How to fill a Moleskine with good quality paper

If you follow José on Instagram, you may have seen the DIY Moleskine he recently posted. Remember that wonderful journal of his that he was so kind to share with us here? Well, José shows us just how he adds his favored vergé paper. (Be sure to also check out this Youtube video he recently posted displaying more of his journaling pages. Absolutely stunning!)

For those that do not have an Instagram account, see below for José's step-by-step DIY Moleskine instructions:

Materials:

 -Moleskine cover

 -Good quality paper

-Scissors

-Cutter

-Ruler

-Thread and needle

-Adhesive for bookbinding

-Cotton fabric for bookbinding

Folding the sheets. Cut the A4 sheets in A5 size. Only 15 sheets A4 from 100g/m2 paper are enough for a moleskine pocket. Fold them and make groups of 3 sheets each. Press them properly.

Binding. Perform 5 holes with a needle and a template. Sew applying the method you like.

Paste the stack. Press the sheets in order to apply glue only on the edges. Set the cotton fabric and apply more glue. Release the stack and paste the wings of the fabric to the paper. This will avoid tiny clearances between the sewn sheets.

Cutting the paper. Cut the edge of the stack to fix into Moleskine dimensions. Use the sandpaper to shape the corners.

Remove the paper. Kill the Moleskine. Do not suffer or produce too much tears. Cut the paper from the second pasted pages (front and rear part of the notebook). Reuse the register tape and glue it in the new paper.

Insert the new paper. Paste the stack made with the new paper into the cover. Apply glue only on a small area of the external sheets, not in the edge. Voilà! New notebook is ready for all kind of inks.

Extra. When the notebook is complete is a good idea to add a few more details like stylish paper in the first pages or an acid-free tissue paper pocket for better conservation when being stored.



For more of José's journalings, be sure to check out his Instagram account, @jose_naranja.