Making a Hole Punching Cradle

Making a hole punching cradle is made easy with this little template, which I hope will be useful. Designed especially to aid punching holes in signatures for bookbinding, this little cradle will help get the holes evenly placed. Please download the PDF below and follow the directions to put it together. The directions are printed onto the template for ease as well.

You will need:

  • Glue
  • 2mm card, A4, long grain
  • Cutting mat
  • Craft knife or stanley knife
  • Metal ruler
  • An awl (aka bradawl / pricker)
  • Gaffa tape

Instructions:

  • Stick the template to some card, approx 2mm thick.
  • Using an awl/bradawl, pierce the 8 black dots.
  • Cut all the dotted lines using a craft knife.
  • Assemble all the bits.
  • Tape along the middle gap from the back with strong tape, e.g gaffa tape
  • Please do not share this template, instead share your creations and tag @thebookhutter.

I will be going over this design as part of my #teatimetutorials on instagram, please do come and have a look and join in with your own cradles if you make them.

Online Workshop – How to Make Longstitch Bindings

Join our new live online workshop and make longstitch bindings

This online workshop in longstitch binding teaches a traditional method of bookbinding that originates from Germany and dates back to the late 14th century. In this method, sections of paper are sewn directly through holes in the covering material, giving support to the spine, and flexibility to the book. It is a simple and extremely rewarding process and one that can be easily adapted once practiced, to include more complex designs and decorations.

We will provide materials in advance, as listed below, so that we all have the same items at the start of the workshop. We cannot provide tools, as we do at in-person workshops. The list of tools required is also below, some of these can be replaced with tools that you have at home, others may need to be purchased. When booking the course, you will also receive a 15% discount to the shop so that you can buy the tools direct from us if you choose.

We will cover:

  • the importance of grain direction
  • preparing a textblock
  • folding and trimming paper
  • preparing sections for sewing
  • preparing covering material
  • sewing the textblock
  • finishing the cover

You will come away with:

  • one beautiful A6 hand-made longstitch binding in leather
  • a template to continue to make your own bindings at home
  • an introduction into bookbinding
  • a basic understanding of the structure of bindings

The materials pack

We will send you:

  • Textblock paper
  • Covering material
  • Metal button for cover
  • Template to cut and prepare the leather
  • Complimentary needle and linen thread

You will need:

  • A cutting mat
  • A sharp knife – Stanley knife or a scalpel
  • An awl (aka bradawl / pricker)
  • A cobblers knife (a sharp medium sized kitchen knife may be used, at your own risk)
  • A bonefolder
  • A piece of waste cardboard
  • A metal ruler
  • Paper weight
  • Pencil
  • Scrap paper

How it works

Once you book you will receive an email containing a link to a zoom meeting and instructions on how to join that meeting. You will also receive a code for a discount in the the shop, if you would like to buy tools from us.

Online Workshop – How to Make Japanese Stab Bindings

Japanese Stab Binding
Japanese Stab Binding 2

Join our live online workshop and make Japanese stab bindings

In this online workshop, we will be creating Japanese Stab Bindings. This binding is often associated with decorative books and hand bindings due to their attractive sewing techniques, that once practised, can be adapted to incorporate more complex designs. It is a useful method for binding single leaves, such as artwork, as there is no need for adhesive, allowing sheets to be quickly bound after they have been created.

The Japanese Stab Binding actually originates from the Chinese ‘butterfly binding’, one of the earliest paper bookbinding techniques in Asia where single sheets were pasted together, surrounded in a wraparound cover and stitched along the edge.

We will provide materials in advance, as listed below, so that we all have the same items at the start of the workshop. We cannot provide tools, as we do at in-person workshops. The list of tools required is also below, some of these can be replaced with tools that you have at home, others may need to be purchased. When booking the course, you will also receive a 15% discount to the shop so that you can buy the tools direct from us if you choose.

