Little belts for your journals

Dear friend,

You know that little belt that keeps a journal from flopping open — the one that makes a handmade book look properly finished, like someone thought it all the way through? I used to assume they were fiddly to make, or that I needed specialist leather tools, or the right buckles from the right shop. So I kept admiring them on other people's journals and not making them on mine.

It turns out almost none of that is true. The buckles are already in your house — on an old bag, a worn-out boot, a dog collar you kept for no particular reason. The strap can be ribbon, fabric, trim, or leather. The securing can be done with a sewing machine, or brads, or a dab of glue. There are more ways in than I'd imagined, and most of them are forgiving.

In this tutorial I made fourteen belts — all in a single week, starting from no experience at all. Ribbon ones with triglide buckles. Fabric ones sewn and folded and finished with blanket stitch. Leather ones cut with a metal ruler and an X-acto knife, set with brads and eyelets and a few little studs. Some plain, some embellished. All of them, by the end, looking like they belonged exactly where they were.

If you've been meaning to add a closure to a journal and just haven't quite started, here's the whole thing — from scavenging buckles to rounding the tip of the strap so it feeds through cleanly.