Bookbinding is easier than it looks

I wanted to bind a few notebooks today, and they came together so nicely I thought I’d share the process. You’ll need copy paper, cardstock, an embroidery needle, embroidery floss and a hole punch. I began by folding five sheets of 8.5 x 11″ copy paper and one piece of cardstock in half.

You then punch a hole in the center of the fold. Punch holes again, around 2″ apart, on either side of the center hole.

Place the folded copy paper inside the cardstock cover, and stick the needle through the holes of the copypaper, so it pierces through the cardstock as well.

Thread  the needle by folding a tiny piece of paper over the end of the embroidery floss, and sliding through the eye.

Starting from the outside of the cover, pull the needle and thread through, leaving a few inches outside – enough to tie a knot when finished with the binding.

Go back down through one of the holes to the side of the center.

Take your needle through again starting from the back. (by the way, that little stub sticking out is not quite long enough to tie a knot!)

One more time take the needle through the center hole.

Then tie the knot to finish the book. You could leave the strings longer and add beads or some other decorative element, but I wanted mine to be fairly simple.

This is how the inside of your newly hand-bound book will look!

I finished my book with a picture of the Savior and some references to the lesson (YW manual 3 lesson 2) we are teaching on Sunday. I’m using several ideas from the brilliant Angela Williams. Thank you Angela!

 

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