You will need
• A6 ring-bound notebook
• paper chipboard for the front and back covers
• 160gsm cardboard for the end pages
• decorative fabric for the cover
• kraft paper (brown paper made from a chemical pulp; available from craft shops and stationery suppliers)
• transfer paper for dark fabric
• needle and matching ribbon or thick thread
• bone folder
• cold glue
• bulldog clips
• awl or large nail to make the holes
• craft knife, cutting mat and metal ruler
• scissors

Short glossary of book-binding terminology
Signatures – a stack of loose pages, folded together, usually three sheets.
Paper block – the signatures are sewn together to form a paper block.
End pages – the first and last pages of the book, which are usually cut from heavyweight paper, used to line the inside of the front and back covers.
Paper grain – the direction of the fibres in the paper you’re using. The grain tells you which way to fold the paper and it must always run parallel to the spine of the book.

To make
1 Seal the fabric for the covers by ironing transfer paper onto the wrong side. Don’t cut the fabric to size yet. First set it aside to cool.

2 Remove the ring binding from the notebook and clamp the paper block with bulldog clips, then measure the size of the pages. Cut out the front and back covers from paper chipboard to match these measurements.

3 Measure from the spine of the paper block to a few millimetres past the holes in the paper (ours is 10mm) and draw a line 10mm in from the spine edge on front and back covers. Cut off the shoulder strips and set aside for later use.

4 Cut two strips of kraft paper so they’re the same length as the pages, but in these widths: 10mm (for the shoulder strip, 5mm (for opening and closing the book), 40mm (to attach the shoulder strip to the outside cover), so 55mm in total. Draw lines measuring 10mm, 5mm and 40mm on the rough side of the strips. Apply cold glue to the shoulder section of the strip – you can cover the remainder with paper – and attach the paper chipboard. Repeat to attach the outside cover, leaving the allowance of 5mm.

5 Transfer the outlines of the two covers to the wrong side of your fabric. Draw a line right round, marking an allowance of 15mm.

6 Cut out the fabric all along the outer lines and apply cold glue over the inner parts. Glue the front and back covers in place and smooth out with your bone folder.

7 Cut the four corners at 45° a few millimetres away from the edge of the paper chipboard.

8 Work on a wooden board. Smear cold glue all over all the sides. Fold over the long sides, then the short sides, for a neat finish. Neaten the corners as you go.

9 From the 160gsm cardboard, cut end pages 5mm smaller than the outer covers right round. Apply a thin coat of cold glue to these pages.

10 Glue the end pages onto the inside of the covers and smooth out with your folding stick.

11 Put the front and back covers on top of each other with fabric sides facing, then attach with a bulldog clip to the paper block. Make holes in the covers by inserting your awl through the holes in paper block. Remove the clips and insert the paper block between front and back covers.

12 Cut a length of ribbon five times longer than the book and thread it through the eye of your needle. Thread the needle through the holes from below, via the first set of holes on the left, taking the ribbon from the top of the book to form a loop and again from below through the first set of holes. Take the ribbon around the back of the book to form a loop, and again from below through the first hole. Insert the needle from the top, via the second set of holes. Repeat to keep making loops until you get to the last pair of holes.

13 Also make a loop on the bottom side of the book.

14 Work back to complete all the loops. At the final loop, insert the needle underneath the ribbon and pull tight. Then insert the needle from top to bottom via the same set of holes so that the two loose ends are up on the same side.

15 Make a double-knot and cut off the ends to complete.

Source: Ideas magazine