Binder Elastic Band and Page Support

This piece is designed to keep your 3-ring binders closed, and prevent the pages (textblock) from sagging over time, which can cause damage to the punched holes, or to the contents (e.g. in trading card binders).

It's also useful if you have a binder pouch! The band will keep pencils and other supplies from bunching up on one side of the pouch due to gravity. That was my primary reason for creating this model.

Designed for 1.5" binders. Fusion 360 model included: feel free to modify.

For best results, print with supports, oriented with the large indented area facing up. You'll need to remove supports from the two narrow indented areas where the band feeds through.

Requires sewing. No worries, it's easy: just take your time. I never sewed before, so I followed a tutorial and stopped midway through… made a zig, but not a zag? It works great anyway.

https://www.wikihow.com/Do-a-Zigzag-Stitch-by-Hand

I used 2" elastic bands from Joann:

https://www.joann.com/2in-x-2yd-knit-elastic-by-fabany/19798008.html

I didn't measure how long to trim the band ahead of time. I just sort of gauged it by feel after attaching one side. For a 1.5" binder, it turned out to be about 27-28" long… but don't trust that measurement, it's not reliable, and each band will have a different level of elasticity. Make your own judgement.

First, use scissors to cut the band as straight as possible. Use the weft of the band as a guide to keep the cut line straight. Then, use a lighter to slightly melt the edge of the band to seal the threads.

Next, feed one edge of the band through like this:

Feed it back through again, filling the allotted space:

Use some clips to secure it for sewing:

Then, use whatever stitch you'd like to sew it together. Treat the short end (visible above) as the “back” of the piece when you're following instructions. Here, I started on the “zigzag” stitch I linked previously:

After you have one side done, feed the elastic band through on the other side, mirroring what you did on the first side. Feed the band through as much as you'd like. This is your chance to test how tight you'd like the band to be. You can put it on a binder while it's only sewn on one side, and if you're careful, it won't slip through on the other side. Figure out how tight you want it, then cut the band, singe it to seal the threads, and start sewing the other side.

If you're doing a zig-zag stitch like me, I recommend starting the “opposite” of how you started on the first side in terms of “up or down”. Note how in the photo above, I started on the bottom, fed the string through, then went front-to-back at the top. When I'm sewing the other side of the band, I'll start on the top instead, not the bottom. This will create the mirror effect in my photos.

For a sewing noob like me, this took about 1-2 hours, so if you are also 100% new to this and want it to look nice, I'd save this project for when you're feeling crafty. You can get a functional result in 20 minutes, like I did with my first prototype, which is not worth showing here.