John's Journal - a Hunters Diary

Intro: John's Journal - a Hunters Diary

Hello there Supernatural fans and John Winchester appreciators!

This following tutorial shows you how I made my leather John Winchesters Journal (for my cosplay).
Enjoy Enjoy!

STEP 1: References

First things first - get to know your stuff.
So I collected some screenshots and photos, made some notes and got a really big helping hand from 2 incredible blogs that are creating their journals,too.

*You can find the links at the end of this tutorial.

Keep in mind, that recreating every single thing of this book is a hell of a mess and work to do^^'

STEP 2: Basis and What You Need

Picture 1:
So I've been asked for the dimensions a few times by now. This is why I made a easy technical sketch with all the helping meassurements. Hope I can help you out with that!

Picture 2:
What you need:
- a soft plastic folder with metal clip inside(originally there are 4 metal clips, but I couldn't get those)
- a pen
- a ruler
- scissors
- light brown to yellow leather(or whatever you would like to use)
Tipp: I got my leftover piece of leather from ebay
- glue
- needle and string/sewing machine
- paper
----------------------------------------------
Picture 3:
So I started with cutting the original folder so I get the right proportions for my journal. This folder is a great core for the book to be soft and also hard enough .

Picture 4:
You need to cut out ...
2x complete book size
2times 2x for the closure
1x big inlay left side
1x small inlay left side

Note here, that you should add about 5mm around every piece - you need that space to sew it together..later on.

Because you only got this left over leather piece, make sure to position every part of your pattern right before you grab the scissors :D

STEP 3: Creating With Leather

Picture 1:
Here you can see what I meant by giving it 5mm+ around the pattern pieces to cut from the leather.

Picture 2:
Glue one of the big leather pieces onto the back of the folder

Picture 3&4:
By now you can also glue the smaller pieces together

Picture 5:
looking good so far??
to create a smooth and non bubbly surface use a ruler to glue the leather flat onto the folder

STEP 4: Creating With Leather 2

You sure have noticed that you can not simply glue the other big piece of leather onto the inside of the folder...
There is this nastly metallic clip ;)
all you need to do is make a cut right in the middle as long as the metal clip is.

Now you can glue the pieces together und kind of press the leather underneath the metal clip(if possible) to hide the edges.

STEP 5: Finishing Journal-book

You want it to look like it is sewn aroung the edges. You can do this by hand, but please don't hurt yourself. I myself used my sewing machine.


And it's done! I am quiet satisfied for just 1hour of work!

What do you think?
I am happy I could add the rifle pin and some pages already - yet still, having it completed will still take a while.

I hope my step-by-step tutorial helped you guys and whoever would like to have or make one I kept the templates..so if someone wants me to do one for him or her.I am open for the commission!:D

STEP 6: +Pages

I started recreating some of the journals pages for my own one and these are a few examples.

I am so thankful to the 2 following bloggers which helped me a lot with their own research <3
1. DIY Johns Journal
2. Creating John Winchesters Journal

STEP 7:

STEP 8:

Comments

[SenoraL]

I have no sewing talent so how much money Would I have to pay for you to make me one of you want

[Kion Designs]

hey there,
thank you for your interest. I usually sell them via my etsy store. feel free to check it out : https://www.etsy.com/market/kion_cosplay
atm I would need to order new leather .so if you want to purchase the journal from me it takes a bit of time. they are handmade on order

[TonyK126]

I'm having a hard time finding the right folder, where can I find it?

[CelinaSDichmann]

I absolutely love this! Would you consider taking pictures of the pages in your journal? I find the pictures on the two other blogs rather difficult to view and read. Also, did you write and draw on the pages yourself, or did you find a way to do it on a computer and print them out in the right scale?

Thanks,
Celina :o)

[dopeykather]

hey! idk if this is exactly what you want, but I found a page on pintrest with lots of good pictures of everything in the journal, including the pages, articles, pictures, etc. I also made a board of all the pages ive found, if you want to check that out.

https://www.pinterest.com/katymccarthy/journal/

https://www.pinterest.com/nicolehaskell1/sn-john-winchester-journal/

if you find a free way to get the blank pages from the journal, do you mind telling me? I just need a pdf file or something like that, bc I want to print them off and make each page myself. thank you, and I hope the links help!

[CelinaSDichmann]

Hi, thanks for your answer, I am now following both boards. If I find the blank pages, or decide to make them myself, I will happily send them to you :D

[KimberleySusan]

Hello,

Can I ask how much leather material you used and where you got it from - hardest challenge I am facing yet haha - FINDING THE MATERIALS!

Thanks

[Kion Designs]

Hey Kimverley,
oh believe me I know!!D:
please have a look at the 'technical drawing' of the book. there you can see my meassurements and calculate every area 2x.this is is the total amount of leather you'd need.
The leather itself is from ebay. soit is a bit poker to find the right one. I prefer light brown to cognac color.
hugs.
Kion

[KimberleySusan]

Hi Kion,

Thanks for getting back to me. Yes it is very difficult to find the leather as most in USA and shipping is shocking to the UK! Been on loads of sites and still no luck but I'm not giving up! Definitely want to re-create one of the most important pieces of equipment from Supernatural!
Can't NOT have a journal!

Kimberley.

[CelinaSDichmann]

Hi! The British version of eBay has a lot of different and cheap leather pieces. Just search 'leather scraps' on ebay.co.uk :o)

[Kion Designs]

no problem, Kimberley.
Mh yes it is pretty tough to find sth. espacially when shipping should be available for certain countries. Maybe you have some leather working shops close by or a shoemaker tht can give you some left overs?
Never give up! no hunter would ever give up ;)

Kion

[bonniejadour]

oh god it's beautiful

[SherriB14]

How are the pages done? what kind of journal pages were used

[Kion Designs]

I looked closel at some referenc pics and recreated the pages as accurate as possible with adobe indesigns.

[NinaG3]

HI THIS IS GREAT but i cant open the links at the end of the tutorial :(

[Kion Designs]

sry. these are no links. just a hint what to look for

[Kade Godwin]

Wow Very cool instructable I have started making one myself :)

[CatS2]

Where did you find these measurements or did you make them up? Are they close accurate to the one on the show? And thanks for the tutorial. =)

[Kion Designs]

hex cat2,
I made them up, but used screenshots to get as close and accurate as possible. so this journal fits..well..me.
but i need to recalibrate the meassurement to make it easies with din normed paper

[EmileeM1]

Could you post pictures of what the pages say, i am intrested in helping my friends make this journal as we are huge fans of the show, I have the leather part all done and sorted out, but i just need the inforrmation to fill it in. Please email me