Capital letters necessary. Not only did I start this project a whole week ago, but it used up some of my supplies in ways I was not especially excited about:
Oh yes, this notebook broke three needles. With the central one, the tip just snapped right off. Bonus: I now have a quilling tool.
And that's because this spine is the thickest, sturdiest construction I've ever seen, courtesy of Japanese stab binding. The interior is notebook pages, which means the spine will last longer than the pages it's holding.
It will probably also last longer than the front cover, which has been fighting against the very necessary bend in the spine this whole time. The black spine on the front cover was necessitated by misaligned holes the first time through, requiring a new layer. Unfortunately, the thicker paper and the edge it created close to the fold are pretty unwieldy.
The holes I created in the textblock took forever, despite using a very sturdy Denim sewing machine needle. So, inevitably, I didn't widen the holes out enough to make it easy to push the thread through. Especially since this binding requires each hole to be passed through three times with a needle loaded with embroidery floss. Is it any wonder I lost three needles to this process?
I also had to tie on another length of thread near the end, but it's not noticeable because I knotted it on the inside of the back cover, and poked the ends in to the spine. However unwieldy the process, it certainly created a lovely spine. Pity about the buckling cover papers.
Currently, I am letting the glue come unfixed because A. I need to figure out a better solution for these stress points, and B. I'm sick of re-gluing it.
The binding thread's ends pull through to this knot, and then I pulled the thread through to the spine, snipped it, and poked the ends back in. I'd show you a picture, but they are purposefully invisible.
As a vocabulary/grammar notebook, hopefully it will do well. I suspect it will only suffice, but that has as much to do with my language-learning habits as the wonky cover/spine combination.
Project materials: Cereal box paperboard, magazine page, black medium-weight paper, unused pages from an old notebook, embroidery floss, sewing needles, sewing machine needles, binder clips, needle nose pliers. Total cost = $0
I also did some other, more chore-ly things, like mending these rag towels so they'd stop fraying themselves into oblivion. Oh, my beautiful Husqvarna, I promise we'll get to do more fun things soon.
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