Scrap Leather Journal Cover

I tend to keep a journal. I used to when I was a teenager, and then I did not for a good number of years, I thought I had probably grown out of it. But in recent months I have found it very helpful to sort „thinking“ out by writing it down. It helps to prioritise what is really important and what is just mental noise and a little time down the road it will be nice to look back to see the changes that have taken place or where changes still need to happen. 

I do my journal writing in a little A6 size notebook made from recycled leather. It has six sewn in signatures and the long stitches on the spine are decorated with tiny bells, I think it was the little bells that made me buy this particular one. Anyhow, this journal is starting to be a little full and so I started to think about what kind of book I would like to keep writing in. I considered taking out the full signatures and replacing them with new ones, but I found that I like to write on narrow lined paper and to obtain (or make) paper to my desired specs seemed a little arduous. Then I thought about storing my full signatures, I live in a small house with a lot of people and stuff in it, storing space is precious. And then in my local stationary shop I found bundles of A4 narrow ruled pads on offer. Unfortunately (I thought then) they all also had holes punched on the left side for filing them in folders. But hold on... for filing them! In folders! I got me a pack of these pads and went home thinking some more.

Last Christmas my Mother in Law sent me a beautiful big box full of leather scraps, she got them for me in the huge craft shop she has in her neighbourhood, they have a big chest full of off cuts and such there. I already had the leather, and the paper, and I had also decided I wanted my journal to have slip in booklets like a travellers notebook. Because now that my paper has holes for filing, why not use them? I then found this lovely video on Youtube on How to upcycle boots into a journal and I was hooked.

Just in case you are wondering: the cutting mat is upside down, not the picture. But you can see the scraps and the paper sample I made for estimating the signature size.

My biggest whole piece of material was the guideline for the patchwork pieces.

To hold the pieces together during sewing I used a fabric glue stick I had bought (and almost never used) years ago, it provides just enough tack to hold the bits together long enough for me to sew them.

I have to admit my sewing machine did not like this job, it kept skipping stitches and left me with uneven stitching and some extra holes in the leather, but faced with the choice of being annoyed about it or embracing the very rustic look (oh I can be a perfectionist at times) I went for the rustic look. 

The large holes in the next picture are made on purpose though, the cover flap was too big but I did not want to cut it so I just bent in inwards and this will be the securing seam.

Front view at this stage, I took the belt buckle off an old childrens boot and I will attach it with the handsewn securing seam.

I wanted to use a thick waxed cord but I did not have enough of it so I decided to use twine instead, I had to use a needle and loop method to get the twine through the punched holes. And there also is already some bling attached...

And the finishedcover front, even with two little clusters of bells attached. I had to have the bells...

The cover was planned to hold six signatures, But after it was assembled there was still a lot of room in the spine. I had doubled the layers of leather to give the spine more stability, but this caused the stiffer section to be bigger than my six signatures and so I added another set of holes. I now have eight signatures inside.

Side views of the finished thing...

Inside cover flap, I might make a little opening into it for holding a pen...

And my signatures. The one on the left is a stack of bound watercolour paper folios and on the right is one of my writing signatures. I just folded my lined paper in half, put a cream paper around the stack and stitched them together with a pamphlet stitch.

And now you see my signature unfolded: the punched holes in the side mean I can easily file my filled signatures and I have an A4 page to write on, giving me plenty of space and even margins. Yes I have to turn the journal „sideways“ to write in it but I don‘t mind, that just makes it unique...

And all my journals lovely layers to view...