Fabric Covered Coptic Stitch Sketchbook - Four - "UNDER THE COVERS - THINGS ARE GETTING COMPLICATED NOW!"

"UNDER THE COVERS - THINGS ARE GETTING COMPLICATED NOW"

The FIRST thing you have to do when you start the day is get your HUGE Supervisor off your tiny worksurface! Things will go better from there . . . .

Okay. Now that I've packed her off to her "nap chair", I can get back to the task at hand.
When my shipment of Strathmore Mixed Media paper arrived from Dick Blick and I got it open, I realized it was like a compact little bookmaking kit - inside was the paper, of course, but also a great fibreboard that was nearly (but not quite) perfect to use as the cover material, a piece of thin cardstock, and wrapper plastic to use as glue shields! All that was lacking was the cover material itself, and glue! Such a deal!

And now I need to say something about choosing the material for the cover bookboards. I chose the one above because it was availabe and free. However, if you need to make a purchase, what you are going to look for is TAG BOARD, POSTER BOARD or RAILROAD BOARD, preferably with the slick clay coating.   Please try to get 4 ply or 6 ply. 2 is too thin. You should be able to make your purchase at a hobby, craft or art store. Even grocery stores and hardware stores carry some form of poster board (but it is often the thin 2 ply grade.) The material should be like HEAVY cereal box or clothing box weight. 

So, how big is the cover going to be?

Stack the signatures as precisely as you can and measure them across their widest and longest edges. If those edges are clean cut this should be easy. If, as mine are, the edges are deckled, allow for the longest or widest deckle piece sticking out. Because I lost some paper to the deckling process, my measurements are 5 1/2" by 7 1/2". Yours will likely be different. That is fine. 

For the actual measurements of the cover we are going to add about 1/8" to the side opposite the spine, and 1/8" each at the top and bottom. 

This is the template I cut for the exact measurement of the cover. Notice (another bonus) I used the insert that came with the packet of paper. I am an ex-art teacher. We save and re-use anything that can even remotely be considered art supplies! Waste not, want not, that is the art teacher's mantra. 

Anyway, here is the layout. 

DUPLICATE THE SIZE TEMPLATE, MARK THE INSIDES AND THE OUTSIDES AND THE FOLD LINES.  THEN CUT APART.  

Be very careful here. Check your work. I just flipped my cut lines with my fold lines and ended up with a very nice set of covers in LANDSCAPE orientation for a future book. 

  Cut out your two covers ON THE CUTTING LINES, and fold them on the FOLD LINES. Keep the writing on the outside of the covers for easy reference (Yes. The writing on the back cover is upside down. Don't worry about it). Hopefully you end up with two covers in PORTRAIT orientation. Stack everything up nice and neat to be sure you are headed in the right direction. 

*A note here about the big blue rubber band with the clip on it. The next time you go have blood drawn, ask the phlebotomist for the nice, big, blue rubber band they just used on your arm. And for a couple more from the trash, while you're at it. Best art helpers EVAH! Remember, waste not, want not. 

 Now we need to do some gluing. Open up the two covers and lay them flat. We are going to make the covers softer and puffier by putting in a layer of the micro-batting. You need pieces exactly the size of the OUTSIDE FRONT and the OUTSIDE BACK. 

 Mark an area on these two sides about 3/4 to an inch inside the edges. The inside area is where your glue will go. 

Use an old credit card, a bristle brush or foam brush to spread your PVA glue inside the glue area in the centers of the covers. Gently lay the pieces of batting on the glue, but don't press them down. Pat them a bit, maybe, but don't press (we don't want to lose that little bit of loft!)

Let the glue dry completely. For the next couple of hours, or overnight, just relax, think about your fabrics and how you will put them together, touch them, fondle them, play with your sparkly trims, and tomorrow we will start putting them all together. 'later!! 
(this is starting to get tricky. I hope I haven't lost anybody. If you have a question, raise your hand. I will get 'round to you!)

Fabric Covered Coptic Stitch Sketchbook - Three - WHAT TO DO WITH THE ENDS

"WHAT TO DO WITH THE ENDS"

The signatures are all done. Now you need to make sure they all stay in the right order. Stack them so they are all aligned. Mark each signature in its top right corner - "T" for top, and the number of the signature. Set them aside, or put them under a stack of books to press them.

Now you need to decide if you are going to wrap the ends. You don't have to, of course, they look just fine as they are. And they look fine if you bind them into a book . . . .

But, for this book we are going to wrap them. And you have a lot of choices. You could use all sorts of hand-made art papers, or paper from the scrapbooking section of the art store, or heavy wrapping paper, or even plain brown Kraft paper. I have used paper I made in a papermaking class . . . 

. . .  and Washi paper (Origami paper) . . .

. . . or my favorite, Lokta paper from Nepal. It is colorful, strong, fibery and wonderful . . .

  . . . the paper I used for the book we are making is Lokta computer printer paper, 8 1/2 X 11. It is strong and works very well. For this cloth bound book I cut six 2" strips to use as end wrappers. They are just as long as the pages, and will be folded in half, lengthwise.

