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Before
cutting covers decide on the pages for your book. To make things easy
for these directions we will use an 8 1/2” x 11” piece of paper
cut in half to two 5 ½” x 8 ½” pieces and then
folded so you have a
5 ½” x 4 ¼” piece showing. Fold all your pages
this way and then stack them under a weight somewhere until you need them.
Now
that you know the measurements your pages are going to be, you can measure
cardboard for the covers. You can use any kind of cardboard you have on
hand. We will add ¼” to the width of the pages to make the
width of the book 4 ½”. We will add ¼” to the
length of the pages to make the length of the book 5 ¾”. The
back piece will be cut to these measurements.
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| For
the front piece, mark out these measurements on to your cardboard, then
mark off ¾” and then 1/8” of an inch. The ¾”
will be the spine of the book, and the 1/8” will be a space that will
allow your book to open easily. |
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| Once
these measurements are marked, you will need to do additional marking to
the spine part. To make a template for the sewing holes take a piece of
text weight paper that you have cut to the same size as your spine piece.
In this case it will be 5 ¾” long x ¾” wide. Fold
the paper in half lengthwise, and then in half again. This step is really
just to give you an accurate measurement of the center of the spine so your
holes are even. You can eye ball this if you prefer. |
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| This
will give you three fold lines. Lay the paper up against your spine piece
and mark the two outside fold lines on your spine piece. |
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| Now
fold the paper in half the other way, and in half again three more times.
Open it up and you will see you have made 15 fold marks. |
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| Again
lay this piece of paper up against your spine piece along one of the long
lines you just made. Make a mark at every other fold line along the length
of the spine. You will have made 7 marks. |
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| Now
move your paper to the other fold line the length of the spine and make
a mark on every other fold line. These marks will be half way between your
other marks. You will end up with 8 marks. |
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| Your
spine piece will look like this: |
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The
sewing patterns can vary anyway you choose. This is just one I chose for
this particular book.
Cut
out all your cardboard pieces, and save the little 1/8” strip for
later.
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| Now
using a 1/8” hole punch punch through each mark on the spine piece. |
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| Now
you’re ready to cover your book cover. Choose a piece of paper large
enough to cover one side and fold over about ½” on the other
side. Starting with your back piece, rub a glue stick liberally over one
side and center over your cover paper. |
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| Turn
it over and smooth out the paper over the cover. |
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| Turn
back over and diagonally cut each corner of the paper, taking care not to
cut right up against the cardboard. You need to leave about 1/8” paper
there. |
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| Once
all the corners are cut, apply glue stick to one long side, fold over and
smooth. |
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Do
the other long side, and the top and bottom in turn the same way.
TIP:
once both your long sides are glued down and you have applied glue to
the top, before folding it over, take a bone folder or your fingernail
or a toothpick or something, and press the corner edge in toward the cardboard
before folding the whole piece down. This makes for a neat corner.
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| Now
we are ready to cover the front. Have your piece of cover paper a larger
size than the cover for the back because you want to allow room for the
spine piece. Apply glue stick liberally over the front piece and lay it
on the cover paper. Remember to allow the ½” fold over, and
also room for the spine piece and fold over. IMPORTANT…remember
to place the cardboard on the paper so the spine will be on the correct
side when turned over. |
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| Apply
glue stick liberally to the spine piece, but before placing it on the paper
take the 1/8” strip you saved earlier and lay it along the front piece
already glued down. This will act as a spacer only…it does not get
glued. Lay your spine piece down next to the spacer piece making sure the
7 holes are along the outside edge and the 8 holes are on the inside. Now
you can remove and discard the spacer. Cut the corners of the paper and
glue the edges over as you did on the back piece. |
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After
gluing the front cover take a bone folder and press down where the spacer
piece was.
Take a pin and poke through the holes you made in the spine piece so the
paper is pierced.
Now take the paper you have chosen for your end papers and cut two pieces
5 ½” x 4 ¼”. Apply glue stick liberally and center
over the inside of the front and the back pieces and smooth down. |
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| Take
your stack of pages and have them in the order you need, with all folded
edges to your right. Tap them down so they are even, and place them onto
your back cover piece, with the end paper side up. Center them vertically.
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| Place
your front piece over the stack of pages so the front cover is facing you
and the spine is on the left. Pick the whole thing up, careful not to let
your pages come out or get un centered, and with the front facing you, place
the spine edge on top of the table and tap so all the cut edges of the pages
and the back piece are all even. |
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| Once
this is done, hold it and clamp it with bull dog clams or clothes pins on
the top and bottom. |
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Now
you can drill your holes. I use a hand drill, but you can use a Japanese
screw punch or a nail and hammer. Make sure your holes are big enough
to accommodate the cord you have chosen and also take into account that
you will be entering the same hole more than once. Just drill where you
have the holes marked in the spine all the way through the front, the
pages, and the back piece. Do not remove the clamps!
Now comes the really fun part!
Get
whatever you are going to sew the book with - cord, yarn, leather lacing,
etc. and cut a piece about 10 times the height of the book. Looking at
your book from the front with the spine piece on your left, we will number
the holes like this:
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Now
here is the sewing pattern: Insert needle from the back in hole #4 and go
up toward front of book. Leave at least a 6” tail and wrap the sewing
cord around the spine of the book and re enter hole #4 going up. Now go
down into hole #3 and follow the pattern as follows:
Up through hole #4
Down hole #2
Up hole #3
Down hole #2
Up hole #1
Down hole #2
Now go over the top of the spine and come down hole #2
Wrap around spine and go down hole #2 |
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Go
up hole #4
Down hole #5
Up hole #6 - around spine and up hole #6 |
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Down
hole #5
Up hole #4
Down hole #6
Up hole #7
Down hole #6
Up hole #8
Down hole #7
Up hole #8 - around spine and up hole #8
Down hole #9
Up hole #10
Down hole #9
Up hole #8
Down hole #10 - around spine down hole #10
Up hole #11
Down hole #10
Up hole #12
Down hole #11
Up hole #12 - around spine and up hole #12
Down hole #13
Up hole #12
Down hole #14
Up hole #13
Down hole #14 - around spine down hole #14
Up hole #15
Down hole #14 - wrap around bottom and down hole #14
Up hole #12
Down hole #10 up hole #8
Down hole #6
Up hole #4. |
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| Now
you are back to where you started. The pattern should be the same on the
front as the back. Tie your ending thread with the tail and add any beads
or charms you wish to at this point. |
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| Remove
the clamp and admire your book! If you want to add a title to your book
you can stamp onto a lightweight piece of paper, or computer print it out,
then cut it out and glue to the cover with a glue stick. |
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