Infants, small please!

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I would like to share with you the leather book that I made on August 11th, this was made from one of Jackie’s scraps of leather. As a true crafter nouthing is wasted, the leather was 1″ x 2″ and sewn with a pamphlet stitch.

 

Tiny Leather bound book

 

Inside minature book

 

Told you it was tiny!

 

If you are wondering about the title of this post… this goes back a long way! All the way to my primary school, back in the 1970′s there wasn’t choice about what you ate it was a set meal. If you HATED something, cabbage etc the best you could hope for was a small portion. This gave rise to a range of requests for varying sizes of portion. ‘Junior junoir big’ got you a large helping and  was a reference to the older part of the school know as the juniors. Younger children were known as infants, so if you wanted a small portion you said ‘Infant small please’. Not related to the binding in any way, but it was a nice story and I do like a ramble sometimes hehehe.

 

Best wishes and thanks for reading

 

Billie

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Leather Pamphlet Stitch book with Closure

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I would like to share with you the pamphlet stitched book that I made on 11th August. I learnt that I needed to use a bigger awl before sewing as it was REALLY difficult to sew at first. Once I made the holes in the leather larger it went OK. Thankfully this is a forgiving bind.

 

My third leather book

 

I used a vintage button from my late mother’s sewing basket, then found the bookbinding needle wouldn’t fit through the holes! I got round it, first I pierced the holes in the leather to line up with the button’s holes. I threaded needle and sewed from the inside to the outside, took off the needle, threaded the thread through both button holes. The re-threaded the needle to sew back through the cover. I simply tied the two ends together.   WHere there’s a will, there’s a way…right.

Spine detail showing the Pamphlet stitching

 

Inside the pamphlet sewn book

I realise that the cover isn’t cut very well, as I say I was using a scrap of leather. This was all about learning how to construct this style of book, rather than making a perfect finished piece

 

Best wishes and thanks for reading

 

Billie

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My Second Leather Bound Book

Welcome Back

 

I would like to share with you a picture of the second leather bound book that I made in early August. It features a wrap around cover. The pages inside were bound using a pamphlet stich and then the book block was sewn to the cover.

My Second Leather bound book

 

I used the Crop-A-Dile Big Bite to punch the holes in the spine, bit too big for the purpose but it will make the book block replaceable, so it was worth the experiment. I tied a leather scrap around the book to hold it closed. I need to learn about making closures for these books.

 

My Second leather bound Book

 

 

Best wishes and thanks for reading

 

Billie

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My First Leather Bound Book

Welcome Back

 

At long last here are some pictures of my first leather bound book. I’m afraid I don’t know the exact type of leather that this is made of as it came in an assorted batch. The binding style is known as Long Stitch. I actually made this on 5th August but had to sort out the pictures before I could post it.

 

My First Leather Bound Book

 

 

This book measures two inches square and has 48 sheets of 90lb/190gsm water colour paper, it was sewn with 25/3 cord waxed linen thread. Just goes to show that good things can come in small packages.

 

Spine shows Longstitch

 

I was surprised at how easy it was to cut the leather, I used a normal utility knife with a new blade and it was very easy to cut through and was also a delight to sew. I’ll be making more of these and looking out for larger pieces of leather so I can make some books a bit bigger.

 

Best wishes and thanks for reading

 

Billie xx

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