Make Your Own Notebook: Diamond Stitch Binding Style

1. Dimond Stitch Intro: Have you ever seen such a spine? Hello, and welcome to my studio. My name is Ido Agassi, and today I want to challenge myself and you with a more complex nonadhesive binding. I call it the Diamond Stitch, and the complexity is to make the holes exactly like the design and then follow with the thread. So this class is going to be filmed in one take, but it is going to be divided into lessons. So with an idea in mind, let's bind. 2. Tools & Materials : Before we begin, I would like to go through the tools and materials that you would need. I will put a gray board on the table so we will have a nice background. And we're going to start with a ruler. This is 30 centimeters. I'm going to use also a craft knife. This is with a 30 degree blade. I really recommend that. Moving on to the bone folder, you would need scissors, and all. But you can also improvise with a push pin, a needle, linen thread. This is number 40, but you can also use synthetic thread, but just don't forget to fuse the edge of the thread so it won't fray. A pencil. You would need a glue brush, some PVA or white glue, whatever works for you, you would need two bookbinding boards, 14 on 10 centimeters and a spine that is the same length and 2.5 centimeter wide. I'll move on to the paper. We need 28 sheets of paper for seven signatures, and the size is 20 centimeters on 14 and the strip of cloth 18 on 8.5 and for the inner spine, we would need 13 on 8.5 as well. You will need two decorative papers, 18 centimeters on ten, and for the inside, I use the same paper, and this is 13 on 9 centimeters. So these are all the tools and materials that you would need. I will also make a list of everything here, so you'll have it, you'll make sure that you have everything in the right size. So with an idea in mind, let's bind. I'm going to clear everything and we will start working. 3. Connecting The Boards: So I'm going to start with making the binding. I'll bring a 2.5 centimeter weight, put it on the edge of the binding, and just mark a line with a pencil. I'll do it to the other side. And now I'm going to take a waste paper, one underneath, and one until my line here. I'll bring the glue and glue up until the line. The wastepaper helps me give a straight line. Take it off. And now I'm going to take a piece of cloth and connect up until the line. Making sure on top and bottom, it's smaller the same. Flip it over, and now I'll bring a weight to act as a straight line, and I'll take a gap of 5 millimeters, and I'm going to connect the spine. And bring it to my gap and to the straight line here. I'll take it out. And now I'll bring the other one. And I'm going to mark with a pencil until where my previous marks are on both sides, bring my ruler and knife and cut it. And now I know I'm exactly in the place I want to be. I'll bring back the weight and the gap. I'll bring two waste papers again, one for the bottom side, and one for the top. And again, I'm going to glue it from the paper towards the board. Take the waste paper off and bring it to the gap and to my straight line, take it out and flip it over. And now have exactly the places I want it to be 2.5 centimeters from the binding. I'll flip it over, and now I'm going to glue the turn ends Take a waste paper out, bring my bone folder, fold it, and go inside the gaps here. Flip it to the other side, another wastepaper. Take the wastepaper out and connect go inside the gaps here. So this is the first stage. 4. Covering The Boards: Now I'm going to flip over the binding like this. I'm going to take my weight see them on a straight line here. I'll bring my paper. This is a very special fabriano paper, but the outside has a little bit of lamination on it. This is leftovers from a project I did for menus, and that is why I took a very expensive paper but added a layer so it could be washable. I'm going to make a cut 2 centimeters on top and bottom, and that's more or less here. I'm looking at my cutting mat, and that's how I know where to cut. And as you can see, the cover material is going up until this point, so this is the point I want to glue. And what I'm going to do is I'm going to prepare the paper. This is the side and put a weight on it so it won't move. And I'm going to bring a piece of paper underneath here. I'm going to glue up until my cloth. The whole board. And take the waste paper out. And I'm going to glue only the edge here of the paper. I'll bring the paper to my weight. See I'm straight here. I'll move the weight, take my bone folder and connect. And what I actually did is covered with paper, the edge of the cloth. I'm going to flip it over. I'll bring a two centimeter ruler and trim the edge here. And let's do it to the other side and taking my weight, making sure it is where I want it to be a piece of waste paper underneath, waste paper for the paper that's going on, making sure that's the right side. I'll put a weight on it. I'm going to glue only the board because I'm always aiming to glue the thicker material first. And the board is thicker than the paper. And now I'm going to glue only the edge of the paper. I'll take the waste paper out here and I'm going to lift my paper. Take my bone folder. I'm going to bring it into place, see that it is touching my weight up until the line. I'll move the weight aside. And with the bone folder, I'm going to go over it and all around. Flip it over. Take my two centimeter ruler and trim the edge. Now I'm going to take my corner jig, and I'm going to trim the edges all around. The last thing I need to do for this stage is turn in the paper. So I'm going to glue the alongside of both parts. Take the waste paper out, bring my bone folder and go on the edge of the board and connect. Let's do the other side on the edge and connecting and working the corners. I'll flip it to the other side, wastepaper underneath. Glue the alongside, take the wastepaper out and connect. Work the corners. Short sides. Wastepaper underneath. I going on the edge, and then connecting. Make sure that the corners looks good. And the last side. Take the waste paper out, go on the edge of the board, and then connect. So we have ourself binding, and the next step is to line up the inside of the spine. 