Japanese Stab Binding 3

We will cover:

  • the importance of grain direction
  • preparing a textblock
  • folding and trimming paper
  • creating sewing guides
  • sewing Japanese stab style
  • additional sewing patterns

You will come away with:

  • two A5 hand-made Japanese stab bindings with two sewing styles
  • an introduction into the hand-skills required for bookbinding
  • a basic understanding of the structure of bindings

Japanese Stab Binding 5
The materials pack

We will send you:

  • Textblock paper
  • Covering material
  • Decorative paper
  • Complimentary needle
  • Linen thread

You will need:

  • A cutting mat
  • A sharp knife – Stanley knife or a scalpel
  • An awl (aka bradawl / pricker)
  • A cobblers knife (a sharp medium sized kitchen knife may be used, at your own risk)
  • A bonefolder
  • A piece of waste cardboard
  • A metal ruler
  • Paper weight
  • Pencil
  • Scrap paper

How it works

Once you book you will receive an email containing a link to a zoom meeting and instructions on how to join that meeting. You will also receive a code for a discount in the the shop, if you would like to buy tools from us.

Turning a Paperback into a Hardback

Unofficial History
1970, by Field Marshal Sir William Slim, Corgi Books

This binding was not a valuable book financially, but one whose owner was extremely fond of it. Being a late twentieth century paperback, it was not made to last. The paper is brittle and the binding was in a perfect style, which, ironically, is so far from perfect that one must think the term was made in jest.

A perfect binding implies that loose sheets are stacked and adhered at the spine edge with a thick layer of PVA or similar adhesive. This is then covered with a paper cover, which is adhered over the heavy spine, and tada! You have the modern paperback. Note the lack of sewing, spine lining or any form of reinforcement to keep the book from falling apart. This makes a very clear case as to why your regular paperback will often fall apart on you when reading. If, by some miracle, you can keep the book free from dog ears and spine breakages, it won’t be long before the adhesive gives up the ghost all on its own and falls apart anyway – as mentioned, decidedly less than “perfect”.

In order to create a hardback, as requested by this client, I treated this book quite similarly to a thesis binding – stab-sewn and covered as a quarter-bound flat back. The result was very pleasing, and with a simple cover design and title on the spine, it now has a new lease of life that should last for years to come.

If you have a similar book that you would like to preserve for the future in this way, please do get in touch to discuss the particulars.

CONDITION

TEXTBLOCK has brittle paper, which is discolouring at the edges.
BINDING is perfect bound and still in tact at present.

TREATMENT

TEXTBLOCK
– Keep original cover as first page.
– Create holes adjacent to the spine and sew as thesis binding.
– Adhere plain black endpapers.
– Line spine with cloth and manilla lining.
BINDING
– Create new cover – flat back and quater-bound with black cloth spine and printed cover in the style of the original.
– Case-in and finish.

Making a Tool Roll – Instructions

Like many a crafts person, I have several tool rolls, all of which I have made myself – for tools, paintbrushes, knitting needles – you name it, I have it in a tool roll! So I thought I would impart my knowledge and practice in the art of the tool roll so that one and all can have a go. You don’t need much fabric, but if you don’t have any – I have put together some kits which are available on my Etsy page, which are hopefully wonderfully tempting!

untitled-41 copy

The lovely Helen from work has kindly tested these instructions for me and they have been adjusted as suggested!

You will need…

1 x patterned fabric – dimensions below
3 x plain fabric – dimensions below
1 x ribbon – 75cm long x 5mm wide (can be longer and wider if you’d prefer)
Sewing machine OR needle and thread (the latter will obviously take longer)
Scissors
Pins
Iron
Dressmakers pencil (optional)

Fabric Dimensions:

tools2 a yes

Finished Tool Roll:

tools1

Instructions:

tools3– Firstly we are going to work on the tool side, so put the patterned fabric to one side.
– Iron a 2cm hem onto the long edge of both fabric 3 and 4, then put fabric 4 to one side for the moment.
– Line up fabric 3 with the bottom of fabric 2, ensuring both are front facing and the ironed hem is at the top of fabric 3.
– Pin these two pieces together

toolstips1TIPS – Pin the fabric with the pins perpendicular to the edge of the fabric, this will allow you to run your machine over the pins without misplacing them, it will also prevent the fabric from moving sideways against each other.

tools4 a yes– Sew along the red dashed edge, keeping the sewing as close to the edge as possible – 1cm if possible. Don’t worry about rough edges, these will be covered up when we sew the whole thing together.

