Book Binding with Baker's Twine

Raise your hand if you have loads of pretty paper scraps or if you keep the stiff cardboard backs from writing pads thinking, "Oh I'm sure I will find a use for it later?"  Well today's project will allow you to take those papers, and with a little bit of help from The Twinery's baker's twine, bind them into a mini album!

You can take a stack of papers and trim them all to the same size or leave them sized as they are.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Score the line about half-inch in on the side of the paper that will be bound.

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

And repeat for all papers so the "spine" is defined.  Then fold them on the score line to see how the pages will flip while the spine is being held down by the stitch binding.

 

Then use some binder clips to secure the pages . . .

 

and play around with the order of stacking the papers so they provide some level of "peek-a-boo" visual interest.

 

Start in the middle of the page and put a mark along the fold line.  Then mark evenly-spaced points (I did them 1-1/2 inches apart) to the left and right from the center mark to show where you would need to sew through to bind the pages. 

 

Punch holes where your marks are to make it easier to push the embroidery needle and baker's twine through.  I punched them out using my trusty Crop-A-Die tool (which by the way, works superb on most materials, e.g., thick or thin).

 

You do not have to do this but I added some japanese washi tape along the spine.  Washi tape works nice for this because it has some flex, and comes in all sorts of pretty patterns. :o)

Start the bind stitching by threading the middle hole wth the baker's twine and then doing a simple knot to secure it.

 

Then move to the next hole, push the needle through, and use a "knot stitch" to ensure that the resulting stitch runs on top of the edge of the album, and has a perpendicular stitch from the hole to the edge of the album.  Sort of in a T-style.  I left the stitch untaut so you can visually follow along.

 

Use this stitch method and repeat it for the other holes.

 

When I reached the last hole on one side, I reversed the stitching and worked backwards to ensure that each hole had two double stitches. Here's how it looks,

 

Then I added some more papers and embellishments to create a mini album!

 

I also used the Carribean baker's twine to go around the cover for an extra pop of color and texture to the mini album. And how cute is that little clothespin huh?  I got a packet from ArtfulMStudio, thanks to a lovely discount from Heartsy! Now to fill it with photos from our recent family getaway to the water resort!

 
 

 



Comments

[stephanie]

I love how your book turned out! thanks for teaching me a new technique :)

[Monika Wright]

always love a cute mini!

[Grace Hester Designs]

Thanks Stephanie and Monika for stopping by!