In this Instructable, I am going to show you how you can create your own personal notebook using a 'Button Hole Stitch' bookbinding technique. I hope you find this Instructable helpful and decide to make your own personalised notebook.

If you do decide to make one please share it in the comments below!

Step 1: Materials

13 Sheets of Paper
1 Pice of Card
Exacto Knife
Awl or a Thumbtack
Needle and Waxed Thread
Pencil
Ruler
Cutting Mat (Optional)

Step 2: Preparing the Pages

Before we start I would just like to point out, these notebooks can be made any size and with any style of paper you choose, the size i have chosen and also plain paper is just what I prefer. Now lets get started!

Fold all of your sheets of paper in half vertically. Then take one pice of paper and fold that in half horizontally, unfold this pice of paper and mark the crease line with your pencil. This will be used as a guide for marking the other pages.

Take four sheets of paper and make sure they are all aligned best as possible, place the guide you have created on top down slightly from the edge of the group of four pages and mark the centre.

Use your ruler as a guide to create a straight cut through the four pages, repeat this step three more times until all twelve pages have been cut in half. The page that was used as the centre guide can now be discarded.

Now group these pages, one inside the other; in groups of four, you should end up with six sets of four. These are known as 'signatures'

Step 3: Preparing the Cover

Stack your signatures all together and line them up with the top of your card and roughly in the centre and mark a line on each side of your stack of signatures this will become the spine of your book.

Line your signatures up with each of these lines and make a mark at the edge of your signatures this will be the width of your cover, also mark the bottom of the signatures this will be come the length of your cover. You should end up with two rectangles.

Find the centre of your spine and make a mark, then make two more marks 3cm to each side of this line this will give you a rectangle which is 6cm long. In my case the centre line was 7.5cm so I marked the two lines at 10.5cm and 3.5cm. Draw two small triangles from the 10.5 cm line to the centre line and again from the 3.5cm line. Mark the bottom of the triangle with the back of your knife. Then cut out out the remaining two lines and fold the triangles back this will thicken the spine.

To each side of the spine a letter or shape can be drawn and cut out; keep in mind the image needs to be drawn in reverse for it to be the correct way around when the cover is closed over.

Finally cut off the excess pice of card and then mark each of the spine lines and fold each side of the cover to make the front and back.

Step 4: Marking the Holes for Binding

Place all of your signatures into your cover and fold it over, at each side of the spine where the the hole ends use your pencil to mark your signatures (along the two red lines in the image).

Take the signatures one at a time open them up and use your awl or a thumbtack, to pierce the two holes.

Do this for the remainder of the of the signatures.

Step 5: Binding the First Signature

To start off single thread your needle, take one of your signatures and place it inside the cover. Take your needle and thread and pass it from the inside of the signature to the outside, keep some thread on the inside so as a knot can be tied. Loop your thread over the top of the cover back to the inside of the signature and pass it back out the same hole as the first time, the needle should now be on the outside, on the inside tie a knot.

Step 6: Remainder of the Signatures

Take your next signature and pass your needle from the outside this time through to the inside of this signature and loop it over the top of the signature and the cover and through the loop created at the spine. Continue this process for the remainder of the signatures.

Once you have completed this step for the final signature, instead of adding another signature, you pass the needle back through the hole again and tie a knot on the inside and cut off the excess thread.

Repeat steps five and six for the bottom half of your book;