Making Books

Booklet production continues apace. 

Starching fabric heavily with spray starch (two passes, ironing between) then gluing it like paper worked better for me than using fusible stuff. Using almost any kind of fabric is going to require some ironing to remove creases, so applying spray starch before ironing is a minor step. The first fabric-covered booklets have a paper inner side; and last night I made a cover that’s fabric for both layers. I glued it together, and it seems to be holding. If necessary, I can sew the two layers together. 

My ream of 11” x 17” paper was originally supposed to be delivered by 8:00 or 8:30 pm on Saturday. At about 8:30 I checked, and Amazon was saying so sorry, sometime Sunday. I checked Sunday morning, and discovered that it had been delivered at 11:11 pm Saturday night. At least there was no precipitation. Unfortunately, I’d mis-read the description and got text-weight paper, not cover stock. 500 sheets should have been a giveaway. I’ve started using it for an inner lining for covers for booklets made out of lighter weight decorative papers or light-colored fabric that need help with opacity, so it isn’t going to waste. 

Sunday morning I did what I should have done originally, and ordered a package of larger paper from French Paper Co. It’s something like 12” x 19”, 200 sheets. But I’ve got some other paper from that particular line of French’s, I like it, and I know it’ll work. It was delivered this morning, according to UPS tracking. Which is good, as I have several booklet covers in-process and/or waiting on it. French packages well, UPS usually props things up so they’re under the eaves, and it seems to be a dry day out, so it should be fine sitting on the front porch all day. 

My thread and lined interiors arrived yesterday. Some of the covers mentioned above are for said lined interiors (I could start on covers for one size, as I have some that are graphed, and the text-weight 11x17 to use for planning), so yay. Annoyingly, I seem to have ordered white thread instead of the green I intended to get. Headdesk, headdesk. I partially blame the listing on Amazon, it was annoyingly difficult to select a color. At least white is a useful color, even if I do have lots of natural-colored linen, which I consider Close Enough to White, Dammit. 

Sunday I sewed up some of the booklets using dark brown thread and turquoise blue perle cotton I have on hand, and last night I sewed some booklets with cream (instead of green) thread that just arrived. Pictures posted on my G+ feed.

I’m missing some spools of my nice colored linen thread, I expect they’re lurking in the disaster that is the dining/work room. The thread I just got is waxed polyester, and probably would make bookbinding purists/snobs cringe, but for booklets it seems to work fine. I was thinking it was cheaper than the linen, but I need to double-check the actual prices per meter - the small spools of linen are more expensive overall, but the small spools of polyester are very small - only 25 meters. 

Last night I finished up folding some covers for pre-made interiors (waiting on the large cover stock delivered today), and made the interiors and covers for three smallish books out of scrap. The plan for  tonight is to try making wheat paste, which is cooked flour and water. It’s supposed to be a better adhesive for some applications than PVA (white glue), so I’m going to give it a try.