Dare to Make It: Holiday

How to Make an All-Recycled Sketchbook

Pin It

Lee Meredith, contributor

16 users recommend

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

Add Comment
Print

Once all the sections are bound together, it's time to bind them to the fabric. Cut a piece of woven (nonstretchy) fabric a little smaller than the cover when it's flattened open. Vintage sheets work great and keep with the recycled materials theme, so I suggest finding a sheet with a cool pattern when you're thrift-store shopping for the books!

I used a piece cut from a thrifted sheet, and now I still have tons of the fabric left for future projects!

Now hand-sew the sections of pages down the center of the fabric. Start with the center-most position so you can work your way outward and keep the pages all centered; find the exact center of the fabric by folding it in half. Using a sturdy thread, or double-stranded normal sewing thread, start by bringing the needle up through the back (wrong side) of the top of the fabric.

Using a fabric with a vertical stripe pattern made it super easy for me to bind the pages straight.

Then bring the needle up through a hole in the binding of the pages, making sure the tops of the fabric and the pages are aligned. Now you'll bring it back down through a hole below. These stitches can be spaced super far apart, since the pages are already well-bound together and there will be glue securing the fabric to the cover, which will help the book stay together even more.

My stitches are approximately 1 inch wide.

Add Comment Print

Make It: Beaded Stitch Markers!  

Back to List

Fold Your Dinner Napkin into a Turkey

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 I have loads of old books (mostly outdated books from schools) full of interesting pictures.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

You must be logged in to post comments. Click here to login.