Easy Books with Fabric Faux Book Cloth Tape
My nephew will be turning 7 next week. You may recall he has become quite the avid book creator and loves to draw anything. He has the patience and interest to sit and draw for hours and recreates most everything he sees. It’s amazing. He declared that he might just become an illustrator one day. Well. Say no more! With that nugget of knowledge I set off to make him some easy books made with some faux cloth bookbinding tape.
He will be getting a stack of these with the Illustrators 50 by The Society of Illustrators book and the 1971 edition of Childcraft’s How We Get Things I found at Goodwill. He will flip looking at all of the illustrations in both and I can just imagine him trying to draw his own versions of them. Oh I can’t wait. In the meantime, make your own easy books! Step-by-step directions below the cut.
Step 1. You will need some tagboard, or heavy card stock, for the cover and paper for the interior pages. I used scrap paper for both and made books that measured 5 3/4″ x 4.5″ when completed. I used 5 sheets, per book, of white scrap paper for pages that I cut to 8.5″ x 5 3/8″ so when folded it would be 4.25″ wide. The size is not terribly important, don’t stress yourself. You just want the cover to be slightly larger than the size of the pages. TIP: To get really clean cuts, use a guillotine style paper cutter. If you have one that doesn’t have a moveable fence, like mine, tape down a piece of scrap board so you get consistent cuts for the pages and covers every time.
Step 2. Fold both your cover and pages in half place the pages into the cover, lining up the fold lines. Using your sewing machine, sew along the creased pages to attach the pages to the cover. Hold on to your strings tightly when you begin to stitch and I keep long threads on both ends when I cut it off of the machine so I can knot the two ends together. This just ensures the ends won’t come undone. Sewing paper will dull your sewing needle so I keep a special paper needle on-hand. If you don’t have one yet, just remember to replace your needle before you sew fabric again. TIP: If you don’t have a sewing machine you can simply staple the pages together along the center crease. If you don’t have a long reach stapler, go to your local copy shop and use theirs for free.
Step 3. Cut the fabric for your faux book cloth tape. Quilting cotton weight fabric works best. You will need a piece that is 3″ wide by 1″ longer than the height of your book.
Step 4. On the backside of the fabric, draw three lines along the long edge, using a ruler and pencil, that are .5″ from the bottom, 1.5″ from the bottom and 2.5″ from the bottom. These will be your guides for the next two steps. If you are using a light colored fabric, draw these lines lightly.
Step 5. Place the fabric piece on your work table. Using Scotch brand 3/4″ permanent double sided tape, pull off a piece of tape that is longer than your fabric piece. (It’s important to use 3/4″ tape since it’s the perfect size for this project.) Line up this piece of tape underneath the top line you made, .5″ from the top edge of the fabric. You want the tape to extend beyond the edge of the fabric so it stays stuck down to your work surface. It will make it easier to handle.
Step 6. Fold down the top edge of the fabric onto the double stick tape. It will fold nicely along the straight line edge of the tape. Repeat for the bottom line you made, place double stick tape and fold up bottom edge of fabric. Next, you will want to place another piece of double stick tape over the folded edge of fabric you just made, right on top of the first piece of tape you put down. Note: There will be no adhesive at the very center line of the tape, which works out perfectly and allows for the book to open and close easily without bunching up along the seam.
Step 7. Place your sewn or stapled book onto the middle of your faux book tape, using the pencil line you drew as your guide.
Step 8. Fold over your faux cloth book tape and press down on both sides firmly to attach it to your book front. Trim the ends that hang over the edge of the book with sharp scissors. Finish off the edges of the cut fabric with a FrayCheck or small amount of white glue so the cut ends won’t fray over time.
Here they all are! For my nephew, I put them all in box with a blank sticker on top so he could label his book box. This box fit the books I made perfectly.
I think I need to make some for me now, too.
Entry Filed under: step-by-step
22 Comments Add your own
1. Mindy | April 17th, 2009 at 12:00 pm
That is so flippin’ cool! He is just going to go nuts over it! And the box just adds to it.
You rock!
