Pocket-sized Sketch Book

Yahoo! My first Ible'! here's what you'll need for this Instructable...

1). Sharp utensils of stabbing and cutting (scissors and awls, and a fairly large needle)

2). Paper: it should be not too heavy because this is a small sketchbook

3). Leather: color and thickness don't matter too much

4). Wax thread, but embroidery thread should work

5). Hot glue gun (and glue)

6). A straight edge for ripping paper and some cardboard


      whew! now let's get started!

Step 1: Rip Paper

        Figure out what size you want your sketch book and rip, or cut, though the ripped edge gives it an artsy look, to that size using the straight edge. What I did was to measure, fold, then use the straight edge to rip along the folds. I ripped the paper into 12 pieces the same size. They should be able to be folded in half (long ways) to the size you want your finished sketchbook.

Step 2: Folding and Signatures

Now, fold  each piece in half, and distribute 3 pieces into 4 piles. Then, in each pile, put one piece into another into another. You will end up with 4 signatures (groups of pages), each with three folded pages overlapping each other.

Step 3: Cover

       And now the cover . . .  you may have a left over folded page, use that to gauge the size of the cover. cut the cover out of leather about a quarter of an inch around that page, or just fold the leather around your signatures and gauge from there. Next, cut two pieces of cardboard out (the size of half a page), and glue as shown in picture. Now put the cover aside for later.

-sorry about the holes. that's later-

Step 4: Awl Guide

       cut a piece of paper out, that is as tall as one of your signatures. Fold it in half as well so that it fits around a signature as shown in picture one. Then without any particular spacing measurements mark 4 dots along the fold, seen in picture two. Then poke your awl all the way through the dot, making a hole. do this for all 4 dots.

Step 5: Awling the Signatures

        Place the guide over a signature, and poke the awl all the way through the guide and through the signature, again, on the fold. repeat for the other 4 signatures.

Step 6: Sewing, Yes, Guys Can Do It Too

        Without extreme measuring make holes with the awl in the leather spaced the same as the signature holes.  Thread the needle and tie a knot at the end of the thread. The thread should be pretty long ( guess, then go longer). Now, sew each signature on (one at a time) starting at the outside of the cover on the bottom most hole in the right hand corner. Hopefully my little diagram will help with the sewing. for each column, add a signature. It should be looking like pic five. When that is finished tighten the thread throughout the book and then tie off the end. From the beginning to now took me about an hour.

Step 7: DECORATE!

the possibilities are endless! Have fun with this! Here is what I did to mine, and also another sketchbook I made the same way.