5. Lining The Inside: I'm going to bring a strip of cloth glue it up until the end. Lift it, and I'm going to locate it equal on top and bottom. Connect first the middle side and then go to one side and to the other and connect to the cover. Now the last stage to finish the outside cover is to line the inside with paper. I'm going to use the same paper. It is half a centimeter less all around. I'll bring a piece of waste paper and put a weight so it won't move. I'm going to glue only the board and then all around the paper here. No. Lift the paper, take the waste paper aside, and now I'm going to bring it half a centimeter all around and connect. Let's do the other side. G to bring it half a centimeter all around, have still time to move it if I need and connect. And while I'm dealing with the inside paper, I'm going to put it inside the press, so I'll open the press. Put the binding inside. I'll take the board, put on it, and press it. 6. Preparing The Signatures: Now I'm going to move on to folding the papers. I'll bring a weight so it would act as a stopper. I'm going to fold four papers each time. In this binding, I'm going to use white paper around 90 grams. It is called Zeta. And I'm going to make seven signatures, each one constructed from four papers. While folding these papers, I'm thinking about the best way to show you the piercing and sewing procedures. That happens quite a lot that my thoughts are drifting away while working on something repetitive. So I have seven signatures. Now, what I'm going to do is trim the edge here. I want to 10 centimeters. I will locate it on my cutting mat. I'll bring my ruler and a knife. See I'm straight on the line here, and then trim the edge. You see I'm not letting go of the ruler until I see everything is cut. Let me do the rest. Of course, you can also use the paper as is, but then take into consideration the outside cover. And because my cover is ten centimeter wide, the inner paper needs to be in the same width. As you can see, I like to locate the paper each time on a different point and not to cut everything in the same location on my cutting mat. And I'm finished. Let me see. Everything is exactly the same, and I can move on to making the holes inside the cover. 7. Piercing Holes In The Cover: Going to bring some boards to protect my cutting mat and let me bring the cover. I'll put it on it like so. And now I'm going to bring my template. I marked it with the location for the holes. So if you are interested in making this binding technique, what I'm going to do is in the description, add a link to this template. I'm going to connect two pieces of masking tape just for the template, not to move. So one here and one on the bottom side. And I'm making sure it is straight because you need to be very precise in this stage. I'm going to bring my all, okay? If you want, you can also try to use a push pin, but the all is the right tool for this. I'm going to start by making seven holes on the top side. And now on the next line, you need to take your time with this and be very precise because that's what people are going to see on the spine. And now I'm going to move on and doing the bottom side. And now let's do the pattern. Okay. I'll move on to these. When I'm finished, let me open a masking tape. I'm going to lift it. Wow. Look how beautiful. 8. Piercing Holes in The Signatures: Now let me start making holes inside the signatures. And here the template is quite complicated because not all of the holes are going to be inside each and every signature. It varies between if it's the middle, if it's the first one, the last one, and so on. So I'm going to start with the first signature. And here I need to be in focus. All of them are getting the top and bottom holes, but other than that, they are different. So I'm going to start giving the bottom hole and the one next to it. And let me do the top side also. And now I need to do one over here, one over here, here and here. So that's the first one. The second one. Again, I'll do top and bottom. And now, this one, this one, one over here. And here, Third one. Again, you need to concentrate here. Let's do the top and bottom because they are all the same. And now, this one, this one. This one, and Great. So this was the third one. Number four, that's the middle. Top and bottom? No. Mm. Two. Three, and four. Okay. Number five. Number five, we'll get top and bottom and the same location is number. Three. Moving on to number six, you see why I said this is a more complex one. I think that's the most complex thing to make the holes in the right location. Here, here and here. And the last one. Connect it, tap it a bit. Up and down. And now we want number seven. And here. Great. You see the diamond? 