The third bookbinding project in this kit was somewhat more complicated. It involved sewing multiple signatures (sets of folded paper leaves) together over linen “tapes” using something called a kettle stitch. The end product was what the instructions called “an adventurer’s journal” and I called a naked text block, ready to be “cased in” (bookbinding term for putting a cool cover on a fully assembled text block). Not everything that could go wrong did go wrong, but a fair amount did…

Firstly, I didn’t punch my guide holes with the awl as precisely as I should have, making for a somewhat uneven looking set of signatures. Then came the instructions. First there was a fairly clear description of the process of sewing around the linen strips (aka tapes), accompanied by a highly unhelpful diagram. After that, I kind of ignored the diagrams, which meant that I missed out on some important clarifications to the somewhat unclear instructions to “make a kettle stitch every time you reach X point.” Result, really ugly stitching that possibly interfered with getting the book to lie flat. (see pictures below).

The kit came with a satchel of glue (imagine the little packets that ketchup, mustard or pickle relish come in, here in the States) and instructions to use it to glue down the linen tapes “and anything that needs fixing around the house.” I did in fact have a ceramic stationary holder that was hanging around the house awaiting fixing, so I glued the broken bits back on, and then glued the spine of project 3, which is a necessary next step in binding it.

You’re supposed to use chipboard for the structural part of a home-bound book; but with a bazillion cardboard boxes in the garage I couldn’t justify spending the money. My first cover for project three used the extra cover sheets from the kit as end papers, Amazon box cardboard for the structure of the cover, and decorative paper from Hobby Lobby as the outer layer of the cover. I did not cut it very well:

Later on, I went back and re-did the cover with lighter cardboard, more decorative paper (from Joann’s), and trimmed the end papers to be less messy.