Birthday Book in the Making

Progress photos of Travel Journal for Matt made by Ruth Bleakley showing the finished covers with toggle closures sewn on

Here are some pictures of the process of working on a special commission of a travel journal - The plaid book cloth is actually a pair of favorite shorts the recipient had to regretfully consign to the rag pile – not any more! Now they’re immortalized as a book’s cover. The toggles are antique brass – I hand sewed them onto the straps which I made of two layers of cloth sewn together on the sewing machine. I attached the straps to the covers by sewing machine BEFORE glueing them down so they’d be extra sturdy. The spine is book cloth, the gold detail is a type of decorative paper.

If you’re interested in learning to make your own handmade books, I have post you might like: 5 Great How To Books About Bookbinding

Progress photos of Travel Journal for Matt made by Ruth Bleakley with signatures ready to sew

Progress photos of Travel Journal for Matt made by Ruth Bleakley with french link bookbinding

Progress photos of Travel Journal for Matt made by Ruth Bleakley with little brass toggle closures

Progress photos of Travel Journal for Matt made by Ruth Bleakley with finished brass toggle closures

Progress photos of Travel Journal for Matt made by Ruth Bleakley showing the inside of the front cover

Check out this post showing the finished book!

About the Author

Ruth

3 Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *