Binding Stitches: Jotters with Leather Covered Bindings

After making a batch of my soft leather journals, I often have small strips of leather leftover that aren't really big enough to make a whole other journal out of.  I needed to find a way to use these smaller strips of leather, so I came up with the idea of making cute little jotter notebooks with the bindings covered in strips of leather.

Leather Multi-colored Jotter

These little jotters are so great for throwing in your purse to take notes when you have project or blog ideas, or to jot down things you need to get done for the kids, or grocery lists, or anything you need.  I love their thin size!

Blue Starburst Jotter

I love the combination of pretty colorful paper & the leather over the binding on these.  It's the best of both worlds!

Christmas Birds Jotter

Each of these jotters has one signature with 20 sheets (40 pages front & back).  The pages are hand torn from large sheets, then I sew them together with waxed thread.  Next comes the covers.

First I cut the fly sheets, and attach them to the pages with a strip of glue.  Then I prepare the cover for attaching to the fly sheets.  After cutting two cover boards from a large sheet, I place them side by side, and glue the strip of leather between the two.  When that's dry, I cover the fronts of the covers with a pretty decorative paper, pulling the paper up just over the edge of the leather, and making sure that there are no unattractive bubbles under the paper from it buckling from the glue.  Both the leather & the paper are folded over the edges of the boards, to cover the sides, and the edges of the interior of the covers.

Flowers jotter

Once all that is dry, I can attach the covers carefully to the fly sheets, completing the book!

The materials used for these books are:

Strip of leather
Text pages torn from large sheets
Bookboard
Decorative paper cut from large sheets
Waxed thread

The books are usually one of a kind because they are made from "leftover" strips of leather.  They take somewhere around a half hour to 45 minutes or so to make, not counting time for glue drying & pressing.

These books are an inexpensive way to get your feet wet with checking out handbound books.  I sell them currently for $16.50.  They come in many different varieties, but if you want one, but don't see exactly what you'd like, feel free to contact me regarding a custom listing!  I'd love to work with you!

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