Bookbinding (Modern Style)
Adapted from:
http://www.cs.uiowa.edu/~jones/book/

Materials:
Thick matte board or similar material (but not cardboard) (large sheets ~$5 @ Michael’s in framing area)
X-acto knife
Ruler
Pencil
Sharp Scissors
Glue (Aleene’s Quick Dry Tacky Glue (@ Michael’s), high-temp hot glue also acceptable)
Scrap foamcore or cardboard
Sewing machine needle, denim-size (6 packs avail. @ Michael’s cheap) or very sharp tack
Regular sewing needle, long, sturdy, largish eye
Masking tape
Waxed thread or polyester kite string (kite string can be obtained @ Michael’s)
Fabric or paper to cover book
Computer paper, 8 x 11
Paintbrush to spread glue

Prepare the sewing-machine needle for hand use by wrapping the dull end with tape until you have enough to protect fingers.

Waxed thread is best, but can be expensive.  If you can find it cheaply, USE IT.  It resists tangling and knotting and stays pulled tight.  You can wax your own using a block of beeswax but I have never done it.

1. On Matte Board, measure out covers and spine.  You can make any size book you want, but for this tutorial we will size our book around the size of computer paper folded in half.  On the matte board, measure out a rectangle that is 12 inches wide and 8.5 inches tall.  Divide the width into three segments—one is 5.5 inches wide, the next is one inch wide, and the last is 5.5 inches wide.  These three pieces are your covers and spine.  Cut apart all pieces.
   
2. Place pieces on flat work surface in order cover-spine-cover.  Line the bottoms of the pieces up against a ruler so they are all straight.  Leave a small gap of about 1/16 inch in between each piece.  Using masking tape, tape over each gap, connecting the pieces together.  Flip over and repeat.  Rub a round-ended tool (like a paintbrush handle) over the taped gaps to get tape to stick to itself and bend covers closed to make sure book closes.  If book will not close, the gaps between pieces are too small.
   
   
   
3. Lay cover flat again.  On spine, make 7 to 10 marks equally spaced down spine.  They can be 1 inch apart except for at the very ends, or you can make them all equally spaced—it doesn’t have to be perfect.  Draw horizontal lines at each mark across the width of the spine.  Leave 2 or 3 mm of space on each edge of the spine—you will be cutting these out and don’t want to cut all the way across.  I like to draw little vertical lines at the end of each line as a reminder of where to stop cutting.
   
   
   
4. Cut each line out of the spine.  Make each cut the length of your line, and 1 or 2 mm tall.  Don’t just cut a slit, but cut out a skinny rectangle.  The cut must be big enough for your needle to easily fit through.  Don’t make the cuts too big or it will weaken the spine.  If you accidentally cut too far, you can repair with masking tape.  When done with this step, set cover aside.
   
   
5. Take your stack of 8 x 11 computer paper.  For regular weight paper, count out 8 to 10 sheets and stack neatly.  Fold this stack short-end to short-end, so you end up with paper that is the same size as a cover (8.5” tall x 5.5” wide).  This is one signature.  Keep folding signatures until you have enough to fill your book.  Make sure to crease your folds as well as you can with a tool, like a pen.  For thicker paper, use fewer pages per signature (for my example, I used cardstock and had 5 sheets per signature).  You will be able to tell when you have enough signatures by stacking them all up and squeezing the folds-side.  Measure the width of the signatures—when you have about an inch, you should have enough.  Make 1 or 2 extra signatures.  Stack them all up and squeeze them to fit into your cover and close the cover.  If the open side (opposite the spine and folds) is thinner than the spine width, you don’t have enough signatures.  (the covers should be parallel each other)
   
6. When you have your signatures done and in the covers, make sure everything is stacked neatly and where it needs to be.  Run a pencil through each cut in the back of the spine over the folds of the signatures.  Do this to all the cuts so that the signatures have a series of marks going down their folds (to mark where to punch the holes to sew.)  Carefully remove the signatures from the cover and mark any that were missed.
   
   
   
7. One signature at a time, carefully open the signature and lay it flat, marked-side up, on the foamcore or cardboard.  Using the sewing-machine needle, punch a hole through each pencil mark going down the fold.  Make sure to go through all the pages in your signature.  Re-fold closed and repeat with each signature until all holes are punched.  You can do this on a sewing machine too, and can do more than one signature at a time, by using the hand-knob.
   
   
   
8. Time to sew the signatures to the spine.  It is generally better to use one long thread per book.  However, if you are not using waxed thread, you will want to cut the thread into 3 or 4 separate pieces, to avoid tangling as badly.  To determine thread length, take your closed cover.  Wrap the thread lengthwise around the cover as many times as you have the number of signatures.  Give a couple extra wraps and cut.  This will be a very long piece of thread.  Thread it into your sewing needle.
   
   

Sewing a signature

This is the part that sounds more complicated than it really is.  Once you do a few, it will come more easily.  The hardest part is starting and ending each signature.  You have to remember to sew over each end to secure it to the spine.  Otherwise it is a simple in and out straight stitch, and there are not that many holes.  If you are unclear on something, you may want to refer to the tutorial from which I adapted my technique.

1. Take a signature and make sure it is the right way up for the holes to line up with the spine cuts.  Open the signature and hold it against one side of the spine inside the cover.  Take your needle through the top hole of the signature from the inside, through the signature, and out the other side of the spine.  Pull the thread through and leave a few inches of thread inside.
   
