If you've got an old hardcover sitting in a thrift pile — especially one of those Readers Digest compendiums that never quite found a reader — this tutorial shows you how to turn it into a chunky, Christmas-themed altered book journal without gluing or removing a single page. The whole book gets used. What you end up with is something that sits open on a shelf, pockets full of tags and journaling spots, blanket-stitched page edges catching the light, and enough space to write your way through December.
What we cover
This tutorial walks through building an altered book journal from an existing hardcover — creating folded-page pockets in the middle section, grouping and sewing the remaining pages with blanket stitch along the edge, decorating and filling the finished structure, and doing a full flip-through of the completed Christmas version. The pocket section can double as a December daily or advent calendar setup, and the techniques work just as well for non-Christmas themes.
What you'll learn
How to find and create the folded-pocket middle section — the structural heart of this book. You fold pages alternately up and down to create individual pockets, each one capable of holding tags, journaling cards, or folded notes. The number of pockets is up to you: a handful for a modest mid-section, or up to 30–36 if you want the book to sit wide open on a shelf.
Why you leave a gap at the spine when folding — folding pages all the way to the spine puts stress right where the paper is most vulnerable. Leaving a small margin — a few millimetres — lets the page move naturally and dramatically reduces rips.
How to lift before you fold — rather than folding from the base of the page, you lift the page up first and then fold it down. It sounds like a small thing, but it makes a real difference in how cleanly the page folds and how rarely it tears.
How to separate the remaining pages into groups for sewing, including:
- Counting off roughly ten pages per group (fewer if pages are thick)
- Working from both ends toward the middle simultaneously
- Adjusting group sizes when you have leftover pages that don't divide evenly
Why grouping instead of gluing works better for finished quality — glued pages buckle, wave at the edges, and can't flex when you turn them. Grouped pages hold together but retain movement, so the book lies flat and the edges stay clean — important if you're making something to gift or sell.
How to punch holes and sew the blanket stitch edge, including:
- Drawing a light pencil guideline and erasing it after punching
- Spacing holes evenly — and why erring on the side of wider spacing prevents ripping
- Measuring thread at three to four book-lengths before threading the needle
- The blanket stitch technique itself: entering from the bottom, looping naturally through each hole, and always tightening straight down toward you for a uniform finish
- Breaking the work up — punch two pages, sew them, punch two more — rather than punching the whole book at once
What to do when a page rips — remove it cleanly, cut away any torn remnant, and glue the remaining piece flat. Once it's down, there's nothing to see. Knowing this in advance takes the pressure off.
How to make a slanted template for the pocket inserts — the folded pockets are angled, which means standard rectangular cards don't sit right. You make one template from card stock, trace the slant once, and reuse it for every pocket insert in the book. Works for both top-loading and bottom-loading pockets.
How to make beaded paper clips as pocket and page decorations — thread a bead with a reasonably wide opening around the groove of a paper clip. That's genuinely all there is to it, and the result looks far more considered than it has any right to.
How to add jump rings to the sewn page edges — every punched hole is an attachment point. Open a jump ring, thread it through, close it. Add small charms, beads, or dangling bits. Whether you end up loving or hating the effect once the book is sitting upright on a shelf is, as it turns out, a decision you might want to make before you've added fifty of them.
How to set up the book as a December daily or advent calendar — number your pages 1–25, use scrapbook paper and journaling spots to cover the printed text, and match your tags and pocket inserts to each day. Pages that already have date-adjacent text in the original book (chapter headings, section breaks) can stay uncovered and become part of the design.
Tips & gotchas
Leave space at the spine when folding. This is the one tip that saves the most grief. Don't fold right to the binding — leave a small gap. The page needs room to breathe, and without it the spine-side corner is almost guaranteed to tear eventually.
Wider hole spacing is safer than tighter. It's tempting to pack the blanket stitch holes close for a denser look, but holes that are too near each other create weak points. If a section does rip, cut it away cleanly and glue down what's left — it disappears completely — but spacing holes a little further apart means you're unlikely to need that fix.
Always tighten the blanket stitch straight down toward you. If you pull at an angle, the stitch twists and the uniformity goes. Holding the working thread with your thumb as you tighten keeps everything in line and makes the finished edge look deliberate.
Measure thread generously before you start a section. Three to four book-lengths of thread — measured loosely, erring longer — is about right. Running out mid-section and having to join thread is annoying in a way that's entirely avoidable.
Alternate punching and sewing rather than punching everything at once. Punch one section, sew it, move to the opposite end and punch there, sew that. It breaks up what can otherwise become a monotonous stretch of hole-punching, and the sewing feels like a reward rather than something waiting at the end of a very long queue.
Lift first, then fold. When you're working through the pocket section, pick the page up before you fold it rather than pressing it down from the crease. It's a subtle change of motion but it keeps the paper from stressing at the base.
Make your slanted pocket template once and reuse it. All the bottom-loading pockets in the folded section share the same angle, so one card-stock template handles all of them. Cut the slant, check that it sits right in an actual pocket, and then trace it as many times as you need.
Think about jump rings before you commit. They look wonderful when the book is moving and being handled. Whether you still love them when the book is sitting still on a shelf is a separate question. A few test rings before you work through every hole might save you the mild regret of having added fifty.
The blanket-stitch edge alone is worth carrying into other altered book projects — imagine a whole hardcover done this way, every page group sewn in a different colour, the spine facing out on a shelf. The folded-pocket section works just as naturally for a birthday countdown, a travel journal with daily pockets, or a gift book where each pocket holds a note. The Readers Digest books that flooded thrift stores for years turn out to be a remarkably good substrate for all of it — the pages are clean, the covers are solid, and nobody was using them anyway.
