rebinding: giving notebooks a second life

wonder | wander | women love collecting and using up stationery, and between working at a paper store in New York and a bookstore in London we have amassed a library of beautiful journals and sketchbooks. But sometimes the notebooks fill up far too fast and we want to carry around that gorgeous cover a bit longer.

Journals from Moleskine, Paperblanks and Insight Editions

It seems like a shame to just use a journal once and then shelve it, only to buy another beautiful one and finish that in the same way. Luckily we don't have to. Several years ago we posted about how to refill used journals with new and better paper.

Book blocks, stitched and folded

Many stationery companies have their own special sizes. Moleskine's most popular are the Pocket and Large, while Paperblanks have Mini, Midi and Ultra. Most UK notebooks (and many from the EU) come in A sizes especially A5 and A4, and loose paper comes in A sizes most often too.

Insight Editions notebook with cartridge paper

Because of this the easiest journals to refill are the regular A5 size produced by Insight Editions, Leuchtturm1917, and most UK and EU stationery brands. Instead of using an A4 pad I often use an A4 stapled notebook that opens to an A3 size, like this Fabriano A4 stapled notebook.

With Moleskine and other special sizes I use the same A size paper but cut it down to fit the cover. This leaves quite a bit of paper, sometimes enough for another small notebook. It's easy to stitch these up and use them for testing pens and paints.

Watercolour, ink and brush pen testing on Fabriano paper

We learned the refill method from the blog of artist Jose Naranja, who uses Moleskine pocket notebooks and fills them with watercolour paper. Over the years I've made 8-10 journals this way, with varying success.

Former Moleskine diary with Fabriano paper

Sometimes the notebook comes out really nicely, with neat pages and edges, laying flat when open and (except for the uneven page edges) fitting into the cover like its own paper.

Insights notebook with original first page pasted to refill paper

Other times, despite my best efforts, the paper buckles and bubbles, or measurements turn out to be wrong and the block of paper is misaligned to the cover. Things stick out, or don't fit, or don't lie flat. Thicker paper also tends to be stiffer and more resistant to staying open.

Over the years we've gotten more comfortable with the process, but it doesn't seem to guarantee the outcome of the notebook. Even so, the wonkiest results still yield a notebook that's pretty to look at and lovely to use, and we want to keep making our little treasures for just as long as we will keep enjoying new notebooks. We hope you will, too.