At long last, how I do the inside of a book ..... (Bookmaking part 2)

Good afternoon folks, quite a while ago I shared the basics of working with my book cover kits to make the outside covers. (The post is HERE if you've forgotten)
I promised to return with how I put the inside pages together. Well, to be honest, life kinda got in the way but here at long last is how I sew and make my books. So, sit back and make yourself comfy, we may be a while.......

For this book I have worked in a variety of different paper and card to create interest in my book. Starting with A4 card trim the narrow side to 15cm. (Just a note. Don't throw those strips away.......)

 Fold  and score each piece. Now, it is impossible to specify any quantities as it is all determined by the thickness of the paper and card you use but to give you an idea,  this book has 6 signatures, each consisting of 5 pieces of folded paper (Road Atlas map, lol) one piece of this thick card and one sheet of scrapbook card.

 So you can see here that I have cut and folded the green card. I have trimmed the atlas to 15 cm keeping the existing fold line but I haven't trimmed it yet and at the back there is a selection of 12 x 12 that has been cut to 15cm, folded, scored but no further trimming has been done.

 So, now it is time to put the signatures together. I began with the green card, into this I added the map pages and to finish I added a piece of the scrapbook card to the centre. At this stage you want to make sure that all the folds are in the same place and that everything is pressed as tightly as possible into the fold. When you are happy then, keeping everything closed and the green card as a guide, you can trim the rest of the paper that sticks over the edge away using a craft knife. Repeat with all the signatures.

 The next step is is to make sewing holes to make it easier to bind the book. Make yourself a guide like this from card.

 Take a signature and place it closed onto a pricking mat. Carefully open to the centre taking care not to move the pages and use a poky tool to make holes through all the pages at the four markers (the black lines lol) Repeat for all the signatures.

 Now, we are ready to sew everything together. Golden rule: Don't rush! You will need a reasonably sturdy needle and a really decent linen thread. If you can break the thread with a yank of your hands, it's not going to be strong enough and believe me; it is VERY frustrating snapping a thread when you are almost finished! A bulldog clip is also useful.

 Ok, in this pic you can see all signatures are clipped together. To be honest, that didn't work for me, I find it easier to add each one as needed. Starting from the outside and with enough thread on the needle (I tend to have around a meter which is a bit much really but hey, it works for me) push though and pull through leaving  a "tail" of around 15cm.

 Take the needle through the adjacent hole and pull through.

 Take the next signature and take the needle through the adjacent hole and out the other side....confused?

 It makes more sense now looking at this. You can see that the sewing zig zags and each signature is caught by one thread only.

 When you have done all your signatures, you then work backwards which then catches all the open pieces.

 So by the time you have worked back to the end you have linked all the pages together and your threads are both on the same side.

 Time to knot off. It is important to keep everything as tight as possible to minimise gapping. Congratulations; now you have to repeat the process on the other side too LOL.

 When you have finished you can help secure everything more by pressing the pages together and adding some glue to it and tightly wrapping with adhesive parcel paper tape.

Like this (Cover the middle piece too) and then leave pressed under a flat heavy weight to dry. Preferably overnight. I use slate place mats, they weigh a ton!

So, that is now the end. You now have the inside pages of your book ready.  I'll be back soon  and I'll show you how to put these pages to the cover to finish off your amazing journal... in the meantime, I hope you decide to give it a go.
If you remember in the beginning I said don't throw the narrow strips from trimming the A4 card to 15cm away? They make a good practice run as you only need to sew once and you can make a lovely tiny journal like this one....

See you later folks!