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Happy hump day to everyone! I’ve dabbled and posted about bookbinding, making journals and my little black books from leather. I decided to try making a slightly larger black leather journal to see if the flexible leather as a cover would bother me when larger. The process of bookbinding is the same for any kind of journal…it just depends on the materials you use and the variation or twist you might add in here or there.
1. Cut you paper to size and fold to create signatures.
2. Cut your cover material.
3. Pre-punch holes in your cover and signatures of paper.
4. Finally, bind your book together. In this case it’s sewing the signatures into the leather cover.
The variation I put into this particular journal was in the sewing of the binding…adding buttons for decoration. I really like this look and didn’t want to create the wrap around closure that would interfere with the nice button decoration. Instead I’m going to look for a magnetic closure and use that instead. I’m quite happy with this slightly larger size, about 6 inches square. Even though the leather cover is soft and floppy, it doesn’t bother me at all.
So now I have these stack of journals with no idea what I will use them for. I made them without reason, just experiments to see what would be possible with the leather. I decided it was time to make a bigger journal that I would actually use to hold a whole bunch of old artwork and looseleaf pages. I saw Teesha Moore’s Fabric Journal Tutorial Video and wondered if I could do the same thing with leather! So I tried…but soon realized some of the leather I have is way too thick to make those little pillows Teesha described, not to mention sewing leather is pretty difficult in itself.
You can see above my first attempts where I pre-punch holes in order to sew the leather pieces together. I skipped filling the pillows in with fluffy stuff, but in the end they don’t look cute like Teesha’s fabric ones with rolled up edges. It’s also scary to think how much hole punching I’ll have to do to put the whole cover together…eek! I decided to go for the simplest version possible, taking the patchwork idea of piecing together material to create journal covers. Here’s my first two pieces sewn together, which really took a toll on my hands. It’s hard work punching the holes and pulling tightly to get the leather bound together. However, I really like the results…so I’m going to keep at it and see if I can piece together enough to make a big journal. Wish me luck…
Posted on April 21, 2010 at 2:40 pm | bookbinding
Hello fellow explorers and creative minds! My name is Linda, aka tortagialla - a nickname my adorable husband dubbed me meaning "yellow cake" in Italian. I'm your not-so-typical Californian girl who took the plunge and moved to the Tuscan hills of Italy. Now I'm living my dream designing, illustrating and crafting full-time. You can contact me via email linda [!at] tortagialla [!dot] com
Wow! Good luck with all that stutching! You deserve a parafin wax hand treatment after all that. Your hands must be aching!
I love the black leather journal, and I think my favorite part would be how floppy it is. You have some really great pieces of leather! Love the orange.
thanks for sharing!
Thanks so much…ahah, yeah totally…I haven’t had a manicure in so long. I decided to save the money for craft supplies and do it myself at home – only I don’t actually do it! I just took a rest after doing the cover…my fingers are bit pulsating…eek! Oh, i love the orange leather too…if I can figure out how to sew without killing my hands I would make a purse with the orange. Thanks for stopping by
Linda Good Morning!
It is so nice to meet you and thank you for visiting me. Love love love your journals!!! Such beautiful work!
HUGS!!!!!!!!!
oHIKA
Thanks for visiting me as well…my hands are hurting, but I am making progress on another leather journal to store my old artwork that isn’t bounded…this is exciting
Grazie grazie 
Wow Linda- awesome! You make it look easy but I know it is so hard to make books!
Thanks, Lori! Maybe it looks better in pictures though, because they are certainly not perfect…but I do like the handmade, every-single-one-is-different aspect…especially for something as personal as a journal!
Hi Linda! I enjoyed Teesha Moore’s video too. Love watching you work with leather and sewing. Your journal with the buttons is so sweet! Love seeing you experiment! xo Leah
I’m glad you enjoyed her videos…so wonderful to be able to find information online and people sharing. Thanks for checking out my journals…hopefully I can finish my bigger leather one soon, but I think my hands still need recuperation time!
Wow those leather journals are fantastic! I love all the wonderful creations you are dipping your hands into, very inspiring. Niki xxx
Thanks Niki! Glad to be of inspiration…I dabble in so many things because I just love discovery new crafts…so much fun!
I wonder how many people realise that leather isn’t just from a cow. Many animals from sheep, goat and pig have their skins produced into leather bags and other clothing too! We love leather bags.