2 Simple Ways to Make a Homemade Book

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Craft a unique DIY book to give as a gift or keep for yourself

Co-authored by Bailey Bujnosek, BA

Last Updated: December 17, 2024 Fact Checked

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Sewing a Homemade Book

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Japanese Bookbinding

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Q&A

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Tips

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Warnings

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Things You'll Need

Anyone can create a homemade book to give as a gift, use as a journal, or create a DIY photo album. You only need basic supplies and a little time to put one together. Unlike with a store-bought book, you can customize your DIY book to be the number of pages, size, and cover pattern you like best. Read on to learn two easy methods for making your very own book at home.

How to Make a Book

Cut out two identical pieces of cardboard for your cover.
Fold six sheets of paper in half horizontally and sew along the crease. Repeat.
Stack all of your six-sheet stacks on top of each other, then sew them together
Cut a strip of fabric slightly wider than the stacks and glue it around the spine.
Glue your cardboard pieces to the first and last pages of your book.
Glue another strip of fabric around both cardboard pieces.
Attach decorative paper around both covers and spine.

Method 1

Method 1 of 2:

Sewing a Homemade Book

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1
Choose the material for the cover and cut out two identical pieces. For your first book, cardboard is easy to work with. Once you get the hang of it, you can move to wood or game boards.^{[1]
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- The cover needs to be ¹⁄₄ inch (0.64 cm) wider and ¹⁄₂ inch (1.3 cm) longer than the inside pages. If you use printer paper, cut your cover so it’s 8 ³⁄₄ by 11 ¹⁄₂ inches (22 by 29 cm).
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Fold and sew your stacks of pages. Start by folding six sheets of paper in half. Then, sew them together at the crease in a figure-8 pattern. Make sure you start and end at the same point and the knot faces inside. This will create a spine. Repeat to create more.^{[2]
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- If you’re not keen on sewing, use a heavy-duty stapler to bind your pages instead.
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Make sure they are properly aligned when stacking them on top of one another. Press them down between some heavy books to flatten them. Measure the width of the stacks’ collective spine—you’ll need to to create the spine cover.
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Sew your stacks together. Start by opening each stack to its central crease. Measure and mark about six dots along the crease, equally distant from one another. Make the same marks on the crease of all of your stacks. Pierce them with a sewing needle. Use the same figure-8 pattern from earlier to sew through all the stacks, weaving the thread through each stack’s hole before moving to the next point.
- Alternatively, staple them together using a heavy-duty stapler.
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Cut a strip of fabric and glue it to the spine. Use scissors to cut a strip from any thin fabric (like old sheets) that’s as long as the pages and ³⁄₄ inch (1.9 cm) wider than the spine measurement you took. Coat one side of the fabric with fabric glue and stick the fabric to the spine of the pages. Pull it tight and run a ruler along it to smooth out any bubbles.
- Place the book between sheets of wax paper and underneath a heavy book or two. Wait for the glue to dry, about 20 minutes or so.
Before you do this, check that the fabric glue from the spine is dry. Make sure the pieces of cardboard are aligned with each other and with the spine when you glue them. Use craft glue or a glue stick to bind the cardboard to the paper.
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Cut a wider piece of fabric and glue it to the spine and cardboard. Cut the strip of fabric so it’s as long as the cardboard pieces and ³⁄₄ inch (1.9 cm) wider than the first piece of fabric along the spine. Using fabric glue, adhere the new strip along the spine and against the cardboard pieces. Press it into the first piece of fabric.
- Again, place the book between pieces of wax paper and underneath the heavy books. Wait to dry, around 20 minutes.
- If you opt to use leather instead of fabric to bind your DIY book, leathercrafting expert Mike Stramiello suggests using a thin, pliable leather like kidskin.
This will decorate the front and back covers of the book. Pick your favorite large sheet of patterned construction paper or scrapbook paper. Cut it so it’s 2 inches (5.1 cm) wider than both the covers and the spine combined (when the book is open and flat), and two inches longer than the cover’s length (top to bottom).
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Crease and slit the paper, gluing it to the inside covers. Make creases in the decorative paper 1 inch (2.5 cm) from the top and 1 inch (2.5 cm) from the bottom. Use scissors to cut four small slits in the center of the paper where it will cover the spine (cut up to the creases you made, and no further). Finally, place the book inside the paper and run a glue stick along the creased border. Fold and press it to attach it to the book’s inside covers.
- Cut the slits in the paper so the spine is covered, but so there is no paper directly above or below it. Create four flaps by doing this—two above the book and two below with notches in the middle once you cut the excess.
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Cut and glue two decorative sheets of paper to the inside covers. With scissors, cut the sheets to be ¹⁄₄ inch (0.64 cm) narrower than the cover and ¹⁄₂ inch (1.3 cm) shorter. Use a glue stick to glue each one to the inside cover so it covers the white paper and is flush with the folded-in cover page’s margins.
- After all of it is dry, decorate it however you want! Draw or paste on a cover and write, draw, or glue pictures or stickers to fill up the inner pages.

