DIY LEATHER JOURNAL

I made this journal with small left over scraps of paper and recycled leather.

It is a simpler version of a journal, with no need for really specific tools.

MATERIAL:

-left over paper;

-cardboard;

-a scarp piece of leather;

-a leather cord;

-waxed thread.

TOOLS:

-ruler;

-pencil;

-scissors;

-awl (or big sharp needle);

-needle.

There is a lot of paper you can save from being wasted, and use as it is.

I used broken paper bags, old envelopes, unfinished exercise books, used packaging paper, broken paper folders, the edges of some old drawings…

The smaller you make the journal, the easier it is to find paper scrap to do it with.

I general like recycled paper, but it still takes a lot of energy, water and chemicals, to collect it, smash it and bleach it, to reshape it into paper.

To make the work easier and faster, make a template of the pages out of a piece of cardboard.

I made mine 4" 23/32 x 3" 5/32 (8x12 cm).

Mark the paper with the pencil and the template, then cut it.

I mark all my paper first, before I cut it.

Fold the pages in half, then insert one in to another. Make few small booklets.

I made 4 booklets made of 15 sheets each.

Mark one of the booklets where you want the holes for the wax threads to be.

Align all the booklets together and mark them all in the same way.

Fold each booklet inside out and using an awl* to poke holes where you marked it.

*I made my awl from an old needle, a stick and some epoxy glue.

The folder is not strictly necessary, but it helps to keep all the journal nice and sturdy.

Cut a rectangle, big enough to hold all the booklets, from a piece of thin cardboard, or thicker paper. I find the cover of an exercise book, or a paper folder works pretty well for this.

I cut my rectangle 5" 45/64 x 3" 5/32 (14,5x8 cm).

Mark it in the middle with the booklets.

Mark all the others holes, like the ones of the booklets.

Poke holes in it with the awl.

Fold it as a book cover.

Cut the leather into a long rectangle, with one side flat and the other rounded, long enough to be wrapped all the way around the booklets, and slightly wider.

I made mine 8"21/32 x 3"17/64 (22x8,3 cm).

Place the folder you made on the leather, almost but not quite aligned, on the flat edge of the leather (see photo).

Poke holes in the leather with the awl, corresponding to the holes in the folder.

Make a knot at the end of the waxed thread.

Start sewing, first in the leather, then the cardboard folder, then the first booklet (see second photo).

Go in and out of the holes. Then move into the second row of holes, and sew the second booklet.

Do the same thing with all the booklets, till the last one.

Tie a knot on the outside of the journal.

Make some holes with the awl in the middle of the round edge of the leather folder, and into one edge of the leather string*, and sew them together with the waxed thread. My string measured 16"17/32 (42 cm).

*I made my string from a round scrap of leather, cutting it in to a spiral.

You are done! To close it just wrap around the leather string.

Here is the link of it, up for sale in my little Etsy shop.