Homemade "midori"-Style Leather Notebook

[UncleJoe420]

Do post a picture when you're done sewing!

 

To be honest, am not that great at sewing, so I usually use double-sided tape.. It is a bit of a cheat, I know...

[UncleJoe420]

Sorry to double-post, but was wondering if anyone knew the Kanji for Midori?

[Jimmy Joe]

Sorry to double-post, but was wondering if anyone knew the Kanji for Midori?

For the regular word in Japanese, it's "緑", but the company uses the katakana "ミドリ" or the abbreviation "MD".

[UncleJoe420]

Sorry to double-post, but was wondering if anyone knew the Kanji for Midori?

For the regular word in Japanese, it's "緑", but the company uses the katakana "ミドリ" or the abbreviation "MD".

 

Thanks Jimmy!!

[UncleJoe420]

Ok, thought I'd take a couple of pictures of my Midori attempts for you folks to peruse. I know they may not look as great as all the other versions here; I tried the best with what I got to work with, and still got to decide on what elastic to use for closures..

 

The left book holds 2 Moleskine cahiers, and the one on the right holds 4!

 

I used 5mm elastic tape to hold the books inside the covers

 

I have attached the leather fabric to a card inner cover, to give it a bit of stiffness

 

Hope you like my handiwork thus far; any ideas or suggestions would be appreciated!!

[dfranks04]

Very nice. I love my Midori Traveler's Notebook!

[comfortableshoes]

I made myself a Midori Traveler knock off about a year ago. I really enjoyed it but I find myself taking my class drafts, printing them, folding them in half and stuffing them inside. When I do this they hang outside the cover. I decided to make myself a slightly larger, by about 1/4 inch on the back. I reused the original cover to make a pocket sized cover. Made with thick 4oz steer hide, these are pretty stiff. I used a hot wax to stiffen the leather a little more and give it a glossy deep finish.

Thisis the large side, I kept the raw edge of the leather and included some letters and numbers that were carved into the hide.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7179/6909353672_e2420361de.jpg

Midori Traveler Style Notebook Large by lessherger, on Flickr

 

This is the small sized, I made an elastic pull out of a scrap of leather and a paper bead my friend Eveline made for me. Since taking this pic I stitched a pocket to the back inside of the cover.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7237/6909352784_ac8d504456.jpg

Midori Traveler Style Notebook Small by lessherger, on Flickr

 

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5323/6909351986_2d182e568e.jpg

Midori Traveler Style Notebook Small by lessherger, on Flickr

 

There is something really magical in taking a dull piece of hide and rubbing it with wax until it has a glossy appearance.

[KrazyIvan]

Ok, thought I'd take a couple of pictures of my Midori attempts for you folks to peruse. I know they may not look as great as all the other versions here; I tried the best with what I got to work with, and still got to decide on what elastic to use for closures..

 

The left book holds 2 Moleskine cahiers, and the one on the right holds 4!

 

I used 5mm elastic tape to hold the books inside the covers

 

I have attached the leather fabric to a card inner cover, to give it a bit of stiffness

 

Hope you like my handiwork thus far; any ideas or suggestions would be appreciated!!

 

I like the look of those. The only thing I would suggest might be to run the excess elastic on the interior and maybe stitch it to the spine for a cleaner look.

[Gcouch]

Looks good. It's always more satisfying to use something you made yourself than a store bought version. I haven't attempted the endeavor yet, but maybe over the summer.

[UncleJoe420]

 

I like the look of those. The only thing I would suggest might be to run the excess elastic on the interior and maybe stitch it to the spine for a cleaner look.

 

I will try and keep the knot on the inside for my next book, but as for stitching the elastic to the inside, there may be a problem as that would not allow me to put in twice as many refills as I'd like...

[elderberry]

Thanks all for posting your leather notebook holders here!

 

A while ago I had the idea to make my own refill out of some light Gmund beer paper I had around. It's A4 so all it needs are a few stitches to make it into a basic A5 notebook. I used 25 A4 sheets so the journal will have 100 pages. They're rather firm so I needed to stitch them 7-8 sheets at a time.

 

 

Of course a notebook needs a cover! I decided to use some Khadi cotton rag paper. It's a really thick structured off-white paper with deckled edges, looks great but is more of a drawing paper since it's too heavily structured to write well on it. Since the whole thing looked imperfect enough anyway I decided to use my "try-out" sheet for the cover with some poems by Emily Dickinson on it.

 

 

[elderberry]

In the leather notebook:

[comfortableshoes]

In the leather notebook:

 

I really like the look of the red ink on that rough paper.

