Making My Yedda Journal

Hello! I am Margaux, co-founder of Peg and Awl, rambler behind our newsletters and Resounding Little Voices here on Substack. We have a website and a blog, but the blog is so tricky and takes team effort and we are already a small team, so we rarely share there. Thus, we’ve decided to start a Peg and Awl Substack because there are endless adventures behind the scenes at Peg and Awl, from personal projects to flea market finds, ungardening stories and more. And Substack makes it really easy!

I love making journals and all kinds of books to fill up. To be clear, I make them to fill them. I am not a blank book collector. My books get dirty and bent and filled to the brim. They are meant for ideas, drawings, journaling, and more. (I may share in a future post!)

To start, we decided to share some unconventional journal making processes. Here, I filmed myself making my most recent journal from old book covers, antique textiles, an old painty escutcheon, a tetra pak print and other treasures. This is the second book* that I made like this with no plans. You can hear my wheels turning in this video from start to finish — enthusiastic, doubtful, and joyous throughout the process

My sister-in-law Ashley, one of the Peg and Awl crew, edited it — bloopers and all! We hope you enjoy it!

Do let us know what you think. Please ask questions and share your books made with our instructions. We’d love to see them and share some here!

Things you will need:

1. Paper (we love this for its versatility - but get your favourite!)

2. Glue

3. Scissors

4. Thread

5. Needle

6. Ruler

7. Fabric (we will soon have bundles of our scraps available on our webiste!)

8. Pencil

9. Vintage Book or Something for your cover

10. Doodads if you’d like

11. Heavy books for a press

If you’ve just discovered us and our tutorials, go to Bookbinding at Home, Part 2: How to Stitch a Coverless Journal to learn how to stitch the inside of the book. If you have a cover you want to use, prepare your pages to fit! But don’t take your first one (or any) so seriously. You must play to learn:)

Find the rest of our tutorials here

*This is the first. You may have seen it over at Resounding Little Voices with my 100 Day Project!