2. Hannah | April 17th, 2009 at 12:03 pm
Love them. Especially the box.
3. mushroommeadows | April 17th, 2009 at 12:30 pm
I love the books and your packaging skills are awesome!
4. amy k. | April 17th, 2009 at 2:21 pm
oh so very pleasing! my girls would love this too, as would I (of course you need some too!)
5. suzanne | April 17th, 2009 at 2:26 pm
you’re amazing. love these!
6. Austin Kleon | April 17th, 2009 at 2:36 pm
these are so rad!!!
7. amanda | April 17th, 2009 at 2:37 pm
oh this is a great tutorial. I will definitely try this. thanks sarah!
8. sarah | April 17th, 2009 at 2:38 pm
awesome! i’m so glad you all like them! let me know how it goes, if you try it out.
9. Malinda L | April 17th, 2009 at 3:07 pm
very nice!!!
10. RhiannonM | April 17th, 2009 at 4:56 pm
This is a ridiculously good idea. I would love to make some books now. :)
11. Mal* | April 17th, 2009 at 8:09 pm
Thank you for the generous tutorial! I used to make my living in part by bookbinding, and I have an itch to get back to it. Your good instructions and lovely photos just made it worse! (Lucky nephew)
12. Megan | April 18th, 2009 at 12:31 am
I love love love these! I must make some soon. Thanks for the instructions.
13. sally | April 18th, 2009 at 9:32 am
What an awesome idea!!
14. J. | April 18th, 2009 at 1:54 pm
Your nephew is so lucky, that is a wonderful present!
I’ll remember your tutorial when I next have do stuff for children’s party bags, I think one in each bag would be lovely!
15. april | April 18th, 2009 at 11:29 pm
You are one kick butt aunt! Those are awesome!
16. Bonny | April 20th, 2009 at 8:52 am
Those books are awesome!
One question: have you had any problems with the adhesive in the double sided tape ’seeping’ through the fabric and making it go oily? I have had this happen with some tapes, just wondering if you knew how to avoid this : )
B
17. Rachel | April 20th, 2009 at 12:17 pm
What a lucky box! I love the box presentation, this is so cool! Thanks for sharing, I’ll be linking.
18. Lynne | April 20th, 2009 at 3:34 pm
i’m dying!!! this is the best present ever.i totally want to try this -
19. anne | April 21st, 2009 at 12:31 am
thanks so much for yet another great post! i had forgotten all about those great childcraft books until now. thanks for the reminder! and your books are incredible too. i’m inspired to make some with the scrap paper that our office produces.
20. stephany | September 16th, 2009 at 11:39 am
Ive been making books for a couple of years now and i never thought about using double sided scotch tape for the faux fabric. that’s a very good idea.
I’ve always wheatpasted rice paper onto the fabric and used elmer’s glue to paste it onto the cardboard.
21. Amber Wiley | September 16th, 2009 at 11:21 pm
Ooohhh… I loved the Childcraft books, too. And wanted to say “check out The Book Book from Tara Publishing” - it’s a good one, and some of their other stuff is superfantastic as well. I’m up waaaaay too late catching up on your blogging. Once upon a time, I kept with the blogs, yours included, since forever ago. First thing I remember of yours that I was in love with forever was your “Hello!” baby announcement card. Had an office job. Now have baby, years and years later, and am never on the web. But so glad to see your site again and read up and am ordering a couple of things and considering how I could possibly budget for some sort of Big Brother/Baby Sister trophy for next month, when I will have a 21-month big boy and a fresh new baby girl. Love, love, love your stuff, always have, and thanks so much for being here, being out there, being part of our material-for-cash-for-goods society, because I think you’re doing a bang-up job of it.
22. Satakieli | September 17th, 2009 at 11:42 am
I just found this, what a lovely idea. I made my own sketchbook for art class way back in the day when I was still in school. I never thought of using the same idea to make myself some little notebooks!
I remember sewing my sketchbook by hand instead of using a machine or stapler, You’d need a thick, sturdy needle and strong hands but I think it would work quite well for this.
I'm curious about your two cents. You smart cookie!
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