Book du jour

How not to do it ... in several ways ...

This is a simple coptic stitch binding. The instructions in the book said thread length should be head-to-tail height x number of signatures. That was not enough! Lesson 1: add extra to the thread length.

Lesson 2 was figuring out how and where to join in more thread.

Covering the covers took longer than the sewing, and the paper was a bit thin and grainy. For some reason, I glued around the edge only - something that might work well with fabric. Lesson 3: paste up the entire paper.

Once the book was sewn I decided to put some acrylic varnish on the covers. (Used a date stamp on them first, to give the book a front and a back, and up and a down.) Adding moisture would have been fine if the paper had all been glued down, but in this case it made the paper stretch.  Lesson 4: decorate the paper before using it.