Global Recycled Products

Make Your Own Refillable Notebook Like Cattleya

by Cecile Cinco

Prices of thick notebooks have gone higher and higher. Yes, they are beautiful but truthfully, you’re paying more for the trademark than for the notebook itself. So, I made my own refillable notebook which most of the needed materials are recycled.

Materials needed:

- paper you would write on, 10 pcs per set, total 50 (I used the 8.5×11 inches bond paper). I do prefer unlined paper and the cheapest clean set would be the plain bond paper.
- hairpins, 10 pcs
- used illustration board (for front cover, back cover, and spine)
- used cloth (I used corduroy cut off from a leg of never-to-be-worn-again pants) for cover
- scrap cloth for design
- string for bookmark (optional)

Stuff you need:

- glue gun with glue stick
- sewing machine
- ruler
- cutter knife
- marker (to mark where to cut or sew)
- cutting board or anything glass, like mirror

What to do:

1. Get 10 sheets of paper, fold the top crosswise. It will be the guide where you will sew all 10 sheets together. Make 5 sets.

2. Measure the folded size plus the thickness of the 5 sets (for the spine) and make the cover out of the illustration board. Half-cut the spine edges for easy folding. It also makes your folding straight.

3. Attach the sewn paper to the board with paired hairpins (remember Cattleya?). This is what makes this notebook refillable.

4. Glue gun the bookmark string and the spine. The additional spine covers the rough hairpins and glue to have a smooth spine.

5. Sew your cloth cover with flaps so you just have to insert your flont and back board cover. Of course you have to measure so it fits snuggly.

6. Glue your design and you have it complete.

When you have filled all the pages, simply take off the top hairpin, pull the sewn paper, and put and newly sewn set, and put the hairpin back.

Popularity: 13% [?]