At this point you also need to make a stitching template from a piece of heavy paper. It needs to also be just exactly as long as your pages. Fold it in half, then about 3/4" from each end, place a mark in the fold. Place two more marks evenly spaced, in the fold. You should have 4 marks. Also, be sure to mark the TOP of the template in the upper right hand corner.

Now find yourself an old phone book. Open it to the center and drop the folded wrapper for signature one into the fold.

 Place Signature One in on top of the wrapper, making sure it is aligned with the marks at the top.

Now drop the template into the signature and make very sure everything is lined up perfectly and all the arrows are pointing in the right direction.

Use the needle-pointed awl to punch holes through the template, the signature and the end wrapper. Be very sure the template and the signature are aligned. Check the mark you put on the upper right corner on the outside! Repeat this for all of your signatures. Be sure to restack them in order. 

Check to be sure all the awl holes are perfectly aligned. If they aren't you have a signature flipped! When you start to sew the book, it will be all crookedy. Not good! Put your signatures back under your stack of books to keep them from getting knocked off your work table by the cats. 

Now would be a good time to prepare your thread. You need two pieces, one of each color you've chosen. Each piece needs to be as long as one signature spine, times the number of signatures, plus two. If you are using Perle Cotton, run each piece of thread through the wax 3 or 4 times. If you are using pre-waxed linen thread, of course, this is not necessary. Thread a needle onto each of the four ends. 

You will have two pieces of thread and four needles. If you need to, check back to the first post for suggestions on thread. 

We are ready to move on to making the cover next. 

Fabric Covered Coptic Stitch Sketchbook - Two: TO DECKLE OR NOT TO DECKLE, THAT IS THE QUESTION

"TO DECKLE OR NOT TO DECKLE. THAT IS THE QUESTION"

Well, here we go! If you are back with me I assume you have gotten paper of some sort with which to do this little project. A word on paper - there is no reason you can't use anything you have on hand, up to, and including, computer printer paper. BUT, as many of you have found, not all paper works well for sketchbooks. Some of it is too lightweight and wrinkles when you work on it with water. Not good. Regular watercolor paper is fine, but has a lot of texture that may not work well for pen and ink. It doesn't for me. I like 90# Hot Press. 

If you ordered the Strathmore Mixed Media Hot Press paper I suggested, and you have it, it looks like this. It is 22" x 30", has four clean, smooth edges, a lovely, smooth vellum finish and is a soft, off-white.

Life's Little Mysteries Dept. - I SWEAR the last time I ordered it, this paper arrived with two deckled edges and was a noticeable creamier color. What the heck is this paper?

Well, it makes no difference. You just have to decide how you want your pages to look. If you like nice clean edges on your pages, you can stop right here and get out your scissors. If you, like me, want nice, soft, raggedy deckled edges on your pages, then we have more work to do. 

Deckles happen in the papermaking process. If some edges (or all) of the edges of your paper are cut, we have to improvise. There are several ways to do this. I use this easy method for my sketchbooks. 

First, use your fingernails to score up about 1/4" on the long edge of one side of the sheet of paper. 

Then use the back of your plastic spoon, the side of the handle of the plastic knife, or a bone folder (if you have one), to make a nice sharp crease. 

 Slide the serrated knife into the crease, hold the paper securely with your free hand and saw down the length of the fold. Due to the grain of the paper, this procedure is harder on the two long edges and may be a little taxing.  If you get some raggedy looking tears here and there, more's the better, I think. If you need more precision, maybe cutting, instead of tearing, may be more to your liking. I happen to like the one or two places I get that look like they were gnawed on by wharf rats. 

I like my sketchbooks to open in "book" orientation, with pages that are the length of the spine, top to bottom. So, MY next step is to fold the paper, with its FOUR deckled edges, the long "hot dog bun" way. Of course, if you haven't done the deckling, it is the same deal, only with four SMOOTH, sharp edges 😍.

 Crease the fold well, and use your serrated knife to tear down the crease.

Now you have two long, thin sheets of paper, with four edges all the same. 

 Fold each of these pieces into fourths, across the strip, the hamburger bun way (how many of you can tell from this that I was a schoolteacher?) 

 After you've creased and folded, and sawed down the crease, you will have 8 leaves from your one sheet of paper. Do this again with your other sheet. Now you have 16 leaves. Fold and crease these in half, BUT DO NOT TEAR THEM. These 16 folded leaves give you your 32 pages. This is a very handy amount, I have found. I LIKE the feeling of finishing a sketchbook, and find that 32 pages is a very manageable amount to get done in a month or so. AND THEN I GET TO MAKE A NEW BOOK!!! 😃😍

 I like to make a book with six signatures. So, for me, four signatures of THREE leaves, and two signatures of TWO leaves, is ideal. Of course you can mess around with more pages, more signatures, etc., etc., to your hearts content. 

 This is the way the pages orient if your initial fold of the paper is HOT DOG WAY. 

If you choose to, or if you made a mistake in folding, your book orientation may be like this - long way. That is nice, too, isn't it? Try it both ways. 

Now stack up your signatures and look at your handiwork. 

I have 6 signatures with lovely, soft deckled edges. 

Does EVERY project you do involve the approval of a cat?

Next post will address "DEALING WITH THE ENDS".