A Truly Quick Finish

Leather folder, original trial template, signatures, file folder for cover

I was digging around in one of my floor piles about the time I was choosing paper for signatures for several book projects when I uncovered the leather folder my cousin gave me that held a Moleskine sketchbook that I came to despise - I'd totally forgotten about it. I'd determined to use it up on some daily sketches and replace it with sketchbook paper I liked. A simple project really, but I got hung up on trying to make an exact copy of the Moleskine in terms of size, and the size was odd. It would require cutting down whatever pad of paper I decided to use and adhering to measurements not standard. I mocked up a template the exact size of the Moleskine and fussed with dimensions but got frustrated and put it aside, never occurring to me until I unearthed the folder with template inside that the Moleskine was based on metric measurements, and that I could use the closest dimensions that I had on hand. I checked to be sure the slightly smaller 8 x 10 inch paper would still fit well as signatures, and I quickly made two signatures to press under weights. I remembered that the Moleskine insert had a plain cover made from something similar to a file folder and planned to use the same. Once the signatures were ready, this little project came together quickly.

I'd recently watched a video showing a binding done with a pamphlet stitch and remembered a book I'd done where I was very surprised that one could add several signatures to the cover using only one set of holes in the spine. So that is what I planned to do here. I cut the file folder slightly larger than my signatures, especially in width to account for wrapping around the two signatures' folded edges. I punched 3 holes in each signature - one in the center and the other two a half inch from top and bottom - and lined them up accordingly to punch in the cover.

I was surprised to find that a length of linen thread still on the needle from a previous project was long enough for the stitching. With a pamphlet stitch, the needle enters the middle hole from the outside leaving a tail for tying, then back to the outside through an upper hole, wrapping along the outside of the cover to enter the lower hole back to the inside. Normally one would then enter the middle hole again to pull the thread to the outside to tie off. But when adding a second signature, you slide the needle to one side so it doesn't go through the cover but can now go through the center hole of the second signature where the stitching pattern is repeated. When back to the center, this time the needle can go through the cover, threads can be tightened and then tied off. Quick and easy! Actually I was a bit stunned at how little time I spent on this, me who can turn any quick project into a days-long affair.

And I was pleased that my new little sketchbook was a perfect fit for the folder.

The plan is to keep this sketchbook downstairs on the coffee table. I so often find in the evenings that I have an urge to sketch something but have settled in and it seems too much effort to go hunt down one of my many sketchbooks. I was particularly driven to get this ready for use downstairs right now because from my couch I'd been staring for some time at a bare tree with a splotch of lichen on one of the branches. No other color in this winter scene and I was intrigued. However, for as long as I'd been observing it, I'd only a few days earlier realized that the branch was not part of the tree, but one that had broken off and gotten lodged in this tree. It became the first sketch in my new book. Many more to follow is the plan. And chalk up another one for my "finish more" resolution.