Book binding - homemade and easy
Designing and binding your own book, journal or notebook is a very satisfying process. As a gift or a collection of personal creativity, the design delights the creator as well as the recipient. The wonderful thing is, book binding is not that difficult. Depending on the technique, not that many materials are needed. For example, you can bind a bullet journal, diary, travel book. The focus of this post is on all sorts of book binding or joining techniques rather than printing. For that, there are now a lot of suppliers who also print books in small editions.
Requirements for your journal
So how can you design your own notebook or bind your book? The questions you should ask yourself before you start are:
- What do I need this book for? - Determine the paper
- Looking at
- Writing
- Gluing
- Painting
- How many pages should my journal have? - Influences the binding
- Binding thickness (max. 16 pages)
- Book (more than 16 pages)
- The book should be flexible (i.e. I should be able to add new pages as I go along)
- Should my book be transportable? - Defines the size and the cover
- Yes, I have it with me all the time
- I take it with me from time to time
- No
You should keep your answers in mind as you read through the next chapters, because not every book binding is suitable for everything. They are actually questions you should also ask yourself when buying a notebook. For example, you should choose a hardcover or softcover. Hardcover ensures the protection of the inner sheets. Soft covers, however, are lighter and allow for other, more flexible binding methods. When doing your own design, the hardcover option is usually preferred because it protects the work better.
Papers for your journal
Actually, any, really any paper is suitable for binding. However, not every paper is suitable for every binding style. Once the paper is punctured or comes into contact with moisture (ink or glue), it should be thicker and more durable.
If you want to use your journal mostly for looking at things, then you can put all kinds of papers in your book: Velum, cardboard, cigarette paper, tickets, etc. This is the classic way to create a junk journal. The papers can be of different sizes, thicknesses, colors. Here the tasteful composition is crucial.

Junk journal with an old book cover
Want to use your book for writing, then it is important to use light colored paper with little or no pattern. The actual color can be chosen individually: cold white, eggshell beige or purple? This is actually just a color of taste. However, the paper should not be too thin. I advise against paper that is less than 80gsm thick. It would be a shame to see the writing show through on the back. If you also like to use letters and felt pens, then you should choose paper with 120-160gsm. This way you are on the safe side. To be on the safe side, do a test on a test paper to avoid surprises. There is also special paper for alcohol pens (like Copic) to prevent them from bleeding.
If you will be using a glue stick for the majority of your pages, thickness is not as important. However, if you will be using a lot of photos, die-cuts, or the like, thicker photo paper or scrapbook paper is better. Your paper can easily be varnished or laminated.
As soon as moisture is involved, it is better to use thicker painting paper (180gsm or more). It also depends on whether you are using acrylic paint or watercolor, as the paints make different demands on the paper. Since you can "tailor" the book to your needs, it pays to make a good choice here. Also, with acrylic paint, the paper may already be color painted, collaged, or dyed. With watercolor, the possibilities are more limited.

A Leporello of a different kind: double pages were sewn on here
Classic book binding
In classic book binding, the pages are joined together with glue. The pages are joined to the book cover via the two outer pages (endpapers). This method is cheap and this is how most books are made nowadays. However, it is not as durable. But if you want to bind your book yourself, it takes a bit of finesse.
You can either cut thicker single sheets or finer sheets (about 80gsm) in half or use finer sheets of the same size sewn together. The same size is important because you are now trying to press all the leaves together very tightly on one side. A flower press is good for this. You leave 1cm of the sides that need to be glued together sticking out. Now brush the front side generously with book glue or school glue. You then just wait until everything is dry, and then you can join this inner book to the book cover. In traditional bookbinding, the pages are sewn together first before they are glued together, but they don't have to be.
Alternative book bindings
Stitch binding
Stitch binding is the most commonly used book binding method when binding simple journals. This method is well suited for binding notebooks. Since the halved pages are inserted into each other, the paper should not be too thick, and not too many pages should be bound together. Therefore, you should limit the number of pages to a maximum of 4-8 pages. Otherwise the inner pages will stick out of the sheet and have to be cut off. Of course, you can bind several booklets together to create a book.