2. Bring the needle over the top of the spine back to the same hole on the inside of the signature.  Tie a knot here—make sure it is tight and flush against the inside of the sig.  Next, put the needle through the second hole down, from the inside of the sig, through the spine.  Pull thread through.  (Make sure after each stitch to pull thread taut, and keep signature pushed over as far to one side as you can, or you will have trouble later fitting all the sigs in.)
   
3. Now the needle/thread should be coming out the back of the spine, second cut down from top.  Simply push the needle through the third cut, going from the outside of the spine through the back of the signature, pull the thread through.  Continue this stitch until you reach the bottom.  If you have 7 cuts in the spine, you may see three stitches running down the spine.
   
4. To finish the end of a signature—after you have sewn as far as you can, wrap the thread around the sig from the inside and bring the needle back through that same last hole through the spine, pinning the edge of the sig to the spine.  It should look like the top.  But don’t bring the needle through the signature, just through the spine.  The sig should still be sewn down to the spine, but now you are ready to start the next sig.
   
   
5. The needle and thread should be coming through the back of the first cut of the spine.  Line up your next sig here.  Bring the needle through the back of the sig through the top hole.  Loop back over the spine and go through that same hole again, in both spine and signature.  Pull tight!  Continue the in-and-out stitch from here (next go thru the second hole down from the inside of the signature).  When you reach the bottom, loop the thread back over the spine and come through that same cut, but not through the sig again.  You are once again ready to sew on another signature.
   
6. Make sure as you go to pull the thread tight and keep pushing the sigs close together to conserve space on the spine.  Continue in this fashion until all signatures are sewn to the spine.  The last couple will still probably be hard to sew in, as there will be hardly any room left.  I just squish the signatures down as far as I can for each stitch.  When you reach the bottom of the last sig and have looped it back around, you can sew through that same hole, then tie a knot inside like you did when you started.  Make sure it’s a double or triple knot.  The book may not want to close completely—just try to squeeze the signatures down and possibly leave it with a weight on the closed book overnight.
   

Covering the Book
You can use a variety of materials to cover a book.  Paper is fine, but I prefer to use fabric.  I especially like to use thin cloth-backed vinyl.  Use whatever material you find suitable.  Be aware that 8 x 11 paper will not be large enough to cover this size book.  A yard of fabric will be plenty.  You will need a piece of material that is at least 14 inches wide and 10.5 inches tall. 

1. Spread the material good side down on a flat working surface.  Lay the closed book down on one side.  Trace around the outside of the cover.  Flip the book up on its spine, and trace around that.  Flip the book over onto the other cover and trace around that.  You should have a pattern that looks similar to what you first cut out of matte board. 
2. Now draw a border around the whole thing that is at least one inch wide.  Cut out the whole shape around that outer outline. 
3. Next, at each corner, cut across at about a 45 degree angle (but don’t cut the corners that you traced around the cover.)  At the spine, cut straight across the top and the bottom.  Cut an opposite angle at each side of the spine.  BEFORE YOU CUT—wrap the entire thing around the CLOSED book and make sure the cover fits.  If the cover is too small, either it won’t cover everything or the book won’t close.
   
4. Starting with one side, spread glue over the matte board and carefully affix the covering material.  Use a paintbrush to make glue coat the matte board evenly.  Spread and stretch it gently to fit.  If you are using paper or fabric, make sure you don’t use too much glue or it will seep through to the surface.  If you are using vinyl, this is not a concern.  If you are using hot glue—do not do this step.  Just glue the flaps to the inside of the cover. (note about hot glue—since you are not gluing the material down to the book, when you open the book the material may be loose.  You may want to glue it down in places like along the spine.  But if you try to glue the whole thing down with hot glue you will most likely see the raised glue pattern through the material.)
   
5. Once one side of the cover is glued down, apply glue to the spine and glue down.  Flip over and repeat with other cover.  Make sure material is stretched tight but not so tight the book wants to open.  Now you can either put weights on top of the book and allow to dry, or go ahead and glue the flaps to the inside of each cover.
   
6. To glue the flaps, open one cover.  Apply glue to the whole flap, and fold over to inside of cover.  Affix tightly.  If the material is thick and doesn’t want to stick by itself, you may have to temporarily pin it down with masking tape until it is dry.  Glue down all three flaps.  Place a scrap piece of paper in between the cover and pages, and close cover.  Repeat with other side.  Weigh down book and allow to dry closed.  When it’s dry (overnight is best) you can remove any masking tape if you used it.  If you used hot glue, drying time is not needed.
   

Making the inside of the covers look nice
Now that the flaps are glued down, it’s time to finish the book.  For the inside cover, use at least cardstock weight paper, or even use matte board if your matte board covers are a bit thin.  You can wrap the matte board with paper or material.  Make these pieces to be glued inside each cover a bit smaller than the covers themselves.  You want some of the cover to show on the inside.  Normally about ¼ inch or so smaller on all sides, except the side that goes up against the spine.  That can go flush against if it’s not too thick and will hinder the book’s closing.  Once these pieces are glued down, again place a scrap piece of paper in between it and your pages and close and weigh down to dry.  The book should now be finished.  If you have any bits of matte board peeking out anywhere (especially along the top and bottom of the spine) you can touch up with paint or marker.  You can decorate the cover further.  You can also add ties or straps to close the book with by gluing them down BEFORE you glue down your final inner panels but after you glue down the flaps of the cover.  I like to use wide ribbon ties or make a strap out of cover fabric and add a snap or button.  You can also add a book plate or make one, and write a dedication, or sign it and date it inside the back cover.

Was this tutorial helpful to you? Please email me and let me know!

BlackWyrm Designs 2008