A Peek Into My Scrapbooking Process: The Dreaded Binding Part Two...

Alright, so I last left off poking a bunch of holes into all of my signatures or booklets or whatever you would like to refer to them as. I don't really know the proper term and on that note I should probably look it up, but I doubt I will. Just trying to keep it real here. Anyways...the last thing done to my album was the hole poking for the binding. I guess now I get to attempt the binding while taking pictures for you all to follow. Here goes...

Step 1: Figuring out what I am going to use for the binding. My decision really comes down to what I have in stock, which is hemp string. I'm not using a light weight hemp. I would tell you exactly what the weight is, except that I threw out the packaging a long time ago. I had two colors to choose from: pink and natural. Since the book is for a baby boy, I'm going with natural and I am going to die the hemp to match the other details I am doing to my cover.

Step 2: Measure out the amount of string you need for binding. I use 3 arm width lengths. I simply take the hemp, stretch it out between my arms and repeat three times before cutting from the spool. This is a long length to work with so it is very important that I/you/whomever is very careful when dying the hemp, threading the hemp, and ultimately binding with the hemp so that you don't get knots.

Step 3: Once I have the hemp stretched out, I wrap it around my fingers, put it in a container (glass so it does not stain) and spray it with my glimmer mist. I am using Caribbean Blue (I think) Glimmer Mist. Once the hemp is sprayed I can lay it aside to dry. I gave it a good 24 hours and some because it's been about a week since I have touched my book in anyway, but it probably just needs to dry over night.

Step 4: Thread my needle. I'm using a needle from Michaels, size

Here comes the hard part...

Step 5: Binding the first signature to the front cover of the book. I take my first signature and make sure all the holes are lined up. If you have a number of inserts and have layered them so that the inserts have only some holes and not 6 holes, you may want to set them aside when starting your binding (see photo below for visual explanation). Setting some the inserts aside that do not need to be bound with the first hole, just means you have less papers to juggle making your life a lot easier. JUST REMEMBER TO ADD THEM BACK TO THE BOOK.

 Photo above shows signature with inserts that line up with the first hole

Photo below shows signature with inserts that can be set aside to make binding easier

Now for the ACTUAL binding

*Note* I did not show how to bind the front cover to the signatures (which has to be done first) but the steps are the same with the exception of which direction you a threading. For example the images below show me threading to the right, if you were beginning your binding you would be threading your first signature to your front cover and moving the needle towards the left. Sounds complicated, but  it will hopefully make sense after these next set of photos. 

 Photo above shows my binding up until this point in the book.

Step 1: Close the signature so that you are looking at the folded spin. Take the needle and poke it through the first hole (I'm working top to bottom on this signature - you'll notice that I have already done the first 3 holes moving from the bottom up). Pull the needle all the way through so that the signature is tight up against the rest of the book. See photo below.

Step 2: Push the needle and thread through the next hole (in this case the last hole of the signature). See photo below.

 Step 3: Pull the needle and thread all the way through the hole. See photo below.

The inside of the signature should look like the photo below.

 The spin of the book should look like the photo below.

Step 4: Take your needle and push it underneath the last knot (not really a knot, but for lack of a better word...) of the previous signature. See photo below for visual explanation. Make sure that you only push it under the one knot.

Step 5: Pull the needle all the way underneath and up towards self. See photo below. Thread should be looped under the other signature.

Step 6: Push your needle through the same hole that you just came out of. This should be the last hole of the signature that you are currently binding. See photo below. The picture doesn't really show the thread already coming out of the hole but trust me it's there. This is how you create the knot or binding.

 Step 7: Pull the needle all the way tight from the inside of the signature. See Photo below.

Step 8: Thread the needle underneath the thread on the inside of the signature. See photo below.

Step 9: Push the needle back through the same hole you just came out of. This should be the third time you have gone through this one hole. See photo below.

 Step 10: Pull tight. See photo below.

Step 11: Grab your next signature and push the needle through the first hole and repeat steps 2 to 10. (I flip the book so that it is easier to hold and work with). See photo below.

 Photo below shows step 1 starting at the beginning of a new signature.

Photo below shows step 2 (pushing needle through the second hole in the signature).

Once you have completed binding your book (including the front and back covers) you simply tie a really tight know and add a little bit of glue to ensure the knot does not come undone. 

To add the cover to your first signature, you would hold your signature to the front cover (like a book), lining up the holes. Then you would push your needle from the inside of the first signature (moving towards exterior folded part). Keep about two inches of thread and hold with your fingers so that you can tie a knot.  Push your needle through the hole on the cover, but instead of going straight through the cover, you would wrap it around the cover so that the thread was hugging the edge of the cover and coming back through the hole towards the signature. Tie a knot here so your binding does not fall apart. Now follow step 6, moving on to step 2, followed by step 6. Keep repeating until you have reached the last hole of the signature, where you would the do step 8 and step 9. At the time your cover is attached and you can now add your next signature starting at step 11 and going through steps 1 to 10. 

This looks and sounds complicated...and it can be hard but it's essentially repetition. The hardest part is not getting your long thread tangled up!!!

Enjoy and goodnight :)