Crafty Monday (Late Night): Book Binding

Hey there, ho there.

This week you get a two-fer: a Crafty Monday AND a Fabulous Find...
Read On...

First, the find. I have been following this blog for a while now and I think this girl is just rad, so I thought I would share. (Mom, you'll love this.) Her name is Marisa and she takes old frocks, muumuus, pantsuits, jumpers -- you name it -- and turns them into great outfits. Her goal is to make one new dress/piece a day without making a single "new" purchase, and within a budget of $365 for the year. Inspiring. Check it out at New Dress a Day.

Now for a quick overview of tonight's activities on my kitchen floor: book binding!

I have wanted to stick all these pieces of watercolor paper I've got floating around into a nice bound book that I could use as a better sketch gratitude journal. (The one I had before was great for writing and some pen sketches, but now that I am adding watercolor to the mix, I need better paper!)

In the spirit of reusing, I went to the local used book store looking for a cheap book that I wouldn't feel bad about destroying to use for the cover of my new journal. When I got to the store, I found a box outside of FREE BOOKS, some of which were hardback, and one of which was the perfect size for my papers. I also scored a few extras: A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein (who would throw that away?), a really old vegetable gardening book (it smells musty -- I love that), and a Psychology textbook for good measure. I always wanted to take psychology classes in college but never did. Maybe now I will learn the name for obsessively collecting books...

Anyway, here is the victim:

Sorry, Mr. Ainsworth!

After some demolition (I cut along the end papers, pulled out the book block, and cut the cover boards from the binding cloth):

Anyone want a coverless copy of The Haverfield Incident?

Ah yes, my pretties...

Once I had my cover boards, I made signatures by folding my watercolor papers in half and stacking three of these folios together. (I like sparse signatures in sketchbooks.) Next, I took out the phone book to use as a stand to make holes in each signature:

I cut a piece off of the phone book cover to use as a guide for making the holes in each signature. I used five holes: one in the middle of the page length, one 1/2 inch from each end (to stabilize the signatures) and two intermediately spaced between the center and outer holes. Next, I put the guide down and started punching holes with my tiny awl:

Once all the signatures had identically-spaced holes punched in them, I sewed them together with linen thread. I didn't photograph the process, but there is a great explanation of the same method I used here.
Here's the finished book block:

And finally onto the cover! I had to double up on binding tape because the spine was a bit too wide (I should have measured before sewing the signatures together), and that made for a sort of ugly taped spine with a seam, but I can fix it with more glue later. I decided not to re-cover the cover boards because I liked the old blue binding cloth. Instead I chose end papers that coordinated with both the old blue book cloth and the new chartreuse binding tape:

How beautiful is that paper?

Want a close up? Thought so!

Yummy end papers!

Then I stuck it all together and forced the block into the new cover (I always have trouble getting that part to go smoothly):

Pay no attention to the dot that looks like glue -- our camera seems to have a dirty lens. (There is lots of glue in the back, though. Unfortunately, I slipped the tape in some glue without realizing it. D'oh!)

Will have to put a vintage-looking bookplate here.

Finally! A watercolor book with real watercolor pages...

...that lies perfectly flat!

As for the line of glue I accidentally got on the back of the book, I took care of it:

At first I tried to wash the glue off, but rubbed away the blue! Oh well, blemishes like these are just opportunities to turn your work into something unique, as you cover them up. (I also smoothed out the binding tape so it lays flat, but forgot to take a picture.)

Yay!

Special thanks to the cover-donor. I'm thinking about how (or whether) to adorn the front cover...