Refill Your Old Moleskine

Step 3 Reinforce the Spine (Optional)

Now you should be left with just the hard black cover of the moleskine, along with the inside pocket and the two pages that sandwiched the paper you took out.

Now is the time to use that 5.5 x .75 inch piece of cardboard or plastic. It should be thin, 1 to 2 millimeters but strong. The purpose of this is to support the spine when you place the bands that hold the Cahiers in place. As I said earlier, this part is optional. I just didn't like the way it looked when the bands started to push down on the spine. No big deal though.

You'll be sliding the plastic strip into the top and bottom pockets of the spine that are made by the black oil cloth being folded over. Once you have the strip in place, close the cover and make sure that the strip wasn't too wide. If the strip is too wide it will distort the way the cover closes. You want it to be squared, with a 90 degree angle.