I have bound many of my journals myself. I learned how at a fantastic place called The Center for Book Arts, here in Manhattan. It was a lifelong dream come true, learning to make my own hard cover books.

I would like to show you the basic steps for making a thin, one signature book.

The trickiest part of bookbinding is being reasonably neat, which I'm not. Try to cut straight lines and have plenty of scrap paper to absorb glue. Most of the supplies are basic to any art supply or craft store. It's worth getting real bookbinding supplies after you've made a book or two; the right glue, cloth and board will make sure your books last for a good long while.

	Take a sheet of paper and determine which ways the grain runs - the direction of least resistance - or your book will warp. Stack ten or so pages with the grain running up and down.
	Fold in half to make a pamphlet. Crease with the bone. Wrap the endpaper, decorative side in, around the pamphlet.

	Cut a piece of cloth hinge, the same height as the pamphlet and extending 1.5" on front and back of pamphlet.
	Sew through the hinge, endpaper and pamphlet in a figure 8 pattern, starting on the inside, through the center(1), then in an inch from the bottom (2), back through the center, in an inch from the top, then back to the center, ending in a double knot.

Draw a line on the hinge cloth, 1/4" in from the spine.
Cut two pieces of book board, making sure the grain runs up and down. Each should be 1/8 larger than the pamphlet on the top, the bottom and the foredge.

Put some waste paper between the hinge and the endaper. Mix your glue with water, 70:30. Apply it to the entire hinge with a brush. Remove the wastepaper. Lay the board on the glue covered hinge, lining it up so it projects the same amount above and below and that the spine edge of the board is right on the line you marked on the hinge. Do the same on the other side.

	Put the whole thing under some weights until it's dry.
	Cut a strip of bookcloth so it wraps around the spine and 1/4 of the cover and projects 3/4" above the top and bottom of the boards. Cover the inside with glue. Lower the pamphlet onto the center of the cloth and pull the sides up around the spine and onto the board. Rub it down well with the bone.

	Hold the book by the pages and release the covers down on either side, then fold the cloth over the front and back boards. Rub everything down snugly with the bone.
	Cut 2 pieces of covering paper, extending 3/4" beyond the top, bottom and foredge of the boards. It should slightly overlap the book cloth on the spine edge. Coat the underside of the paper with paste, position it on the boards and rub it down well. Cut off the corners and fold the edges down tightly with the bone.

	Put waste paper between the heavy endpaper and the first blank page of the pamphlet, coat the underside of the endpaper with glue and close the book so the endpaper sticks to the inside board.
Slide out the waste paper, turn the book over and do the whole step over with the back cover. Slip wax paper back against the endpapers and put the book under weights. Check the wax paper to make sure glue doesn't seep through and join the pages together. Leave overnight.