Thread by @PeopleOfCraft

So the next book I want to start binding will be sewn on tapes, hollow back,, cased in, with French grooves and a beaded headband. Again, all these terms will make sense in time.

Same configuration of signatures as the previous book: 6 signatures of 6 sheets each, endpaper signatures of 2 sheets each.

Forgot to mention: this kind of binding is a lot closer to mass market hardcover book binding in the late twentieth century. (Since then fewer hardbacks have been sewn on tapes, or even sewn at all. Mostly they're just well-protected paperbacks now.)

So here’s the punching guide for the second book, Just to be nice, this time I’ve labeled what the holes mean.

And here it is punched, with the tape I’ll be sewing it on draped over so you can see the size of things.

Sewing frame is threaded with tapes. Time to get sewing.

Sewing on tapes is much easier than sewing on cords. Because you wrap the thread around each cord, you can’t easily tighten the thread. The thread for tapes isn’t so fixed.

Note that I’m not sewing *through* the tapes, just *around* them. They can slide freely.

Ok, that did not go as well as I’d hoped. (I was talking to someone as I sewed.) You can see a partial tear on the middle tape, and a complete fail at the left.

Note that I grouped the threads together over the tapes. This brings the book closer together and adds a little more tension to the sewing.

Besties.

Back again. I want to do a little more before I stop for the night. Specifically, I want to round and back both books.

Rounding and backing are ways to make the book block hold together as a single unit. They also deal with what’s called swell: the added thickness at the spine due to the sewing thread.

I’ll be using PVA for this, because I want it to dry relatively quickly. Here’s the book in a lying press, ready for gluing.

This was one of those times when I had to act first, tweet later. So first I glued the spine.

Then I laid it on a cutting mat and used a hammer to move the outer signatures forward so that the spine had a C shape.

That was rounding. Next came backing.

I put the book in my BIG lying press, in between two things called backing boards.

I then used the hammer to curl the outer signatures outward to create shoulders (which the covers will then meet).

I'm now kicking myself, because I should have trimmed the front edges before starting rounding and backing. So the front edges are just going to have to be uneven.

Uneven front edge.

Time to prep the covers for the tape-sewn book as well. Like the other book, this one is 13cm high, and the boards should be 14cm high to create squares.

But I’m going to do the cover a little differently for this book. You’ll see the difference later, but it means that the cover boards will be narrower: the width of the book from shoulder to front edge with NO additional width for the front squares.

That’s because there will be a gap between the shoulders and the boards, like this. That gap creates the squares.

So then it’s the same drill again: paste the paper, stick it to the boards, wrap in waxed paper, put in the press overnight.

But now it's 11:00 at night, and I have work tomorrow. I'm going to tidy my space up, put some clove oil in the wheat paste and put it in the fridge, and call it a day.
Tomorrow evening after work, one of my favorite steps in bookbinding: headbands.

Back after a tiny break, now on the thread of the book sewn on tapes, which will henceforth be known as Bede. For reasons about to become clear.

Basically, these headbands are going to be using a technique I developed myself, a few years ago, in a “why not?” moment. (Back when I still had those about bookbinding...a story I’ll tell later this week.) The materials:

So for this headband I thread beads onto the tail of my thread, then tie that tail down between each bead with the needle end of the thread.

Alternate colors...

Well, that took longer than I’d hoped. But there’s one done, with bookmark.

And that previous tweet didn’t post. Here we are with the other end done.

Cordelia and Bede, besties still.

And now it's 11:30 and I have to go to bed. I'll make time to line the spines tomorrow (though it's choir night and I won't be doing a lot of binding). Night night, Tweeps.

Time to line Bede’s spine now. Unlike Cordelia, any lumps and bumps on Bede’s spine will not show. But shape of the bits just over the shoulders will show.

But before I line Bede’s spine with paper, I want to put some cloth on. Not just to add flex to the spine, but to improve the way the book joins to the covers.

Glued the cloth down on the spine.

Next I laid strips of brown paper down between the tapes. Unlike with Cordelia, Bede’s spine lining spills over the shoulders and onto the sides (it’s only glued on the spine, mind).

Then I added another layer of kraft paper, again glued on the spine, and boned it down hard.

I do want the layers on the side glued together, but not glued to the book. So I slipped some flashing and plastic in, then glued the layers of cloth and glue together.

I added another layer of flashing outside the whole kit and caboodle, then put it in a press to dry (and for the bits on the sides to press flat.)

Back to Bede. The time in the press compressed the tapes, cloth, and kraft paper into a single layer of stuff coming off the spine. This will be the part that connects the book to its cover.

The cover is going to have grooves between the spine and the cover (“French grooves”). So I have to think through the proportions here.

I record the gap between the shoulder of the book and the spine sides of the covers on a strip of paper.
This will be the template for the cover (called a “case”) that I will build separately and then attach to the book.

Here’s the template, plus a piece of cardboard I’m going to use to reinforce the spine.

So here’s the naked case. I used glue on this because there’s not going to be much swell (and because I want to do the case).

Design time! Back to the papers...I’ve chosen a sea dragon paper, and, to go with it, a nice dark brown eelskin. (Also in the exotica drawer...fish leather and chicken foot leather.)

Paper on the boards now. I used a mix of paste and glue, so it’ll penetrate the paper and adhere well...but dry a little faster.

Eelskin pasted up — penetrative adhesive, remember. Laid over the spine of the case and wrapped around to the inside.
(Verrrry close fit there.)

Wrapped the case around the book (protected by waxed paper). Added another layer of waxed paper and some rods to press the leather into the grooves. Laid in the press to dry.

Took another step in this binding...I trimmed down the tabs that stick out from the spine, then glued them into the case.

It’s back in the press to dry some more, with some blue acetate to keep the tabs from denting the pages. But now that book and cover are joined, it’s much more itself. (And adorabz)

And now let’s do the unboxing (undressing?) shots for Bede.

I left Bede in a lying press because it really only needed pressure on the spine side of things, to adhere those tape-and-cloth-and-paper tabs to the insides of the covers.

Good morning, Bede! I see your tabs have adhered nicely to the cover. Excellent.

This book is adorable and I love it.

It’s a hollow back book, meaning that the back of the cover is not attached to the back of the book block. Compare it to Cordelia, which is a tight back book.

Design time...endpapers. I’m going to do a split pastedown/flyleaf structure. Gold pastedown, cream tissue flyleaf.

But first I need to level out the insides of the boards so they aren’t lumpy.

And there we go.
Mixed paste and glue, because I wanted the card to swell before it adhered, but I also want to keep moving on this binding.

Next step is to literally paper over the crack between the book block and the cover. I trimmed the outermost page of the book so it wouldn’t swell, then covered the book side of it with paste + glue.

I can’t show you what happens next, because I have to leave the book closed as the adhesive dries. Otherwise the paper stretches over the joint, then wrinkles. Time to let it dry.

Briefly back to Bede...we’re coming down the homestretch with these bindings.
First, tissue to act as the flyleaf, glued into the joint and a tad onto the book block.

And the gold pastedown.

And here is the Adorable Bede.
Hollow back binding, 14 cm x 11.5 cm x 2.5 cm.
Cased in binding with eelskin spine, Florentine-paper boards, handmade paper flyleaves, gold pastedowns. Beaded headband.

Bede, we love ya.

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