Thursday 28 May 2009

Unsupported Blanket Stitch Binding - Book No 0013

It's been a while since I've posted. This is what I've been working on. A Keith Smith binding that he calls the Unsupported Stitch Binding. (see Vol 3, pg 219). I've modified it slightly, in that I've stepped the length of each alternate stitch.
As the sewings aren't linked to one another, I used 2 colours of thread, alternatively brown and black. The pages are made with alternate sheets made from my own handmade papers 0001 & 0002. The ply boards i made from a cheap crate i found at the local garden centre - it was one of their free boxes to help you carry your plants home in, but the ply base has particularly attractive grain pattern.
I don't consider this book a complete success. I used both straight and curved needles, but i couldn't get the boards tight. This shows up in the second image, you can see the bottom board is loose. The back board, the last to be sewn, is particularly loose. More practice needed I guess!
Book No 0013. 4x6 inches (10x15 cms)

4 comments:

Michelloui said...

This is a really interesting blog! Bookbinding, etc is something I have been vaguely interested in for a while, I have just stumbled across your blog and now I will bookmark it and come back to learn more.

Simon said...

Thanks Michelloui. Give it a go, its not as hard as i thought when i started in January this year. Maybe you'd like a swap to get you going? See http://papercurious.blogspot.com/2009/02/bank-note-book.html

MyHandboundBooks said...

The blanket stitch looks very nice. I find this stitch very difficult! I've only tried it a couple times, but had similar problems with getting the boards attached nicely etc.

Simon said...

Thanks Rhonda. I enjoyed making it, but I'm glad its not just me struggling to keep it tight!