Lay Flat Notebook

I've been working on a new book structure this week, something I've had in mind to give a friend for far too long. Time to get it done so it will arrive by Christmas. It's from the April Handmade Book Club offering and when I first watched the video I wasn't sure about it, but a bit intrigued. It was billed as a way to use up leftover papers for the signatures (you can make it any size) and quickly sew into a book with a cover that is just glued onto the first page of the first signature and the last page of the last signature. I'd pulled the image with the saying "Don't Let Anyone Steal Your Joy Today" off the internet (no attribution), thinking it would make the perfect cover for a "What was the very best moment of your day?" notebook.

I've yet to try a "quick and simple" project that didn't take me longer than anticipated and wasn't full of problems. There was so much I had to think through as I went through the steps. At first, I was delighted to find enough leftover papers from a different project to make 4 signatures measuring 5" x 4-1/4" when folded. I was equally delighted to find a document I'd made to print lines across the 8-1/2" width could be quickly edited for my 5" height. I got the lines printed, folded the signatures and put them under weights while I puzzled my next steps.

I decided to print the cover image plus a different one for the back cover onto matte presentation paper in order to get the best colors. It's not heavy enough though to be a cover on its own but it was suggested that a flimsier paper could be glued to card stock or a file folder to give it added strength. I wasn't sure how the paper would react to glue but remembered I had 6" squares of double-sided Scor Tape. But then I started worrying about how the printout would hold up as a cover as I read through the directions of how to treat the printed page. My ink is not the archival kind the is water resistant. I thought about a tip Laly Mille mentioned if your inkkjet printouts ran or blurred when painting over them: just spray them with workable fixative first. Aha! I do have fixative on hand so after applying the Scor Tape to the images and doing a test run on different images, I sprayed them with fixative. Once dry, I trimmed them to size, stuck them to a file folder and trimmed again.

Now for the sewing. Instructions suggested a "cutting" method rather than punching holes which required clipping all four signatures together and "sawing" with a crat knife across the folds down through all paper layers. I was not the only one who struggled with this, finding first of all that my biggest clips would barely open wide enough to capture all signatures, and second of all the sawing took way more time than if I'd just made a quick template and punched holes in each signature individually. Even on the video instructions, the teacher's cuts did not make it through all pages, and many of us found the same, ending up needling holes the rest of the way. The binding itself was done a bit differently to create link stitches rather than true coptic stitches which are stronger, but this was primarily meant to be more a notebook for making lists with glue added over the spine for strengthening. But first, those covers needed gluing to the first and last page, kind of tricky but I got them on. I let them dry for a bit before wedging the book between other books to keep it upright for the spine gluing. Ohhh, I wasn't at all sure about that step and feared the glue would show white on my buff pages. But after a night of drying, it had gone clear. Whew! It opens nicely, does lay pretty flat and will make a nice gift. Will I make this structure again? Not sure, but at least now I know some of the pitfalls.