Learning how to bind books

Hey readers,

I am going to cut right to the chase. I want to make a Book Of Shadows from Charmed. When I was going to school, my parents bought me a triquetra (the symbol on Charmed) as a sign that I would always be with them even when away at school. Yes, I have always been this big of a nerd. I got to school and with Charmed being quite popular, I fended off accusations of being a witch for a few years. It was my own personal Salem. The death count was about as high.

I want to make the book all by hand, including the leather working. I just think it would be a super cool thing to have - and a super cool set of skills for that zombie apocalypse that is coming any day now. Actually, book binding might not help, but a book full of magic spells could really make that life easier.

What was I talking about? Oh right, I really love leather bound books and have always wanted to make one of my very own. I found this awesome youtuber, John The Verbose, and have really wanted to try his method. Yale Guan also has some great work out there where they actually work the leather.

I have never bound a book, not worked with leather. I didn't think it would be the best idea to just run out and get myself a cow and give it a try. I figured I would start small first. Maybe with a rabbit or something.

Trust me there are holes there

I found Jennifer from SeaLemon to be a great resource in the actually binding of books. Mistake 1: I bought two giant reams of paper, got them home and realized that they were thick cardstock. I should really learn to read a label. Since I couldn't make a whole book out of cardstock I had to go out again. This time I got a nice stack of plain yellow paper. Jennifer's method involves stacking pages in stack of four, then measuring where you poke your holes with your awl (essentially a stick with a really sharp end used to poke through paper). Then, getting a ton of thread and sewing the stacks of four together. So I set out to bind my first book.

Starting to look book-ey

Mistake 2: You need a lot of upholstery thread. If you try this, you are going to think you have enough thread. You don't. Take at least ten book lengths of thread, and assume you will need at least 5 more. I ran out three times. I would have just cut more thread, but sewing with 400 feet of thread is not easy. I found myself walking around my apartment to get knots out, letting the needle spin around as the thread righted itself after all the twisting up. I also didn't expect it to take as long as it did. This would be one of the parts of the project that would make you a zombie target. Lots of staying in one place carefully pulling at knots with a needle.

Still, it was coming together. In order to make it work, you sew into the folded paper, then move to the next hold. Once out, you go around the previous knot and back in the hole you came out of. I'm not a tutorial blog, go watch Jennifer, she is great. Mistake 3: Tighten after every page! My first pages are much looser than my later ones. Finally, I ran out of folded paper. My stack was smaller when everything was sewn up, so I folder a few more. Mistake 4: Jennifer told me to get a bone folder. John the Verbose did too. Did I listen? No. "I can fold paper without a special tool," I foolishly said. Sure. I can fold one piece of paper. Maybe two. Four hundred sheets later my thumb nail started to feel soft. If only there was some tool that was out there to help me fold paper quickly and easily. Oh wait, there is.

Cover to cover! My hands are raw

Anyway, by the end I had a nice little block of paper and it was time to put on the back and seal it up. I thought about just leaving it like this, but I made a mistake in one of my first rows of stitching that stuck out. It wouldn't affect the book, but instead of moving to the next hole inside the book, I did it on the outside and so there was an ugly bit of thread running the wrong way. I have seen awesome projects where people have put their sew holes in a pattern and made awesome designs, but since I am doing this to learn how to do a leather book, that isn't a priority at the moment (Leather books use thick cord that the thread wraps around. Then when the leather goes overtop you can see the ridges on the spine - super neat).

BOOK!

I folded a light bit of cardstock into a side binding and glued it on. Looking back, it was a little larger than I would have wanted, but in general it worked and the whole thing looks like a real book. I might use it for a journal or to take notes in meetings. Proof of concept for me to move on to the next step! I made it through a whole season of Super Monsters (a show for children that I watched on Netflix - don't judge me), and wound up with a pretty cool book.

Make something cool! Leave a comment!
Until next time,
JoshPrime