Book Making

This year I am making my husband's grandmother a handmade book. I will probably put pictures and crocheted motifs in it. This is a chronicled journey of the book making process. If you are trying this for yourself I would recommend reading though all of the direction before attempting this, it should take a few days to complete. Some instructions have notes after them, they're important!

Materials needed are; 1/2 yard of your choice of fabric, rubber cement or craft glue, scissors, white thread, a pencil, a needle, scrap yarn, a ruler, wax, bias type, cardboard, your choice of paper, printer paper, and a paper bag. Optional, two small piece of black fabric (not pictured.)

First we decide how many pages you would like. The equation for this is (n*8) - 2. n represents the number of paper clusters you have. The 8 represents 4 pages that have been folded in half to create an 8 page cluster. You subtract 2 because you will be gluing these page to the books covering later.

Example: I have 4 pages folded in half making 8 pages ( 1 cluster), I do this 8 times giving me 64 pages, minus 2 pages that will be glued to the covers.

Note: You should not go above an 8 page cluster because it will make the binding process harder later.

Next we need to place the pages under pressure. Preferably for 24 hours.

Next we will be marking our place for internal bindings. With your pencil mark 1 1/2 inches down from the top of the book (left). Your second mark should be 1 centimeter from your first mark. The third mark should be 1 cm from the second. Repeat the direction on the other end.

With your needle poke holes where you marked your papers.

This shows all of the page clusters with the holes poked in them.

Next we run our thread through the wax. This will prevent the yarn for damaging the paper.

Note: I got this wax at Wal-Mart, it was about $2 for for 6 blocks. It was in the candle section.

Thread the yarn through the first hole. You are going INTO the books pages.

Sorry for the bad lighting!

Come through the next hole with the yarn.

You go into the book on the third hole. This leave a yarn trial down the bend of the page. Come out through the forth hole, back in though the fifth hole and back out in the sixth hole. Leave some slack in the yarn.

This is what the inside of the page cluster should look like.

Take another page cluster and repeat the process from the bottom up. Start by going INTO the bottom of the page and working your way up.

It should look like this. On the last hole of the second page your yarn should be coming out.

Next we take our scrap yarn and place in between the loops your thread made. This provides sturdiness for the binding.

Tighten the yarn and tie a knot next to the paper.
Do not cut the yarn!
Continue this until all of your page clusters are tied together.

Note: tie a knot in the thread at each end of the page clusters except the very first (at the end).

This is what it should look like.
There should be knots on all holes 1 and 6 starting on the top of the second page cluster.

We now need to put the book under pressure again. My text book alone were not enough so I used aquarium salt. Find anything you have that will not get the pages dirty.

Now we cut the yarn down to about an half an inch and add glue. Be careful not to use too much glue or it will seep through the pages. Do the same for the other side.

We then add our printer paper to the glue and lightly press it on, more glue may be needed. When the glue dries you then need to glue the back of the pages, where the pages are sewn together, and press the paper to the page clusters. When that dries glue the printer paper to the other side.

Note: The printer paper should have been cut to be smaller than your pages, you don't want it to hang over the edges.

Now you need to cut your two pieces of cardboard. The back of the pages should be lined up with the cardboard and there should be margin around the pages less than 1 cm. The margin is so the edges of your pages don't get ruined.

At this point you should rub your wax along the edges of the cardboard. This keeps your fabric from sustaining too much wear and tear.

This part is a decorative option: Cut and glue black fabric pieces to each end of your book. Care should be used in not letting the fabric hang over the edges because it will bunch up when you attach the cover. The fabric should reach to where the edge of the cardboard would lay.

Note: Also, if you can see, I got glue under my nail. Try to avoid this, it can ruin your pages.

This is the other end. If you notice, the fabric is slightly too large for the binding. It needs to be trimmed.

Now we attach the bias tape. Cut your tape so that it fits around the book to about 1 inch from the edge of the page on each side. Glue the tape on and let it dry.

Now we're creating the binding. Cut a piece of your paper bag to the same height of your pages, my pages height are 8 1/2 inches so that's how long it should be. It should cover about a half of you page on each side, this part does not need to be exact.

With your printer paper cut a piece the same length of your paper bag (8 1/2 inches). Glue the paper strip onto the paper bag and wait for it to dry. After the glue dries bend the paper bag next to the printer parer. This is where you will be attach you book covers (cardboard).

Now you glue the cardboard onto the paper bag piece. After it dries the covers should work like flaps.
The cardboard is sightly longer that the paper bag, if you recall, this is to protect the page's edges.

After the glue is completely dry everywhere fold your fabric in half and wrap the cardboard around the edges gluing it down. It must be dry before attaching the pages or the fabric will slip.

Note: The fabric needs to be loose enough to fold the covers up but not so loose that it moves around.

Next we glue the first and last pages onto the front and back covers.

Ta-Da! The finished product. Ok, not really, it needs to dry again and then pressed for another 24 hours before anything else can be put in it but this is what it should look like.



Happy book making!