Traditional Chinese bookbinding—known as “stab binding” — gained popularity in Japan, Korea, Vietnam, and other Asian countries many hundreds of years ago. These simple bookbinding techniques have stood the test of time and combine form with function. For this project, I used faux leather as the covers, beautiful watercolor paper for the pages, and bright, cheerful Sashiko thread to bind them all together. These decoratively stitched books would make thoughtful gifts or could be used as scrapbooks, journals, or sketchbooks. I slightly altered well-known Japanese bookbinding designs and the two designs included are “Stripes,” which is modified from the traditional 4-hole stab binding method (I used holes); and a simplified “Asanoha,” which means hemp leaf. Finished dimensions: 5" x 7" [12.7 cm x 17.8 cm] // thickness is dependent on the number of pages included