You can also decorate the spine of the book with simple thread binding
The first step is to cut the paper in half. You can use a folding leg for this. The pages do not all have to be the same size. In the fold of all sheets 3 or 5 (an odd number is important) holes are pierced with an awl or a needle in the same distance. For this, I recommend you make a simple template that you then place over your fold. Then you can connect the sheets with a waxed thread. It is important to adjust the thread to the paper. Too thin paper will tear very quickly. With the 3-point binding, the thread makes a figure eight.
With this type of binding, you can also (pre)print the pages. This way you can create a simple booklet, which you can also use for further processing (with writing and/or painting).
Other seam binding
The stitch binding is only one of the many ways to bind your sheets together to a book. For the sake of simplicity, I'll just introduce you to two other methods that are relatively easy to imitate. Copic stitch creates a beautiful pattern in the spine of the book. Here a pattern similar to knitting is created. You can see exactly how it works here in the video:
The second option has its appeal in that it allows single sheets to be bound into books. In addition, the book can be supplemented again and again. But for this, the paper should be a bit thicker. I like to reinforce my paper by applying Washi-Tape in double layers where the thread pierces the paper. You'll again make holes about 1 inch from the edge (the more holes, the more work!). Use a template again, so that each sheet has the same distances. The leaves can be different sizes with this method. Then cut your threads to 10-15cm long pieces. Through each hole you pull a thread through. Tie both sides tightly to the edge of the paper with a double button. When you are done, take two sheets and again very tightly tie all the threads of each side to the other side, when you are done, repeat with all sides! And the nice thing is, you can attach beads to all those loose threads!
A continuation of this 1-sheet binding is the Japanese binding. Here, however, a part of the paper is not visible. Instead, beautiful patterns can be embroidered with the thread.

With the Japanese bookbinding technique can be created wonderful effects
Are you looking for more creative and decorative bookbinding ideas? Then I can recommend you the book "Bound - over 20 Artful Handmade Books" by Erica Ekrem. She shows you the variety of sewing shapes for self-made books.
Ring, disc and other openable bindings as book binding
You may think ring binding and all those open bindings are not book bindings. In the classical sense this is true. But if your goal is to bind sheets, or to find ideas to bind a book yourself, then a ring binder to bind your notes or art yourself should definitely be pursued as an idea. Here, too, you can prepare individual sheets in the PC, print them out and then combine them in the open binding. And the book can grow!
Possible bindings are:
- Rings (as book form or loose)
- Document clip
- Stapler (can be removed again - but is best for notebooks and narrow books)
- Disc binding (or discbound)
- Spiral binding
For the last methods, you'll need special equipment to punch your paper appropriately, but otherwise these are great and straightforward methods to bind a book.

Booklet with document clamps as binding method
Adhesive bindings
Since we've talked about spiral binding and discbound, I have to touch on thermal binding as well. Similar to traditional book binding, glue is used here to bind individual sheets together. To do this, the glue is heated in the fold of the book cover to bond with the leaves. As it cools, a homemade booklet is created. This is especially suitable for accurate bookbinders who like it classic and are satisfied with A4 sheets. Also, the purchase of the thermal binder is not cheap.
Alternatively, you can work with adhesive tapes or Washitape (be careful to improve the adhesiveness with glue). Here you work with pieces of paper of the same size. Two sheets are placed next to each other and taped together. Now you can fold one sheet over to the other and fill the freed space with a new sheet. You tape both sheets together again, and so on. Taped with nice washitape, you create a beautiful book.
Folded binding
I really like folded bindings because they don't require a lot of extra materials. You fold a paper (e.g. as an accordion), cut it in strategic places (e.g. in the middle of a zine) and you have a nice little booklet. Zines can also be photocopied and thus duplicated. There is no easier and cheaper version of printing books!
Ideas for your book binding
You don't need exclusive book binding materials for your book binding. There are many alternatives to bind your books:
- Cardboard, which you then paint, glue, etc.
- Fabric (covered with cardboard or molleton)
- An old book spine (remove the inner leaves and replace them with your own paper)
- (Faux) leather
- Everyday objects (boxes, toilet roll, etc.)

How about using woven paper for your book cover? Here are three different papers woven together
Fabric has the advantage that you can decorate the fabric with appliqué, beads, embroidery, and more. And why not use fabric as a page set: a wonderful template for embroidery and painting.
Now how do you bind your bound leaves and your book cover? In traditional book binding, this is created by gluing the outer leaves to the inner book cover. But you can sew the paper to the spine, or stretch a rubber band across the spine and always insert your current notebooks there.
Materials for book binding
The materials you need depend on your preferred binding method.
- Papers
- Sewing needle not too fine
- Sewing thread or waxed thread
- (awl)
- (folding leg)
As always, I recommend using what you have at home. Old books have beautiful covers that you can use as spines. Old paper, fabrics, are a wonderful base for writing, painting, etc. Only if you want to bind more than 1-2 books, it is worth to buy (little by little) new materials.
In any case, I hope that you try one or the other method and have discovered the joy of homemade books for you and you will soon bind a self-designed book.