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I've recently joined a cult: The cult of moleskine. Moleskines are sewn-bound notebooks with covers of with oilcloth covered cardboard. The cardboard part doesn't sound as glamorous, but it makes it much more effective as a cover.

When I say cult, I mean it with the admiration normally reserved for RHPS, not the morbid fascination that goes with Kool-Aid cults. There is a huge internet following. To be perfectly honest, I never understood it until I held one in my hands. That fateful day in Barnes & Noble, I picked up my very first (and certainly not last) Small Ruled Moleskine. I haven't been able to bring myself to write in it yet. I'm still waiting for the shinyness to wear off. I did come up with an interesting solution to a problem that enthusiasts seem to be having trouble with: labelling. By attaching different colored ribbons, I've created an attractive coding system. I think it's attractive, anyhow.

To accomplish this mod (hack is such an ugly word), I used 7/8" satin ribbon, a glue stick, and some thread from my emergency sewing kit. I started by wrapping the wribbon around the cover, overlapping the end by about 2". I glued the facing sides of the overlap together and slid it off the notebook, and sewed all the way around the outside of the overlap, and slid the loop back over the cover. Presto! If you want it to last, make sure you use acid-free glue, or just forgo the glue step if you are good at eyeballing measurements.

UPDATE (15.May.2006):

If I really knew how to sew, I'd use pins to hold the ribbon in place until I sew them, instead of a glustick. Thanks K.

This entry was posted on 9.May.2006 at 11:58pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.