Decide the material you want for the cover and backing of the book. A heavy paper is usually the best idea, as you want the outside covers of the book to be sturdy. Look for postcard-weight paper or even thin cardboard.
Fold your pieces of paper in half in sets of ten. When you have folded each paper in half, slide the folded papers within each other. Try to limit this to ten pieces of paper, as more paper usually becomes difficult to punch the awl through. These sets of ten folded pieces of paper are called a "signature". If you want more pages than this, you can create more than one "signature," but this article will only cover a one-signature book.
Fold your heavier cover paper and slide it over the signature pages. You now have your unbound book.
Open up the unbound book and measure the crease halfway. Using with a pencil, mark the halfway point and then measure around one or two inches (depending on the size of your book) above and below the middle mark. You should end up with three equally-spaced marks.
Using your awl, punch holes where you placed pencil marks.
Measure about a foot or two of thread, depending on the size of your book. Single or double-thread your needle, depending on the strength of the thread.
Push through the central hole with your needle; try to leave a few inches of thread hanging. You can start from the inside of the book, which will leave your trail of thread on the inside, or the outside of the book if you want to leave the thread trailing outside.
Sew by pulling the thread through the holes above the middle hole, and then make your way back down to the bottom. You should end up back in the middle, with your leftover thread hanging from the same hole as your initial thread.
Pull both hanging strings tight and tie the strings together where they meet. Trim hanging thread if desired.