DIY | Knitting In Flashes

I love this little Zutter Bind It All O-wire binding machine (No affiliate). It’s small but powerful. It punched through a heavy book cover, a flexible plastic ruler, and one to several sheets of paper perfectly. How-to video here.

As long as I had it out, I decided to bind my sewing machine manual and add an index to it. I don’t know why some manuals include an index and why some think you can find what you’re looking for in the table of contents. Sure it took me awhile to find everything with the appropriate page numbers and organize it but now it’s done and easy to find exactly what I need.

I used a heavy card stock for the front and back covers and cut out the “title” in the front. I didn’t quite get the hole in the right spot but it’s good enough for me. (Unless my perfectionist self decides otherwise.)

The original manual is larger than letter sized paper so scanned it into my computer so I could resize it.

I included some Notes pages to the back in case I need to add anything..

Now when I need to find out how to make a buttonhole, I don’t have to scan the TOC. It’s right there in the index.

I have friends that keep a notebook of all the books they’ve read. I kind of wish I had started that years ago. I get most of my books online through the library. Fortunately I can look through my history there and see what I’ve read but those are only the ones I read in the last 12-13 years.

Since joining the Book Club I fee/think/need to keep a record of the books and a brief description of the books we’ve read along with some discussion questions or points that meant something to me.

I like writing on lined paper, specifically graph paper. (That’s the architect wanna-be in me.) I bought ten of these notebooks before I retired and only have two or three left. I use one for my knitting projects. The only thing I don’t like is that they are bound in a way that they don’t lay flat when opened.

Solution: Clamp the book shut. Take a hack saw to the spine and cut it off. Trim the cover and cut pages with a paper cutter or craft knife. Use a special comb-binding machine to make a wire-bound book. Recover the cover (optional). Assemble the book.