[Noisebridge-discuss] Binding Notebooks on the Industrial Sowing Machine?

[Alex Glowaski]

I've made a few notebooks for myself/friends/Etsy, sans sewing machine, and would love to join this adventure. Have used sewing machines before, though not for bookbinding.

You can see my notes for a multi-signature, Moleskine-like notebook here: http://www.alexglow.com/notebook-part-i-inside/
http://www.alexglow.com/notebook-part-ii-outside/

Keep me in the loop, and I'll be happy to share my experience.

Cheers,
merlin

--
Make your world!
www.alexglow.com

On Dec 29, 2012, at 3:09 PM, John Magolske <listmail at b79.net> wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> * Mario Landau Holdsworth <mariolh at gmail.com> [121229 14:05]:
>> If you don't mind showing some tips, I'll be very grateful and
>> hopefully show you how to make your own moleskine notebooks. Here's
>> my project idea: I recently bought the cheapest variety of Moleskine
>> notebook and noticed that it is bound with a single stitch down the
>> middle. I'd like to make my own notebooks using some recycled paper
>> and cardstock covers.
> 
> I can't make it in to the space for this, but will relate my
> experiences with book-making via sewing machine here...
> 
> I've hand-stitched notebooks using a sewing machine (my own portable
> Elna) -- not running the machine under power, but rather turning the
> wheel by hand so as to have more control over sewing in a straight
> line. Also, I was a bit concerned about the possibility of the needle
> breaking with it coming down fast onto a stack of paper which seemed
> noticeably thicker & tougher than fabric. I pre-folded & creased each
> page along the spine to make it easier for the needle to pierce the
> stack, and also to make the pages open & close more easily. The stack
> of pages + cover was held together with binder clips while running
> them through the machine.
> 
> I stitched from the inside, as where the needle exits there's a bit
> of "puckering out". This way the center of the book has nice clean
> stitching, and the puckering out on the spine can be covered up with
> tape (first tie off / glue the threads on the spine side). For tape,
> there's some great Linen book tape I found at FLAX art & design [1]
> here in SF made by Neschen, a German manufacturer of products for book
> care & repair. It's called "filmoplast T" [2], and is a very nice
> self-adhesive linen (hmmm...their website says "rayon" now...) tape
> in 5 & 3 cm widths and variety of colors. I suppose Gaffer tape would
> work nicely as well.
> 
> Also, be sure to align the grain [3] of the paper so that it is
> parallel to the spine, otherwise the pages will be hard to turn. Most
> paper is "Grain Long", so as an example, folding 8.5x11" letter-size
> pages into a 8.5x5.5" booklet is not optimal (though it happens all
> the time). Depending on how particular you want to be, one solution
> might be to go down to Kelly Paper [4] and have them special-cut some
> sheets to have the grain going in the necessary direction.
> 
> I'd be curious to know if anyone else has attempted book-making on a
> sewing machine, and if they had any luck doing so under power. Would
> also love to get my hands on a real book-stitching machine!
> 
> [1] http://flaxart.com/
> [2] http://www.neschen.com/documents-en/book-care-repair/product/89-filmoplast-t
> [3] http://printwiki.org/Grain
>    http://www.xerox.com/printer-supplies/paper-stock/paper-grain/enus.html
> [4] http://kellypaper.com/store/sanfrancisco
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> John
> 
> -- 
> John Magolske
> http://B79.net/contact
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