– The next step is to divide this new pocket up for the tools. I have made the partitions 2cm each, but you can make them whatever widths work well for your tools. Keep in mind that the divisions at the edges shrink when we sew the whole thing together, so it may be worth starting 3cm in and finishing about 3cm from the other end to allow for sewing round the edge.

tools5 a yes– Pin fabrics 2 and 3 at the hem to stop it flapping about and then mark every point where you want to make a tool division – you could do this with pins, a dressmakers pencil, chalk or you could do it by eye.

– Starting from the base of the fabric, sew up in a straight line, perpendicular to the base of the fabric, to meet your first marker. You will need to remove the pin as you get there as the machine will not sew over it.

 

tools6

– Repeat this for each of your pin markers until you have made all of your tool partitions.

 

 

 

 

 

Your tool roll should now look a bit like this:

tools7 a

tools8

– We are now going to attach fabric 4 and form the lower pocket. This will be on the outside of the tool divisions we have just made.
– Firstly we must sew over the hem we ironed onto fabric 4 at the beginning – this is to stop it flapping about.

tools9

 

 

– Once hemmed, sew fabric 4 into place the same way we did for fabric 3. The new hem should be facing inwards.

tools10a– Sew along the dashed edge, keeping the sewing as close to the edge as possible – 1cm if possible. The same as we did for fabric 3.

tools10b b yes

 

 

 

 

– Next we are going to divide this pocket into two, as one large pocket will probably be less useful.

 

tools11 b yes

– Do this simply by sewing up the middle of of the fabric in line with one of the central tool partitions. If you have a variety of tool division widths – make sure you sew in line with one of them, otherwise you will sew up one of your tool divisions and it will be unusable.

– Nearly there! Next we are going to sew on our backing fabric – fabric 1 – and our ribbon tie all in one go.

 

– Fold your ribbon in half and pin it onto fabric 2 as shown in the picture – the long ends should be on top of your fabric and the little folded bit should be sticking out the edge.

tools12 a yes

tools13 a yes– Once your ribbon is in place, match up fabric 1 with fabric 2 (and 3 & 4) and pin them together – ensuring that the good sides are facing each other.

– Sew along the edges of your fabric bundle, ensuring you leave an open space at the top to turn it inside out, about 12cm. The sewing edge can be up to 2.5cm due to the initial fabric pieces we cut, but try and keep the edges relatively small or your outer tool divisions won’t be much use.
tools14

 

 

 

 

– Turn it inside out and iron it nice and flat – at this point your ribbon should be nicely hanging on the right edge.

toolstips2 a yes
TIPS – Once you are definitely happy with the result, you can cut off the excess edges and corners on the inside of your tool roll, which should make it nice and neat on the outside – this is not essential to the finishing of the roll.

 

– FINALLY – sew up the open edge and fill with tools – TA DA!!

Start with this...
Start with this…...fold it over...…fold it over…...roll it up and tie it together!           …roll it up and tie it together!

Don’t forget you can get ready prepared kits on my Etsy page to make these tool rolls, all made up from lovely fabrics from my stash and my local fabric shop – they are all very nice!

Once your all done – photograph your lovely tool roll and upload you picture to our maudie.made Facebook page and let me see all your hard work! Here’s Helen’s fabulous tool roll!

IMG_0014

TIPS – If you found any of the tips useful, there is a tips jar in the sidebar!

 

Making a Book Support

This has taken me all of half an hour to make, and I really should have done it about a year ago – why is it the simplest things take the longest to get around to doing?!

A book support is an extremely useful part of a book conservators kit, without one there is a permanent struggle to support the book cover and text block using anything to hand (other books, boards, rolls of felt, the cat… ). They can be bought from PEL, but come at £46.50 plus postage – though they are extremely nice! However, the beans I bought were from Wilko’s for £6.50, and the pillow case was an old one, so all in all a cheaper version.

20130929-001756.jpg

20130929-001750.jpg

Prior to filling up the pillow case, I sewed up the open edge most of the way along, leaving a small gap to fill the beans with. Once I had filled it, I tested it with a few books and found that I needed to take out some of the beans to get the support just right. Once happy, I then sewed up the open edge and TA DA!

IMG_1436