[UncleJoe420]

In the leather notebook:

 

That refill looks great, with the written-on cover!! Might have to try that with future refills; perhaps write the Rime Of The Ancient Mariner on them?

[elderberry]

Thanks! I just wrapped the sheet around the "notebook" to see what it might look like and was a fan immediately. So I've reused the concept for my next refill which I made today (it just shows where some days off work can lead you..) This time shown in a black leather journal with grey agate pearl and matching grey mother-of-pearl button on the closure (doesn't show on the picture).

 

 

My newest refill also has a Khadi paper cover with a Dickinson poem about antique books written on it (Rime of the Ancient Mariner seemed a little long :-D) Inside there's beautiful, beautiful Amalfi watermarked paper. I ordered this before Easter for exactly this purpose, it's not the letter-writing paper but some ink-jet paper Amalfi is offering in bulks. It's still expensive (€ 48,- for 100 sheets) but out of those 100 sheets you can get about 4 notebook refills or a really thick hand-bound notebook and it's still a steal compared to the ready-made notebooks.

 

 

I find the paper to be of supreme quality. It is a creamy ivory colour and has an incredibly soft and supple feel to it. I don't notice much of a difference to their stationery sheets, they are the same weight and colour. They both have deckled edges, one of them more so than the other three. My stationery is a tiny bit more structured than the ink-jet paper, but it's handmade paper so the properties might always vary a bit. I also can't detect any difference in writing properties. Each sheet carries the Amalfi watermark, the front side (as I learnt here on FPN: the front side is the side on which the watermark is readable) being a little rougher than the back side.

 

There doesn't seem to be any feathering, the spots where the letters show rough outlines it's probably due to the surface structure of the paper. There is a bit of showthrough since the paper is, like many watermarked papers, a little transparent, but there's no bleeding even with a wet nib like the Nakaya music nib.

 

Like my last one, the refill is made out of 25 sheets of paper, held together with stitches and waxed thread. For a more regular appearance I pre-stitched the whole pad with a nail and hammer on some scrap wood so the holes would be on the same spot on any sheet, then I sewed the whole thing together. The paper gives an entirely different feel to work with than the crisp, firm beer paper I had last time, it's a bit like cloth and feels very tender though it isn't really.

Still complimenting myself on the idea of making my own Midori-knock off - this is fun, everyone should do it!

[Letsdisinfect]

This Whole post is amazing- you all do such fantastic work! I've been lusting after the Midori TN lately, but the cost is making me apprehensive. I wonder if I can find a piece of leather locally....

[elderberry]

Same make, same model, different colours:

 

 

 

 

This leather is tedious to work with, but the results really make up for it.

[English John]

I would like try to adapt a leather covered notebook I have to carry some moveable Midori style refills that I will make myself.

Can anyone help with this?

I am unsure about the "string" I need , and how it can be attached to the cover.

Also, this leather is not hard, but the notelets inside I would make with strongish card covers.Would I need to strengthen the spine ?

Will this work ?

 

Any advice is very welcome

 

Here are the pictures

http://i827.photobucket.com/albums/zz194/english_john/029.jpg

http://i827.photobucket.com/albums/zz194/english_john/027-1.jpg

http://i827.photobucket.com/albums/zz194/english_john/026-1.jpg

http://i827.photobucket.com/albums/zz194/english_john/025-1.jpg

http://i827.photobucket.com/albums/zz194/english_john/024-1.jpg

[rnfuller]

Wow!

 

I love those, If you decide to sell any I would be interested!

 

Randy

 

 

 

 

Same make, same model, different colours:

 

 

 

 

This leather is tedious to work with, but the results really make up for it.

[elderberry]

Wanted to show some more impressions of my A5 leather notebooks after some use and wear. I use the black one for work stuff but also lots of room for private notes, so it mostly goes wherever I go, and the brown one for writing and doodling. Since I'm doing a bit of drawing at the moment I've made an insert out of inexpensive sketching paper. Also because they're A5 they're great to store loose leaves of all kind.

 

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-SAtN7IDUi3s/UHsLzTLr4DI/AAAAAAAAAJg/pxoRURxS7GM/s1600/JLschwarzblog1.jpg

 

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JjNQMfLGTVw/UHsL9okIuFI/AAAAAAAAAJ4/Ohf0EohQLfs/s1600/JLschwarzblog.jpg

 

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4YS8lp47CYs/UH11NXqjYGI/AAAAAAAAAKY/-qk6EtjE4lg/s1600/JLbraunblog3.jpg

 

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ecCLXnb6XxI/UH11L6iVQTI/AAAAAAAAAKU/8c0Ynfg6z5M/s1600/JLbraunblog5.jpg

 

So all in all, after 9 months, I'm still happy with the project.