Leather Long-Stitch Bound Book With Back Pocket

I have a rather large horde of scrap materials leftover from a side variety of projects. I used the sleeve of a leather jacket that I also used to make a model replica of a Civil War general's saddle and a fantasy book (just to name a few) as a cover for this book. I also used scraps of skived leather lace left over from numerous model horse projects to add a pocket to this book.

-Leather (I used a sleeve from an old jacket)

-String( Waxed thread, embroidery floss etc.)

-Paper

-Needle

-Scissors

-Ruler

-Pen/pencil

-Leather lace (optional)

-Hot Glue

I wanted my book to be pretty small. I took a piece of printer/copy paper and folded it a bit until I found a size I liked. I decided to use 1/4 sheets folded in half for my pages. Cut as many as you want in your book. I used about 30,1/4 sheets.

Fold your sheets in half.

Stack several pages within each other like a little book. Since I had about 30 sheets I made 5 stack of 6. Fold the stacks and put them together. These are your signatures.

*I typically like to just eyeball the majority of the measurements but feel free to measure to your hearts content.

To find the size of the cover I lay out my leather and put two signatures about as far apart as the thickness of all the signatures put together. (If you want just a simple cover just cut an 1/8-1/4 inch away from the signatures on all sides and continue)

Since I want the cover to wrap a little on to the back I am adding 1 1/2 - 2 inches to that side.

For the back pocket I am adding about 2 1/2 inches to the back cover side since the cover is about 3 and I want some room to be able to fit things in.

The length of my cover ended up being about 11 inches.

The height is going to be an 1/8 inch away from both the top and the bottom.

I measured my cover over one of the seams of the sleeve just to add a little more pizazz.

Cut out the cover.

Take your stack of signatures and draw 6 lines across. Put two lines close to the top and two near the bottom. Put two lines with some space between in the middle. The space between the topmost line and the top of the signature should be about the same as the top line and the second. This is also true of the bottom two lines. The middle lines should have a larger space between the other lines. *I find photos most helpful*. The spacing is variable and can be adjusted for personal preference. These lines will show where to punch the holes in the signatures.

I find it helpful to copy the lines and spacing onto another piece of paper for ease of punching the holes in the cover. I copy the lines and line the paper up on the cover based on the layout from step 2.

Punch the holes. There will be six in each signature and six by the number of signatures in the cover.

Thread your needle with your desired thread. I used embroidery floss that I waxed since my book is small.

Put the needle through the first top hole on the outside of the cover and leave a 5-6 inch tail on the outside. This will be used later.

Line the first signature holes up with the ones in the cover. Take the needle through the top hole of the signature.

Sew down through the second hole and out to the outside through the signature and the cover.

Sew down through the third hole back to the inside of the signature.

Sew back to the outside through the fourth hole.

All the way inside to the fifth.

Sew back outside through the sixth hole.

Once the needle and thread is pulled through to the outside through the sixth hole, simply move sideways to the next hole. Push the needle through and repeat the previous step until you get to the bottom of the second signature, then move to the next and continue this process until you get to the end of the last signature.

There will be dashed-like lines at the top and bottom covers made by moving between signatures. To make this a solid line, take the needle comings from the last hole in the last signature and sew sideways into the last hole of the signature next to it. On the inside make sure the thread is behind the top of the signature and push it back out the next hole.

Repeat this until the line on the outside of the cover is solid, probably one signature away from the end. But this time also sew through to the inside of the signature. tie a knot with the thread from the needle around the thread holding the signature to the cover.

Repeat for the other cover line by using the tail of thread left at the beginning.

If you are making the pocket, fold the extra leather of the back cover inwards toward the spine. Mine was about 1/2 inch from the spine. Close the book and make adjustments to make sure the back cover covers the pages.

When everything is adjusted, punch or cut a few holes or slits in the top and bottom for the leather lace or string.

I whipstitched mine by sewing from inside to outside.

Stitch both top and bottom. Secure the ends inside the pocket with a dot of glue

You can easily spice up these books with straps, ties, buckles, embroidery, etc. Or you can change the cover flap shape or dye the paper (I recommend doing this before punching the holes and sewing everything together). There are tons of cool stitching patterns for the spine as well. Really the possibilities are endless