Handmade Fabric Cover Journal

 I love making handmade books so last spring I joined the Handmade Book Club. It's managed by Ali Manning of Vintage Page Designs.  It's been a wonderful place to learn about book making.  So far I've completed 5 books and have one in progress.   

This is my most recent journal.....

I made this for the Fabric Journal Challenge, five days of video instructions with all the how-to to make this style journal with a fabric cover.  I used quilting cotton to make book cloth for the cover.  The pages are Mohawk Superfine Text paper that's ideal for writing.  Beautiful paper for signatures!

It was amazing to see all the variety of journals created for this challenge...hundreds of journals with no two alike!

Happy Crafting!

Judy

A Sewn Tapes Handmade Book

 I imagine most of you have seen pictures of this handmade book on FB or IG but just in case a few have missed it, I'm posting it here. 

With all the online art classes available since the pandemic, I discovered  a class by Ali Manning of Vintage Page Designs.  It was a week long class for making a Coptic sewn book.  I loved it!  I've always enjoyed making books of some sort. (I'll share the books I made for that class later)

Since the class, I joined the Ali's Handmade Book Club.  Every month she shares directions for making a different book.  I'm enjoying learning different book binding techniques.

This is the first book I made since joining the club.  The bookbinding technique is sewn tapes as the stitches cross over the tapes.  The tapes fasten to the cover through slits on the front and are glued to it on the back. End papers cover the tapes on the inside.

I used pieces from a wall paper border to cover the front and back covers. The tapes are twill tape.

It's sewn with linen thread.

The pages are inexpensive mixed media paper.  

I didn't quite expect it to turn out so well so I started with low cost supplies.

The wallpaper border is from the thrift store.  It blended well with the twill tape that I had on hand just waiting to be used!

Inside the front and back covers are pale green papers. These cover the inside of the covers and fasten near the spine to the first page of the book.  I cut pieces of paper to fit around the tape ends and behind the end papers so that tapes barely show through the end paper.

Thanks for stopping!

Judy