9. Sewing Procedure Signature 1&2: I think I'm ready to start sewing, are you? So I'm going to bring my linen thread. Let me bring the signatures. And because I have seven signatures, let's do eight times one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and eight. I'll cut it and thread the needle, make my needle trick. Now I'll bring the cover. I'll move this aside like sew. And let's start working. I'm going to take the first signature and go out in the second hole. I'm going to leave a tail and go inside the second hole of my first line. Pull the thread nearly up until the end. Now I'm going to go in the next station. The third one in the cover and go inside the signature. Next station outside to the spine and pull the thread. So I'm here. Let's go on to the next station. Try to go directly inside the signature also, make so and pull the thread. Outside to the spine. Pull it a bit and to the next hole directly inside the signature. Give it a pull. And now going out to the spine, pulling the thread, pulling everything. Let's see how it looks. Nice. I'm going back in but not inside the signature. Creating a loop going in the next one, catching the loop, pulling and back inside. The first signature is always moving a bit and could be quite difficult than the rest. But we did okay. And let's take the second one going inside the signature. Pulling the thread. Now going inside the second station and outside to the spine. Pulling the thread. Nice. Let's go on to the next station, pulling the thread. Next station into the spine, pulling a bit from the outside. See how it looks. From the inside out. Nextation. Pull it a bit and inside the spine. Now I'm going to go inside the first signature. Are you keeping track? I'm in the first signature, and now I'm going to make a double knot and tie the beginning of the thread with the rest. Lock the knot, trim the beginning, and go back outside. And now I'm going inside the second hole again, and it appears to be a chain stitch. I'll jump to the third station. I'm going to go with a needle inside the first chain back inside the third hole. And let's go on with our binding. To 10. Sewing 3rd Signature Until The End: Take the next one. Inside the first hole. Into the next one into the spine. Pulling Nextation directly inside the signature, you see. Pull it. The next one. Pull it. I'm here, right? Flip over, go inside. Pull the thread. I'm going to the next one. Go inside. That's exactly the reason why we made the holes for each signature separately, and then you are not confused while sewing when you need to go out and when you are not supposed to go out because you have just the holes for this signature. And the last one pulling. We now going to make a chain stitch. That's back inside. We'll go to the next one. Make another chain. Back inside. And let's continue. Take the next one. Cite the signature. Back outside. Next station. Now it is quite close. We're going to take this one. Now we're doing number four. That's the middle one. The middle of our diamond. You see that it's loose a bit, I'm going to tighten it here. Yeah. Now it's better. And I'm going to go back inside the next hole, inside the signature, pull the thread, and back outside. If the marks are okay, then the sewing of them both would be much easier. Pulling a bit and to my last hole, Make a chain stitch. Back inside. Jump one. And let's go on. We'll take the next one. First hole. Second hole to the spine, pull it. Next one. Ambulance. There's so many ambulances today, and I need to stop and then continue and stop and continue. So this is a bit of behind the scenes for me. You're completely focused on trying to teach something, and then that's what happens. So let's wait a couple of second more. Okay. I'll pull it and outside in the next location. We are here now. Look how beautiful it's becoming. And let's go on. Next station, inside the signature. Did I cut it? Yeah, pull it a bit so it won't dance and move. And to the next one directly outside. You see I'm pulling each time. Next one. Pull the thread, and to the last one. As you can see, the last one, I like to take it just outside the signature. Make sure I'm going out in the spine at the right place. Yeah, I'm in the right place. Pulling, that's the time to pull, going inside the stitch before. Back inside. Jump to the next one. Back inside. And let's do. Number six. Going inside and outside the signature. Let's find our place. Back inside. Mixed one. I love how it's turning out to be. The next station, pull it back from the spine inside into the last station. Make my chain stitch back inside. Let's start the last roll. Last one. Put this inside. Go on to the next station. Oh, here now. Now I want pull it so it won't be loose. Nice. Next one. Inside from the spine. Back outside. Pull it side one before the last inside the signature. Pulling it tight, going out the last hole, so I'm outside, making sure it is tight. Wow. Now I'm doing the last chain stitch, going inside the station before and now I'm going inside the signature. When all I have left to do is just tie a knot here, so I'm going inside station here. And with my needle inside the loop, let's do it another time. And because this is the last one, I like to take a couple of pages after something like this, but not at the end of the signature, I'm going to lift it, take out the needle, like in the middle of the signature, and then I'm going to trim the edge. Let's see the result. Wow. It's a true diamond. Look what a beautiful spine. 11. Conclusion: I'm eager to see what you have made and which kind of materials you chose for your binding. So please share it with us in the class project. Also, if you have any questions, just write in the discussions. Thank you for watching and for being here, and I'll see you in my next class.