Padfolio For Two Notepads

[gcarson]

I'm not sure if I can describe what I'm looking for accurately, but I'll give it a shot.

 

Basically, I'm looking for a padfolio that will hold two 8.5 x 11" legal pads, one on the right and the other one on the left. In other words, when I open the padfolio, I want two legal pads side by side.

 

The reason for this is that I do a lot of rewriting and brainstorming while I'm writing. I'd like to be able to work on the main document on one legal pad while using the other legal pad to take notes and work out what I'm trying to say.

 

Has anybody ever seen anything like this? All of the padfolios I've seen are designed to hold one writing pad on the right while the left side of the padfolio has pouches for miscellaneous stuff. I could always just use two legal pads, but it would be nice if I could keep them together.

 

Thanks in advance.

Edited January 7, 2013 by gcarson

[Plume145]

You can make this kind of thing if you're moderately good with your hands. I find paper (well, cardboard really) easiest to work with than leather, which is in turn easier than fabric...but that's probably my own bias in that I have more experience with papercrafts, a tiny bit with leather, and none with fabric aside from taking an active part in helping with the design portion of custom stuff made for me.

 

Depending on your choices in colors and patterns and to a certain extent, the neatness of your work in proportion with the ambition of your design, the end result can look anything from soberly businesslike to cheerfully artsy-fartsy (or of course, could fail altogether) It sounds like your requirements in terms of features are pretty simple, so they should leave plenty of room to come up with a design that is easy to implement even if you don't have a ton of experience with this sort of thing.

 

I think you can work leather in much the same ways you can work paper, especially for a project like this which may not require much of any sewing and the like - in fact it sounds like a larger version of a simple pad cover along the lines of the Midori Traveller's Notebook, which is a design that lots of people have been able to succesfully copy for their own use even if they didn't think of themselves as particularly crafty.

 

For fabric, I really couldn't tell you much because I can't sew to save my life, really Based on the aforementioned experience with custom items and generally using all kinds of handmade notebook covers and whatnot over the years, it shouldn't be too hard to make this using fabric either, as long as you know how to use a sewing machine to do a straight seam, or stitch, or whatnot. I don't, so that seems like a wonder to me hehe, but it seems to be the papercraft equivalent of cutting straight lines with a blade and sticking flat paper to flat paper, IOW easy-breezy

 

There are others here who work with leather and fabric - I'm thinking especially of comfortableshoes for the former, I think.

[gcarson]

Thanks. If I want something like this, it looks like I'll have to make my own, BUT it just occurred to me while I was reading your reply that I don't actually need two notebooks at all. I could easily do what I have in mind using a regular spiral-bound notebook which lets you view two pages at the same time.

 

Now all I have to do is find the perfect notebook. That should be easy enough, right?

Edited January 8, 2013 by gcarson

[Plume145]

Thanks. If I want something like this, it looks like I'll have to make my own, BUT it just occurred to me while I was reading your reply that I don't actually need two notebooks at all. I could easily do what I have in mind using a regular spiral-bound notebook which lets you view two pages at the same time.

 

Now all I have to do is find the perfect notebook. That should be easy enough, right?

 

oh yeah. Sure is

 

thing is, do you get along with spirals? For me the binding always gets in the way. Maybe you could bind with glue - if you use tons of it, the notebook doesn't fall apart as much if you start taking pages out in the middle. I think that's the major issue you're likely to encounter - and it's also there with binders and the like, even skinny binders like those flexible ones with 3/4" diameter rings or 'binder-notebooks' like the arc/circa/atoma bunch. I hat how that stuff digs into my hand when I write, and even when a binder was the best option, I still removed the sheet to write on the back (I'm right-handed, so it's the verso side that's a problem with the rings digging in).

[Ravenlunatic]

Could you just slip the backboard of the second legal pad into the slot for loose papers on the left side? I have seen several padfolios with just a large pouch on the left side for loose papers, so you could just slide the back of the pad into that. :embarrassed_smile:

[tm3]

I think that Levenger sells or used to sell something along those lines.

[tm3]

colonel littleton sells one

[gcarson]

Yes. The slot for loose papers on the left side would probably do the trick. I'll have to try it.

[sdcurnow]

I make padfolios and could put something together for you. You can see examples by looking at the photos on my Facebook page: "Curnow Bookbinding & Leatherwork.

 

[Wolverine1]

Check out Steve Curnow's work. He is a FPN member, who does wonderful leather work. He could most probably custom-make a double-folio, to your exact needs.

Edited January 10, 2013 by Wolverine1