it in with canvas and glue.
This is what your booklets sewn together should look like. Don't worry if it looks a bit messy. My first attempt was terrible. I just kind of started stichting everything together twice just any way possible just to keep them together.
It's the back! No one will ever know!
Now you can either hold your booklets together and put a lot of glue (I usually use wood glue) on the back and then stick it to the cover...put clips of some sort on the sides and lay a heavy book on top until it dries. I usually glue the first and the last pages to the inside of the cover just to make sure that it's tightly attached.
When there are not too many pages in the book I sew it to the cover. It goes better with one or two booklets inside then you just have to sew it to the cover just the same way you did with the booklet/s only this time you have to make sure that both booklets are firmly attached to the cover.
This is what the book looks like from the inside when everything is sewn together.
If some pages don't fit perfectly you can easily fix it by putting tape over the gap.
This is the finished book! I might change the cover a bit, but for now I'm happy!
Step by Step:
- Pick out pages you want in your book!
- Cut them to the same size (only if you want them to have the same size)
- Fold them in the middle.
- Decide how many booklets you want (less make it easier to sew onto the cover)
- Mark the points where you're needle will go through (even number)
- Start your sewing on the outside (use a thick thread)
- Go from your last hole from the first booklet to the last on the second booklet.
- sew the second booklet the same way you did with the first and so on.
- Either glue or sew the attached booklets to the cover
- Sew : max 2 booklets same way you did with attaching the booklets together. You
now just have to go through the cover holes twice to make sure the inside is securely
attached to the cover.
- Glue: Put a lot of glue on the back of the booklets (sewn together) and stick it to the
cover. Make sure that all your booklets are equally attached to the cover.
Now the pages together with a clip and but a something like a heavy book on top
until the glue dries.
- Your book is now finished! You can now perfect the book by choosing nice paper
for the inside of your cover so it looks cohesive.
Ok so that would be it! It's actually pretty easy even though it sounds kind
of complicating. I'm just not all to good at describing things. I still hope though that
you'll have as much fun making little books as I do.
If you have any questions don't be shy just ask!
Oh and if I know you...you're probably getting one for christmas!
Lots of Love
