Dare to Make It: Holiday

How to Make an All-Recycled Sketchbook

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Lee Meredith, contributor

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Using recycled book pages for the sketchbook pages means some pages will have more white space than others—a constant reminder that it's all recycled!

Lee Meredith

I chose for the pages to be upside down so the original book text and images would be less distracting to the sketchbook.

Lee Meredith

Using a thickish marker allows for sketching/writing over the book text with no problem.

Lee Meredith

Using recycled book pages for the sketchbook pages means some pages will have more white space than others—a constant reminder that it's all recycled!

Photo: Lee Meredith

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Now do the same for the big book—rip out pages in the sections they are bound in, but be careful not to tear the pages themselves. You probably won't need to take out all the pages, just enough to fill your sketchbook. My sketchbook ended up using 30 sheets of the pages. Use the paper cutter to chop the pages a little shorter than the height of the smaller book, cutting as many pages at a time as your cutter can comfortably handle.

I put the book on the pages to measure where to cut the first set, and I took note of the grid line on the cutter for measuring the next stacks.

If there is glue from binding on the sides of the pages, you'll need to neatly trim that off, as the side of the pages that were bound will be on the outer edges of the sketchbook pages. Once all the pages are neatly cut to the same size, separate them into stacks of 10 sheets, as many stacks as you need to fill your cover when they are folded. Then fold each stack in half to make book-sized sections.

I put the pages with no white space on the outsides of my sections, but you can choose not to use any no-white pages in your book at all.

Now you'll sew the sections together at the seams—I use a machine for this part and it works great, but you can choose to do it by hand. Use a straight stitch with a wide stitch length, sturdy thread, and go slowly, helping guide the paper along. If it sticks and the needle goes through the paper several times too close together, it will cause ripping at the seam. My machine (which is very simple) had no problem going through 10 sheets, but if you're nervous about it, you can cut down the number of sheets per section.

Even the most basic sewing machines can stitch through paper just like fabric!

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Comments (4)

JenniferStern writes: I'm really a go-green kinda girl, and this one definitely has my vote... I'm adding it to my Christmas Gift Giving List!
Posted: 11:14 am on November 10th

mommaviv writes: I like this idea alot! I have loads of old books (mostly outdated books from schools) full of interesting pictures. I think I can comine the pages into one really cool sketch book. I think this is a much better use of them than letting them gather dust on a shelf never to be looked at.
Posted: 11:53 pm on November 8th

laughingpurplegoldfi writes: I love this idea... I'm just not sure that I have the stamina to see a project like this through from start to finish... but I love, love, love it!

definitely 'bookmarking' this one... just in case the motivation strikes me one day... and I'm really hoping that it does :)

thanks for sharing
Posted: 5:32 pm on November 8th

Average_Jane_Crafter writes: Ooooh! I love this! Such a clever use of old books, and a cool way to combine stitching/paper/fabric. love it! :)
Posted: 4:58 pm on November 8th

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