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Tuesday, July 10, 2012

book binding DIY

 
Try using a simple Japanese book binding technique to make a photo album or journal. I made one featuring some of my favourite moments from this year that Mark and I shared.

I promise that this DIY is straight forward to do, just difficult to explain so please excuse my clumsy description!

You will need: 
Photos printed with a 2 cm margin on the side you would like to book to open.
2 bits of card the same size as your photos.
Pretty paper to cover your card with, I used vintage wallpaper.
Needle and thick thread (dental floss will do the trick too).
A brad awl or push pin
Ruler
Pencil 
Scissors
Glue


Cut a 2cm section off the end of your cardboard where you want your book to open... this hinges the cover for easy opening.

Cut a bit of pretty paper the same size as the cover, hinge and all. Trim the corners to make it easy to wrap around the cover and glue on. Cut piece of pretty paper slightly smaller than your cover and glue on the inside to cover the edges. Repeat to make the other cover.



Align your photos inside the covers with the 'hinge' on the same edge as the 2cm margin on your photos, this is where you will be binding the book to form the 'spine'. Clip it all together so nothing slips around. Punch 4 holes at equal distances through all the layers using a brad awl, I didn't have one so I used a push pin.

Here comes the bit that's hard to explain so stick with me and use the illustrations as a reference.

 Thread the needle and knot the ends together. Open the book a few pages and, next to the lower middle hole, push the needle through the hole in the pages through to the front cover. Pull the thread through until the knot is snug against the pages. This step anchors the thread. 

Sewing around the spine go around the back and back up through the starting hole, then down through the other middle hole. Pull the thread tight after going through each hole.

sewing the binding, figure 1                                                                                                      
 Go around the spine and back up through the starting hole, then down through the other middle hole. Pull the thread tight.

   sewing the binding, figure 2 
 Go around the spine again, then up through the top hole.

    sewing the binding, figure 3 
  Around the spine, then around the edge of the book and up through the top hole again. Keep going, down through one middle hole, back up through the next, and down through the bottom hole. Keep the thread tight.                                                                                                                                             


sewing the binding, figure 4
Go around the other edge of the book and back through the bottom hole. Go up through the starting hole again.

sewing the binding, figure 7
To finish, tie off the thread so the binding won't come loose. Do this by slipping the needle under two of the top threads coming out of starting hole and back through the loop to form a tight knot.


sewing the binding, figure 8
 Run the needle back down through the starting hole and cut the leftover thread flush with the back of the book.

All done!
 
I promise I won't be offended if you need to look up a Youtube tutorial to work out how to do this technique, but once you do one, it all falls into place!

X Steph