How to Do Saddle Stitch Bookbinding

Last Updated: September 15, 2021

If you’ve ever felt that you couldn’t find a notebook that suited your specific purpose or needed a quick and easy way to put together a book or magazine, sewing it together yourself is an excellent option. This allows you to customize and make changes however you desire and enjoy the relaxing process and satisfaction of binding your own book. Saddle stitching is one of the easiest and quickest methods of bookbinding that will result in an efficiently bound and unique book suited for you!

Steps

1
Fold the pieces of paper in half one at a time. Do this to however many sheets of paper you plan on having in your book. Repeating the folding process for one sheet of paper at a time will create a clean sharp fold for your pages. It is okay to take a few at a time to speed up the process in return for a less clean and precise fold.
2
Use an object with a flat edge to flatten each piece of paper at the fold. Use a bone folder if it is available to you. If not, a ruler or a similar object will work as well. Hold the folded paper down and press the flat-edged object along the fold for a sharp edge. Following this step using one sheet at a time will produce the best result.

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3
Unfold the papers. Lay them on top of one another to keep your workspace tidy.
4
Poke evenly spaced holes along the paper fold using a needle. Choose any number of holes that is suitable for the size of paper you are using. Use a ruler to measure out and mark where you plan to poke a hole. The spacing and number of holes should be the same for every piece of paper. A 0.5- to 1- inch spacing between holes is recommended. Repeat for the rest of the paper.
- You may choose to poke through all the pages at once to save time. Ensure your needle is thick enough to go through all of them. If your stack is too thick, just choose to poke through a few at a time.
- Be gentle while handling your paper in this step, if not, your papers may end up very crumpled at the end.
5
Stack the unfolded papers on top of each other. Make sure the holes are aligned when stacking.
6
Cut a piece of thread twice the length of the book. The length is the dimension parallel to the direction of the holes.
- Cut the thread to be longer than instructed if you worry you will run out of thread or have more excess at the end to make tying a knot easier, but the twice the length should be enough to work with.
7
Thread the needle and tie a knot at the end of the thread. Tie a double knot if the thread you used loosens easily or the knot is much smaller than the thickness of the needle. This is so when you begin the threading process, the knot does not get pulled through the hole.
8
Pull the needle through one of the holes at the far end through all the sheets of paper. Tug the thread gently until the knot hits the other side of the hole. Next, pull the thread through the next hole but in the opposite direction as the first hole. Tug gently to remove any slack in the thread, but not too tight causing the thread to snap.
9
Continue threading in an alternating pattern until you thread through the last hole on the other end of the page. Tug gently after threading through each hole to remove any slack.
10
Continue threading through the holes in the same pattern in the opposite direction until the thread passes back through the first hole. Make sure you are threading through each hole in the opposite direction as you did the first time through so that you are not undoing your work.
11
Once you thread through the first hole, tie a knot around the thread that is already there. Tie a double knot if a single knot is too loose.
- If necessary, flip your pages so that the side the thread is coming through is face up.
12
Pull the needle back through the first hole until the knot is on the other side of the book.
13
Finish off by cutting any excess thread. Having too much excess thread hanging from your book might be troublesome when using your book. Cut close to, but not touching the knot so that the thread does not come undone.