Repurposed Lemony Snickets – Greek Binding

OK – I didn’t want to use my wood covered book to experiment making the Coptic Endband so I took two Lemony Snicket books that I dug out of the library’s RIP box to make a book to experiment on.

This picture shows the covers separated from text block and the front sides already trimmed back.

I cut off the sides that were torn, covered one side with burgandy paper and painted the other edge.  The cover pictures were torn so I covered them with pictures from inside the book.  I used cut out pictures on the inside of both covers and the outside of the back cover.

7 1/4″ x 4 3/8″ x 1 3/8″

I reused the old library pocket, glueing it to the inside back cover. Then I cut and glued on a picture from inside the book – making sure it would still be a pocket.

I tried a new stitch…. the greek binding stitch.  It took a little bit to figure it out but once you start – it’s relatively easy.    TIP:  Copy the pages out of your Keith Smith book and, using different color pencils, color the stitches in the various steps.  It helps to keep your eyes from crossing and keep the stitches straight.

16 signatures / 5 sheets each – text weight I waxed and used size 20 cotton thread.  Had I used a bigger thread the beauty of this stitch would be more evident.

This is fun to hold.  So I didn’t use this one to experiment on either ;(