A New Adventure: Bookbinding!

I attended Atlantia's Summer University event last weekend. One of the classes I took was long-stitch bookbinding, in which we created a small, leather-bound book from circa 14th century Germany. I got the hang of it almost immediately, and I couldn't wait to get home and try making some from scratch!

I've recently acquired some 3-4oz white cowhide leather, which I decided would be perfect for the project. I cut out rectangles that are 11" x 6" (this was SO much easier to cut than the leather I use for blackjacks and bottells!).

For the pages, I used what I have on hand: white printer paper. I cut it in half, creating 5.5" x 8.5" pieces. I then folded these in half, so that the pages of the book will be 5.5" x 4.25". I grouped the pages into folios of five sheets, and each book has five folios.

The class instructor, Runa Barefoot, provided us with a template to mark the stitching holes in both the leather and the folios. I used this same template on my books, and punched the holes with a hand awl.

With that done, it was time to stitch the folios to the leather. I did the stitching with white linen thread. Beginning with the first folio, I stitched from the inside out through the pages and then the leather. I formed a small loop with the thread, and then stitched back through the same hole. Moving down the spine, I stitched in-to-out, then out-to-in, and so on until I reached the last hole. Adding the second folio, I stitched back up the spine to the top.

Before beginning to stitch the third folio, I stitched through the small loop I had formed at the beginning, and then tightened the loop down flush with the leather. Then I stitched the third folio down the spine. At the other end, I fed the needle under the stitch between the first and second folios before sewing in the fourth folio. I then repeated the process one more time for the last folio.

At the end of the last folio, I again fed the needle through the joining stitch. Then I stitched back into the final hole to end up with the needle and thread inside the last folio. I tied off the thread an snipped off the excess.

Convincing the leather to stay folded over and keep the book closed is something of a challenge. For the moment I'm weighing it down to sorta "train" the leather to stay where it belongs, but I'm going to devise some method of clasping it or tying it. Stay tuned for future projects!

Here's what it looks like, unrestrained: