Restaurant sign near St Pancras Station in London. This is one of those instances where punctuation would be helpful…

This is about as simple of a bind as you can get…it just looks complicated. The most difficult part is gluing it all together and keeping it aligned. This bind should be landscape, or wider than it is tall.

Start with a book block made of single sheets. You’ll need to drill three evenly spaced holes at least half an inch in from the spine edge, though ultimately where you place your holes depends on how wide your book is.

I generally cut a thicker piece of paper to wrap around the book block, like below. It isn’t necessary, but it makes the spine look much cleaner and if the paper of your book block is thin, the thicker paper is more durable.

Sew the block together by starting in the middle hole, and making a figure eight. Tie off. Cut the ends of your thread short, but they don’t have to be tucked in or hidden.

The boards for the front cover should leave a gap that is twice the thickness of the board. If you skimp on the gap, your book will not open all the way. Don’t go overboard with the gap though, because the section of the cover with board #2 will flop too much and be more likely to eventually rip off. Board #3 should be wide enough to cover the stitching.

Glue the boards to the book block. I generally glue them in the order they are numbered below.

A look at the finished product:

A blank journal for a friend

An art history paper for grad school. I had to make four copies of this book.

Hope that helps! If something doesn’t make sense, leave me a comment and I’ll try to clarify.

But ‘woven’ is not that difficult to sew once you understand the technique. If you’ve tried the marionette tutorial, then you could sew this bind with that method. However…if you can figure this technique out, it will give you more options! The ‘woven’ part will actually be partially over the spine edge – though the diagram doesn’t show it well. I rate this pattern somewhere in the intermediate range, with beginning holes.

A few things to remember: when you are making the first diagonal Xs, do not make the knot too tight. Also, leave a bit of slack in the first three Xs. Your fingers will thank you when you try to thread the needle under the massive knot to make the last X between holes 16 and 20. If when you first read the pattern and can’t visualize what to do, just think how an X is written… you sew the first diagonal from the beginning hole to the matching hole on the opposite side of the pattern, and then complete the X on the way back to the original hole. Clear as mud? Well – jump in and try it and hopefully it will make sense!

hole pattern
sewing pattern

EXIT = needle pointed DOWN and ENTER = needle pointed UP
=====

enter 1, (leave a tail but don’t knot it) wrap around right side, enter 1 again
exit 2, wrap around spine, exit 2 again
enter 3, wrap around spine, enter 3 again
exit 4, wrap around spine, exit 4 again
enter 5, wrap around spine, enter 5 again
exit 6, wrap around spine, exit 6 again
enter 7, wrap around spine, enter 7 again
exit 8, wrap around spine, exit 8 again
enter 9, wrap around spine, enter 9 again
exit 10, wrap around spine, exit 10 again
enter 11, wrap around spine, enter 11 again
exit 12, wrap around left side, exit 12 again
enter 13, wrap around left side, enter 13 again
exit 14, wrap around left side, exit 14 again
enter 15, wrap around left side, enter 15 again
exit 16, wrap around left side, exit 16 again
wrap around spine, exit 16 again
enter 15
exit 14
enter 13
exit 12
enter 11
exit 10
enter 9
exit 8
enter 7
exit 6
enter 5
exit 4
enter 3
exit 2
enter 1, thread needle under 2, over 3, under 4, over 5, under 6, at angle to between 6 and 7; *opposite side* thread needle under 7, over 8, under 9, over 10, under 11
enter 12, thread needle under 11, over 10, under 9, over 8, under 7; thread needle backward (point left) under loop from 1, pull to the right (knot/twist should be vertical), *opposite side* thread needle under 6, over 5, under 4, over 3, under 2
enter 1
exit 17, thread needle over 2, under 3, over 4, under 5, over 6, thread needle under knot/twist between 6 and 7, point right, *opposite side* thread needle over 7, under 8, over 9, under 10, over 11
exit 13, thread needle over 11, under 10, over 9, under 8, over 7, thread needle under twist between 7 and 6, point left, *opposite side* thread needle over 6, under 5, over 4, under 3, over 2
exit 17
enter 18, thread needle under 2, over 3, under 4, over 5, under 6, thread needle under twist between 6 and 7, point right, *opposite side* thread needle under 7, over 8, under 9, over 10, under 11
enter 14, thread needle under 11, over 10, under 9, over 8, under 7, thread needle under twist between 7 and 6, point left, *opposite side* thread needle under 6, over 5, under 4, over 3, under 2
enter 18
exit 19, thread needle over 2, under 3, over 4, under 5, over 6, thread needle under twist between 6 and 7, point right, *opposite side* thread needle over 7, under 8, over 9, under 10, over 11
exit 15, thread needle over 11, under 10, over 9, under 8, over 7, thread needle under twist between 7 and 6, point left, *opposite side* thread needle over 6, under 5, over 4, under 3, over 2
exit 19
enter 20, thread needle under 2, over 3, under 5, over 5, under 6, **thread needle under twist between 6 and 7, don’t wrap knot,** *opposite side* thread needle under 7, over 8, under 9, over 10, under 11
enter 16, thread needle under 11, over 10, under 9, over 8, under 7, ••thread needle under twist between 7 and 6, don’t wrap knot,** *opposite side* under 6, over 5, under 4, over 3, under 2
enter 20, wrap around spine, enter 20 again,
wrap around right edge, enter 20 again
exit 19, wrap around right edge, exit 19 again,
enter 18, wrap around right edge, enter 18 again
exit 17, wrap around right edge, exit 17 again
tie off

The Fab Lab in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Oh how many more hours I could spend there!

While I was in grad school, I worked on a project I called ‘experimental graphemes‘ that I modeled after Jessica Hische’s ‘daily drop cap’. Once a day I posted an elaborately drawn letter to this blog. Since I’m still obsessed with letters (I *am* a type designer, after all) I decided to digitize the letters and etch them to small pieces of wood, roughly the size of playing cards. And I decided to use Fontlab instead of Illustrator for the letters. Which may have been a little nuts, but hey…I learned some tricks and got better at using Fontlab in general!

It was so neat to watch the laser cutter do its thing. It etched the letters in a linear fashion, but none of us could figure out why it took the route it did in cutting the letters out…

Finished! My plan (in my free time) is to sand the letters and then color them with water colors. But there’s no telling when that will happen.

More Fab Lab Swag! In addition to the 26 letters etched on wood, I also etched 4 on plastic, made coasters, two ipad stands, a wooden box with a ‘living hinge’, etched two plaques and created a piece of art using recycled plexiglass circles. My friend’s comment at the end of the day was “with great planning comes lots of goodies”!

My initials!



An “M” for Mel