Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Binding a fabric journal




Well, here is how I did mine. The journal pages were 4x6. The covers were slightly larger. I cut a piece of cardstock 4x6". I used a ruler and went in 1/2" from the ends and then 1" in the middle to get the holes. I used the crop-a-dile to punch the holes in the card stock template. The little black dots are on there so I could see where to position the crop-a-dile when I was actually punching the holes in the pages. You can set your crop-a-dile to how far in you want to go in from the edge - it has a little sliding bar that you can tighten the nut to keep the bar there. BTW, I used 3/16" holes and eyelets so the scraps of cloth and ribbon could go through the hole. 1/8" is a little too small.
I went and punched the holes into each journal page on the left side. Make sure you punch the holes on the correct side for the back cover. The little holes will come out all over the place from the crop-a-dile. I was picking up little cloth dots all over the place.
Next, comes the eyelets. I used 3/16" eyelets. I got some from the internet, some from Joann's, and someone sent me some (thanks so much). Crop-a-dile sells them, too. I set the eyelets. Some of the cheaper ones got a little crushed but still worked fine. After the eyelets were set, I took long strips of fabric - about 8" long or longer (didn't measure). They were maybe between 1-2" wide. I also took some misc ribbon and funky yarn. I would thread one or two at a time through the eyelets. If you cut one end on a bias (diagonal), it is easier to get it through the eyelet. You can even twist one end and put a little tape on there to make it easier. You can always cut the end later on.
After I got all the strips of fabric through the eyelets, I went and tied the ends together (like the first step when you tie your shoes). DO NOT KNOT THE ENDS YET!!! What you want to do next is to open the journal up to different pages and gently pull the pages apart until they open comfortably. You want enough room so the pages will open without crushing that side of the journal where the binding is. Once you have done that, you can knot the ends. What I did was pull up a little bit on the ends and then knot, so the knot would not be tighter than I wanted them to be. Trim the ends to the length you want.
The reason why the strips were so long is because you have to pull the journal apart a little to get to the next row of eyelets. You don't want to lose the row that you already binded because the strips of fabric were too short.
Done and done. Email me if you have any questions.

1 comment:

Cathy said...

I love how your journal turned out! I think I will try binding my next one the same way. Very cool looking.