Making a Blank-Page Chapbook

   


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The equipment to produce a simple chapbook includes:
Paper - letter size (for 5.5" wide by 8.5) (Legal Size for 8½" x 11")
Cover material: card stock
Thread - embroidery floss, narrow ribbon, whatever you wish that will work )
Tapestry needle
Bodkin or awl (or the more readily available push pin) ;-)
Bone folder (or your fingernails, back of a knife, to create the crease / fold) :-)

Fold the paper(s) in 1/2 and create a nice sharp crease.

Stack a number of these folded signatures (folded papers) inside each other to give
you more pages. HINT: the more you attempt to stack, the thicker the spine are will be,
and the less neat the alignment of pages. (and harder to bind !)

The Cover (scrapbook store have pre-cut, large variety of coloured card stocks)

Fold the cover in 1/2 and add your stacked pages (one page into the other) inside with the
spine folds aligned. Use paper clips, bulldog clips or clothes-pegs to hold them all tight together.

Use the bodkin, awl or push pin to punch holes through the spine of the aligned pages and cover of the chapbook. HINT: A folded cloth, such as a towel, under the cover and pages gives you something to punch through to, which makes it easier. Make a central hole; then, depending on the size of the pages, add a set of evenly spaced holes at the top and bottom.

Make sure you keep everything aligned!

Cut a piece of linen thread (ribbon, embroidery floss or whatever) roughly twice the length of the chapbook. Thread it through your tapestry needle.
Follow the layout steps here:  Binding

Decorate the cover at however you wish.
You can use coloured thread or ribbon for the binding for greater decorative effect.