Method 2

Method 2 of 2:

Japanese Bookbinding

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1
Gather your materials. Everything for this project can be bought at craft supply stores and nothing is more than a few dollars. Clean off the kitchen table and grab the following:
- Blank paper (30-100 sheets, depending on your book's thickness)
- 2 sheets of cardboard
- 2 sheets of pretty paper (2 types)
- Ribbon - a few feet long, 1/4" (6 mm) wide
- Hole-punch
- Glue stick
- Scissors
- Ruler
- Bull clips
Depending on what type of book this is, you'll want thinner or thicker paper; you'll also need to consider how many sheets. For a photo album, use around 30. For a journal, you might want 50 or more.^{[3]
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Cut and mark two sheets of cardboard. Use scissors to cut out two sheets of cardboard that match the measurements of your blank paper. Draw two vertical lines on one of the cardboard pieces. Draw the first line from top to bottom 1 inch (2.5 cm) from the left edge. Draw the second line just under 1 ¹⁄₂ inches (3.8 cm) from the left edge, parallel to the first one. Repeat on the other piece of cardboard.^{[4]
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- - These lines separate the bind from the body of the book, creating a hinge.^{[5]
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Cut along the lines you just drew. Use a craft knife or scissors to remove the ¹⁄₂ inch (1.3 cm) between the two lines. Discard this excess middle piece of cardboard. You now have two pieces of cardboard, one 1 inch (2.5 cm) wide.
- A craft knife may be easier to use than scissors.
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Cut decorative paper to make your outside covers. Choose two pieces of patterned scrapbook paper for your book’s front and back covers. Use scissors to cut them to size—about 1 ¹⁄₂ inches (3.8 cm) longer and 1 ¹⁄₂ inches (3.8 cm) wider than the inside pages. Place one of the pieces of paper face-down and use a pencil to draw a ³⁄₄ in (1.9 cm) border all the way around the sheet.
- If your blank paper is 8 by 10 inches (20 by 25 cm), cut your decorative paper to 9 ¹⁄₂ by 11 ¹⁄₂ inches (24 by 29 cm) size.
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Glue the cardboard pieces to the sheets of decorative paper. Cover the entire paper with glue—use craft glue or a glue stick. Line up one big and one skinny cardboard piece along the border you traced on the paper in the previous step, leaving a ¹⁄₂ in (1.3 cm) gap between the cardboard to create a hinge. Repeat for the front cover.
- Apply the glue to the paper, not the cardboard. If you're using wrapping paper (or other thin paper), this prevents wrinkling and swelling and gives the paper time to get used to the moisture in the glue before application on the cardboard.
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Glue and fold the paper around the cardboard. Apply glue stick glue to the corners of the decorative paper and fold them over as far as they'll go. They’ll look like little triangles resting on the corners of your cardboard. Next, run your glue stick along the top, bottom, and side margins and fold them into the cardboard, pressing to help the glue bond.
- Run a ruler along the folds to help eliminate any creases or air bubbles.
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Cut out and glue another sheet of decorative paper to the cardboard. First, cut out two sheets of decorative paper that are ¹⁄₂ in (1.3 cm) smaller than the blank paper. Use a glue stick or craft glue to bind each sheet to the exposed cardboard of the inner and outer covers.
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Use bull clips to hold everything together. Stack your back cover, your pages, and your front cover on top of each other. Align every component so the book’s pages can’t be seen, only the covers.
- Use at least two clips, placing them about 3 inches (7.6 cm) from the side that will be the spine of the book (near where the gap in the cardboard is).
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Punch two holes into the binding. Make the holes about 1 ¹⁄₂ inches (3.8 cm) from either edge. If you don't have a hole punch (preferably a single hole punch), you can use a drill. Make your holes so they go from cover to cover, piercing all the pages in the same place.
- If you use a drill, place the covers inside out so that the rough edges are on the inside.
- Before you drill holes into your book, place it onto something you're comfortable drilling into, like a phone book.
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Thread a ribbon through the holes using the Japanese bookbinding method. Cut your ribbon so it’s six times longer than the book is tall. For example, if your book is 6 inches (15 cm) tall, cut a 36 inches (91 cm) ribbon to use.^{[6]
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- Place the ribbon down through the top hole. Leave a length on the right for a bow.
- Bring the same end around and push it down through the same hole again.
- Thread the same end down through the bottom hole.
- Bring the same end around and thread it down through the bottom hole again.
- Wrap it underneath and down through the bottom hole once more.
- Pull the same end through the top hole to form a criss-cross pattern along the spine.
- Wrap it over the top of the book and tie it with the other end in a knot. Let the knot sit on top of the hole.
- Tie in a bow.

Community Q&A

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Question

How much space between each page do I need to glue a picture?

Community Answer

You don't need to glue any pictures if you don't want to. If you do, just do so on every page to the right-hand side.

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How can I make a picture space?

Community Answer

If you want a drawn picture, draw it on paper, then glue it on the cover. if you want any other picture, glue it where you want it on the cover.

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What else could be used without using cardboard as the cover?

Community Answer

You could use wood or a board from a game or plastic or anything else you're able to cut to shape.

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Tips

If you are making a diary, you can wrap some string or ribbon around the front cover to make a convenient place to put loose paper and/or pictures.

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Be precise with your measurements.

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If you’re not crafty or want to help a child make a book, consider ordering a blank book online. You can illustrate the pages using art supplies or add your writing.

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Tips from our Readers

The advice in this section is based on the lived experiences of wikiHow readers like you. If you have a helpful tip you’d like to share on wikiHow, please submit it in the field below.

You can use old game boards and other wooden materials for the cover and back. Fasten the book together with loose-leaf rings, hinges or nuts and bolts.
You can glue a ribbon to the inside front cover of your book to use as a bookmark or placeholder for where you last wrote.
If you're making a scrapbook, you can attach clear plastic bags to the pages to hold photos or mementos.
Add some extra paper to the end so your reader will have a place to take notes.
A piece of wool makes a stronger binding than a ribbon.

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