Little Leather Journal Tutorial
As I promised in my last blog post, here’s a leather journal tutorial. It’s based on a stitch from Keith Smith’s second book, Non-Adhesive Binding, Vol. 2: 1- 2- & 3-Section Sewings called Triple Chain stitch but I’ve modified it to make it simpler. Below the video are a list of tools and supplies.
Tools
Rotary cutter or craft knife with fresh blades
Quilting ruler
Cutting mat
Bone folder
Japanese hole punch with 2mm tip
Punching cradle
Awl
Needle (I used a #18 blunt)
Pencil
Ruler
Scissors
Supplies
Paper for signatures (pages)
Lightweight 2oz leather, 5” x 12”
Graph paper
3ply or 4ply waxed linen thread
Scotch tape
Suede cord
Bead
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment below.
March 26, 2019 @ 4:36 pm
Oh that is such a lovely leather book. I’m going to dig out my leather and start working on making my own little book. Thank you for the well done video. You did a great job of explaining each step.
March 26, 2019 @ 8:01 pm
Ali, This is another great tutorial. I definitely want to try this. Thank you very much!
March 27, 2019 @ 10:05 am
Thanks Ali! I’m off to try this one!
March 27, 2019 @ 5:44 pm
Wonderful tutorial – Thank you!
March 27, 2019 @ 7:08 pm
Thnak you Ali.
March 30, 2019 @ 7:44 pm
Thanks again for all your inspiration – love this book and hope to try it soon:)
April 5, 2019 @ 1:42 pm
Hi Ali. Is the cord you used to close the journal 1/8″ or 1/4″? Also, is it suede or deerskin? I tried to find it on the Tandy website.
April 7, 2019 @ 6:16 am
Hi Marilyn – I used suede and I thought it was 1/4″ but all I could find on their website was 1/8″:
https://www.tandyleather.com/en/product/eco-soft-lace-1-8-x-25-yds-3-mm-x-22-9-m
October 21, 2019 @ 6:46 am
Thanks for Nice article on Little Leather Journal Tutorial.
December 23, 2019 @ 9:07 am
I am happy with this information. It’s a very helpful blog. Thanks!
June 11, 2020 @ 1:12 pm
I so wish you had not sped up through the stitching process-Since i have never done this before I needed to see it all at regular speed I do appreciate that you had seasoned book makers online and are sparing them the repeditive sewing.
I did thoroughly enjoy the tutorial -thank you
June 17, 2020 @ 9:32 am
Glad you enjoyed the tutorial. Feel free to slow the video down – there’s an option on Youtube to do this.
June 14, 2020 @ 1:12 am
This was awesome! I made a brown suede book with pages that I dyed with onion skins. I used the brown suede for the cord too. Thank you!!
June 17, 2020 @ 9:30 am
Awesome – I’d love to see it. Would you mind posting it in the Facebook group? https://www.facebook.com/groups/CraftingHandmadeBooks/
June 17, 2020 @ 1:52 pm
Ali, thanks for a great tutorial. I have a questions if you wanted to add more signatures how would you go about that…more sewing holes? and would it have to be an odd number of sewing rows?
June 22, 2020 @ 9:31 am
good question Eileen. This is a 3 signature sewing, so if you added more signatures, it would have to be in increments of 3. if you decided to make a the book with 6 signatures, you would have 6 rows of holes and you would sew the first 3 and second 3 signatures separately. Basically, must repeating the sewing procedure.I hope that makes sense, if not, let me know.
February 24, 2021 @ 2:59 am
What a wonderful tutorial!! Thankyou!
March 12, 2021 @ 11:13 am
Thanks for the great tutorial – I’m obviously going to be lost in this space for some time with all the gorgeous books and papers. So many thanks!