I’ll be streaming this live on my Ustream channel Monday 1/10/11 at 6pm EST.
If you want to follow along here are the materials:
- A 9x12inch piece of 4 ounce or heavier leather. Don’t get upholstery leather unless you want to back it.
- Ruler
- Hole Punch or Awl
- Exacto or Click Knife
- Hammer
- Eyelets and setting tool (not absolutely necessary
- Thin elastic cord- 2 pieces one 33 inches and one 12 inches
- Sharpie for marking where to cut.
You’ll need to cut a 9×12 inch piece of leather. If you have a leather shop in your area most likely they can cut a chunk for you. You can also look for heavier leather on eBay. I’ve seen a few sellers on there selling exactly the kind of leather you’ll need for this. Try looking for latigo leather or Leather 4 oz. You’ll find something. You can also contact a shop and see if they will cut a piece to size for you.
Find the center of each long side. We’ll be punching a hole at the top and bottom of the piece as well as a hole in the very middle of the leather. Then 2 more holes 1/8th of an inch from the first hole. Then one to lace through. This will make sense in the video.
After that we’ll use a few eyelets to support the holes and then thread the cord through the holes.
The 9×12 size is perfect for a moleskine cahier in the 6×9 size or my handmade jotters. I’ve also successfully carried the manuscript for my book stapled in a corner, folded in half then threaded under the elastic. Protects and holds it all together. It holds 3 elastics to hold notebooks.
Now keep in mind I’ve never seen a midori traveler in person, this is my version of their product from looking at online images. I use it primarily to hold all the handwritten notes in the various notebooks together in one place as well as my planner. I don’t know how their threading works.
Some ideas to add to this: if one wanted a stiffer back cover, a pocket could be sewn in and a piece of stiff card stuck in it. Backing the leather could add to the stiffness. I like the raw leather I’ve used as I can run acrylic paint into it to get a nice color change. The size of this can be adapted to ANY size notebook. Want one for a pocket sized? Measure the cover size, double then add an inch and a half to get the long side. For the short side add a half inch. (3×5 would get a 5.5×7.5 cover piece)
Anyway tune into the show tomorrow night, or if you can’t make it watch the video!
See the video here: