I realized the other day that it had been a good long time since I've done a bookmaking post around here! Mariam's writing and drawing has become a lot more sophisticated now that she is a reader, and her interest in bookmaking has shifted a bit. More and more she is wanting books that look more like the real thing to her little eyes. This means books with a bit of binding, and although we haven't tackled book board and book cloth just yet, I have a feeling the day is coming. But here is an shockingly easy first step: books made of simple stacks of blank pages stitched together by machine.
What you will need:
Pieces of blank paper
Sewing machine
Something to cut with if you want to change the size of your paper
What you will do:
Cut your paper to size. We cut ours down to 4 1/4" by 5 1/2" to make books slightly larger than pocket size. Good for taking on the go. Decide how many pages you want your book to have, and choose pieces of paper, stacking them in the order you'd like them to go in. Make sure that you think about how many pieces of paper your sewing machine is likely to be able to stitch through. I used eight.
Stitch a straight line up the side of your stack of pages, about 1/4 of an inch from the outside edge. Leave the thread tails long at each end of your stitching.
Using the two strands of thread at each end of the book, tie a little knot to secure your stitching.
And yeah, that's pretty much it. Really easy, no? And these are great because they feel just slightly more official than a folded book.
I'm planning to stitch up a stack of these to have available at the art table so that they'll be at the ready whenever Mariam gets the urge to write. Or, draw pictures of whale sharks. Which actually happens pretty often.
