Leather-bound Journal

A friend commissioned me to make her a leather-bound drawing journal, so I decided to document the process for y'all. She wanted it to be a nice warm leather with forest inspired details, and good paper for pen or pencil drawings. This is probably the third journal I've made so the process isn't perfect, but it's a lot of fun!

For the book you will need:

• Paper
• Cardboard
• Glue
• Awl
• Twine or thick thread
• Blunt needle
• Ruler
• X-acto knife

For the cover:

• Undyed and dyed leather (thinner is better)
• Waxed thread
• Needles
• Awl or fork punch
• Carving spoon and stylus
• Leather dye
• Dauber
• Mallet
• Buckle

I found a sketchbook I liked with good weight paper that was larger than the size I needed for the journal, and began by cutting the pages down to size. She wanted the pages to be 7'' by 4 & 1/2'', so that meant each page needed to be 9'' wide so it would be the right width when folded in half. I needed there to be 56 pages in total, so I cut down 28 pieces of paper, using a ruler to make sure they were nice and straight. I then set them in stacks of 14 and folded them all in half. This left me with two mini books (called signatures in the book-binding world) which would be bound into the cover. I ran into a bit of a problem here, the papers in the middle of each signature stuck out further than the outside one even though they were all the same size. This makes sense when you think about it, but I ended up having to go back and recut all the papers to make them the same width when stacked. This can be avoided by cutting each paper a little shorter than the last so they stack properly.

I then got the sketchbook I had bought and ripped the cardboard cover off of it to use as the journal's backing. I measured two 7'' by 4 & 1/2'' rectangles and one 7'' by 6/16'' strip for the spine. To hold the three pieces together, I took some of the extra paper and cut some strips to match the length of the cardboard and covered them in glue. I lined up the three pieces of cardboard loosely against each other on the first, and glued the second down on top of them.

Using my awl, I punched four holes in each signature, two 2 & 1/4'' in from the edges and two 1'' in. I made matching holes in the cardboard spine, four holes for each signature. I used a blunt needle and some strong thread to sew them in, making an x with the thread on the spine and going through each signature twice. You want to make sure the thread is pulled nice and tight, otherwise the pages will be wiggly.

For the outer cover, I cut out a 7 & 1/2'' by 19'' rectangle out of 3oz leather. I punched holes along both long sides with my mallet and fork punch about 1/16'' away from the edge. To figure out where to line up the stitches when each edges was folded over, I lined up the book in the middle of the leather and folded the leather over equally on each side. The edge ended up at the 56th hole, so I counted backward from there, making sure to keep the two layers lined up. I used two needles and waxed thread and the saddle stitching technique for a very strong hold. I sewed the top edge of the leather cover, but left the bottom for after the details were added.

For 'foresty' details I found some pictures of maple leaves on my phone and traced them out on some scrap paper. I cut them out and taped them together in a nice grouping, then took a piece of undyed leather and wet it to soften it. I used my carving stylus to trace the edges and veins of the leaves onto the leather, and the spoon end to deepen all the outer edges and to make the leaves stand apart from each other a little. I had to re-wet the leather several times while carving, making sure each time that the leather wasn't too soaking, just damp. After cutting the leaves out, I watered down a little Fiebings medium brown dye to make it a little lighter color, then applied it with a wool dauber. Once the first coat had dried, I used the end of a needle to add more dye to the veins and edges of the leaves to make them stand out.

To sew it to the front of the cover, I used a very sharp awl to punch holes through the leaf decoration and top layer of the cover, putting my work mat in between the layers of the cover so the holes wouldn't go through both. I used thinner but still strong thread to sew the leaf panel on, using one needle and a backstitch.

For the straps, I cut out two strips of the dyed leather, one 2 & 3/8'' long and 9/16'' wide, and the other 3 & 1/8'' by 9/16''. I cut the shorter one to be pointed at both ends, and the longer pointed at one. The long one was for the buckle, so I cut out an oblong hole 1/4'' from the end for the tongue of the buckle. To attach the buckle to it, and it to the cover, I used my awl to punch a series of holes in a triangle shape for some fun stitching. The holes on the non buckle end also go through the top layer of the cover. I sewed on the strap end the same way, but over the stem of the leaf decoration to help secure it. I punched one last hole in the strap end for the buckle to attach to it, and sewed a thing strip of leather around the buckle side to act as a strap keeper. One note: when I sew with waxed thread I usually put a tiny drop of superglue on all my knots to ensure they don't slide loose, but this is optional.

The last step was to put the book into the cover, and sew it in. I made sure it was pushed as far against the upper seam as possible, then lined up the front corner with the 56th stitch to make sure the top and bottom seams would be even. Once again I used saddle stitching to secure the edge, keeping it as tight as I could.

I'm really happy with how it turned out, the leather is such a lovely color and it all came together really well. The leaves were easier to carve than I expected, and I loved learning how to carve and dye leather.

I hope y'all have enjoyed reading, and that you try out bookbinding sometime! It's much easier than people think, and making your own journals is quite fun.