I spotted Moleskines on sale at Barnes & Noble and spent a good long while picking up and examining many of the available options. The small versions are around three by five inches which would be a nice size to tuck in a back pocket or kangaroo pouch in my hoodie. In the end I walked away empty handed like so many times before. So much money for a tiny notebook. So much money for something that… I could DIY!
The chilly weather led to the opening of a new thermal shirt this past week. The packaging included a piece of cardboard. I saved it like I save so many odds and ends that might come in handy. I chopped that piece of cardboard down and then opened my new ream of 22lb paper. I chopped that down.
Then came the great debate. Should I hand sew the binding like I have done for all my previously made books or should I give the sewing machine a try. Out came the sewing machine. I tried to adjust the stitch length to the longest but had some trouble keeping the stitches exactly in the center. I was thrilled that this ended up not mattering in the final cahier.
Having the signature and cover piece in hand, I opted for the DIY easiest method. I have to admit by this time I was feeling a bit lazy and grabbed the closest bottle of Elmer’s school glue. (Yes, I have bottles of glue lying about the house.) I made sure to apply glue along the stitches to ensure nothing came unraveled and then pressed the signature into the cover. I folded that baby up and put it under my ginormous stack of library books to dry.
After some corner rounding and gentle spine manipulation, I admired my Mock-skine Cahier. Best part – it was made for just pennies and reused some packaging materials! The above pictures shows a large sized Moleskine Cahier (5.25 x 8.25 inches), a pocket sized cahier (3.5 x 5 inches) and then my slightly smaller Mock-skine. Not too shabby, eh?
My apologies go out to @michaelramm for not getting the bookmark included in this post. I promise it will be the next to appear here.
Take care and be well.
Miscellaneous Ramblings of a Thirty-Something DIYer 
Brad
Pretty slick! Having owned a Cahier, I bet yours is better since I don’t think very highly of them. ;)
Michael
WOW! Your talents continue to amaze me. I still have the envelope that you sent me with the Hero 266 in it (LOVE IT, BTW!) because of the doodles that you put on it. I really love the skull on the back side. I carefully opened the pkg as not to ruin him! I wonder what the postal peeps thought between WI and AL as that package migrated to the south!
Salihan
MY DH loves Moleskins and yes, they are dear! I’ve offered to make him notebooks before but he likes the Moleskins too much. “It’s the perfect size and the paper just the right thickness. The lines are perfectly spaced apart for my handwriting.” Hahaha… But that said, your notebooks look great! If only my DH wasn’t so fussy.
Cat
Aren’t you the crafty one? I think it’s pretty cool you put your own “Mockskine” together. I even love the name =)
Lauren
That’s pretty damn nifty. I need a sewing maching for soooo many things… I want to customise all my clothes and stich into Moleskine Cahier covers to make groovy designs and everything… sigh. My funds will not allow. I don’t even have a needle. Otherwise I’d be making these in a flash! Great idea, very inspiring.
Kate (Birdcage Cards)
I know! I always wondered why Moleskins are so expensive for such a small amount of writing space and have never shelled out the “big” bucks for one of my own.
A great DIY project!
School Supplies Sleuth
Great project! What kind of glue did you use around the stitching?
diysara
i use plain old white Elmer’s school glue :) i use the stuff on creations for my pet mouse too since its non-toxic.
Oni
It looks very cool! I have a question: did you cut-round the corners by hand? when I do that with mine, they don’t come out too even…
and also, your sewing machine was able to take the thickness of the paper and the cardboard? how many folios in your signature?
Congratulations on a great done job! :D
diysara
I have a corner rounding punch I bought on sale :) It comes in very handy.
There are a total of 10 pages i think so it only had to sew through the 5 pages. I glued it into the cardboard covers – didn’t try it in the sewing machine with all the layers.
Thanks much!
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