Back to School In the Dollhouse with Spiral Bound Notebooks
Wednesday July 15, 2009
This project for dolls house scale spiral bound notebooks came about as a result of a call for help from the forum. I'm sure many of you have been involved in trying to make miniatures for the first time as a form of piece work to earn money. Trouble is, without experience working in small scales, some of these projects deserve the very difficult rating the company gives them.
If you want to try before you start trying to make a living assembling miniature kits, print off this new double page printable (you have no idea how difficult it is to get a back to back printable!) Please let me know in the forum if it works for you!
Photo copyright 2009 Lesley Shepherd, Licensed to About.com Inc.
Comments
Thanks Lesley for posting this project! I tried some today, and it’s true… these are very tricky.
I plan to switch to a more reinforced cover (plastic coated paper or cardstock, maybe?) since my regular paper covers got chewed up while threading the wire through the holes. The effect is of a well-used notebook, which is actually kind of cool.
I was not able to achieve the double sided notebook paper with my printer. Perhaps if the notebook paper images were centered exactly in the 8.5″x11″ PDF file? I was hoping to fix it using Adobe Illustrator, but the PDF is password protected.
I didn’t use a sewing machine (will do that next time, however). Instead, I scored the edge first and made 1/16″ marks down the scored groove with a precise pen before piercing with a quilting needle into an eraser. I used the thinnest wire I had on hand, which was easy to manipulate and pull through the holes.
I think I will love making these after a few more practice runs.
Thanks again!
Thanks for letting me know Katie! The pdf files do line up with each other so it may be your printer’s margin settings which prevent you from printing the liners double sided. You may be able to move the paper within your paper tray to get them to line up.
A sewing machine is a big help getting the holes in place! I’ve also heard that people use mini hand or electrical drills. A plastic template helps keep the holes aligned and the covers from getting worn. Once you get the tension right for your wire you should have less difficulty!
Thank you so much for this tutorial. I love books and have made a lot of them but this is the first time I have used a sewing machine to make them. Also the first time I have done coil bindings. The sewing machine worked great! Yes the coils were a little fiddly but the more I did the easier it got. I did the double sided and it did not line up exactly but it was close enough. I put the pictures on my blog along with a link to your tutorial.