Expanding Your Folded Books

I’ve made a few different folded book tutorials recently, and in this project I want to show you how you can combine a bunch of those methods to make larger, more complex books with more pages inside.

One of the fun things about bookbinding is just sitting down and experimenting with different folds and sewing methods just to see what will happen. There’s no real right or wrong when it comes to making books; there are a lot of different ways to approach things and sometimes it’s good just to throw a bunch of different techniques together to see what will happen.

MATERIALS USED:

Paper

Bone folder Awl

Strong thread (linen or cotton is best)

Sewing needle

Ruler

Pencil

Cutting mat

Utility knife

Glue stick

Calculator

Links to my previous bookbinding videos for making the basic book blocks:

Accordion book video

Pamphlet stitch video

Snake Book video

Fold a paper book cover video

Fold an origami book cover video

All these video tutorials are also available as instructables in my library of projects if you prefer written instructions.

This project combines the accordion book fold with the pamphlet stitch sewing method. This approach keeps the accordion book feature as the most prominent design aspect, and hides small pamphlet stitch books inside the accordion folds.

For detailed instructions on how to make individual accordion books and pamphlet stitch books, see the links I've included in the materials list.

Begin by tearing your pamphlet pages down to size and sew them into the accordion book in groups (also called a "signature") of four. You'll then use your awl to punch holes in the signature spine and accordion folds, and sew the signatures into place.

Imagine this process as if you're sewing a cover onto a regular pamphlet stitch book, but just imagine the cover is really long and joined to even more covers. You can choose to sew a signature into every valley fold on both sides of the accordion book, or you can just sew a few in here and there. It can be fun to vary the colour of the thread that you use for each signature.

To help keep this book a little bit contained, I folded a small paper cover and stuck one end of the book to the inside of the cover. There are many different cover options you can choose for this kind of book. I decided on a simple paper cover with only one side attached as I wanted to be able to access both sides of the book.

This second book is very similar to the one in the previous step, but the proportion of each part is the opposite way around. While the last book emphasised the structure of the accordion book, this one focusses on the pamphlet pages.

In this design, the concertina fold acts as the spine of the book, allowing you to sew in as many pamphlet signatures as you want to. Start by making a tall, skinny accordion book and some large pamphlet signatures of the same height, then sew each signature into the accordion valley folds. With this book, you’ll want to keep all your signatures sewn on the same side of the concertina.

The cover that I used for my book in the photos is a simple paper origami book cover, and you'll find the tutorial for this in my instructable library, with a link to the video in the materials list. I love this style of book cover, as it’s really easy to make and it’s easy to take the book pages out whenever you need to. The front and back pages of the book just slip into each inner cover, which holds everything in place securely.

The last variation I have to show you uses my favourite book fold, the snake book, which is a variation on an accordion book that uses a regular sized piece of paper rather than a long strip. This is also called an ox plough book, and again, I’ve got another instructable for this book form and the video is linked in the materials list.

The concept for how to sew the pages into this book is very similar to the last two examples, but the snake book itself is a bit more dynamic and gives you multiple options for where to sew the pamphlet signatures in. With this one, you can sew them on the back and front, but there will also be little segments throughout the book where you can sew the signatures in at the top or the bottom. This is a super fun style of book to display, as it’s really sculptural and there are so many interesting ways that you can set it up. You could also compound this book, making it really puzzle-like, by sewing snake books or accordion books into it, with their own snake books and accordion books inside, like a babushka doll for books.

With this type of book, it can also be really important to be able to access both sides of the book, so I made a simple folded paper cover again, and this time to secure it I made a paper band that’s cut in a way that it holds itself together.

There are many more ways to combine and experiment with different book folds, and I look forward to seeing what you come up with!