Bookmaking With Kids

It’s hard to believe that such elegant bindings* are easy enough for 2nd graders to sew, but it’s true. The trick, of course, is practice. But how do you get kids to practice … willingly?

I’ve started to use sewing cards, with surprising success. Most kids have never seen such a thing, so they think they’re pretty nifty. Plus, kids get their own cards to personalize and to keep—and even a little bit of ownership usually helps engage them in a project.

The upper card shows the pattern of holes, the lower shows the sewing.

I cut the cards out of sturdy cardboard and I punch two sets of sewing stations (or holes) in each, one pattern on the left and a variant on the right. Click both cards for close-ups.

Once I’ve stepped kids through the sewing, they snip out their stitches and sew the card again … and again. When they feel confident, I go one of two routes.

If I’m working with younger students … or if class time is short, I distribute pre-punched covers and pages for the kids to bind using the same pattern they’ve been practicing. If I’m working with older kids, or if I have the luxury of time, I let them sew pre-punched books first and then have the kids pair up to punch their own holes, using their sewing cards as templates.

Click to enlarge the sewing card above, then print it to create practice cards for your students. Or, download this PDF to get sewing templates for books that are 6, 8½ and 11 inches high.

You’ll find resources for making Japanese books listed in this post. And my favorite book on the subject is Japanese Book Binding: Instructions from a Master Craftsman by Kojiro Ikegami.

* What you’re seeing are the results of four hours of practice by teachers and parents in one of our Summer Camp workshops. You can click this link for a list of posts about other books we made.