Working on new Book

I have been in a fabric page swap on FaceBook/Rag Bag Gals group.  The subject of the pages was Ancient Ancestors.  The swap was completed and now I am putting the pages together in a book.  I decided I wanted to do a piano hinge type of binding but the found a bunch of 3" pieces of 3/8" dowels on my work table left over from all those dolls I did.

Here are the completed "beads".  I taped a piece of 24g wire to the dowel making small loops at the top and bottom then covered it around with sticky back cotton fabric tape I purchased years ago but never used.  I painted them, wrapped them in gold cord, then glued on some printed tissue paper.  The fabric bits to the right of the wire spool are selvage edges I cut off cotton fabrics.  I am going to use this to tie the book pages together. the beads are 3" each, the book edge is 7" so I joined two together at the center with jump rings.  You could also use one long dowel.

Next was to prepare the pages.  The pages are 7"  on the binding edge so I sewed the selvage tape 1/2" from the top and bottom, the at the 2" and 4" Marks. I marked the pages with pins as shown to make sure they were all straight.   I cut the selfage strings about 10" long.  They are whipped stitched around the tie centers to the pins marks on the binding edge of each page so there are two strings hanging at each pin.

Here is a page with the strings sewed on.  You could also use ribbons twine, cords- something strong and stable.   One string is to tie the page to the page in front, the other to tie the page to the page in bakc. After I sewed the ties to all the pages, I tied the strings around the beads.








To start tying the pages together, Place two side by side - I put them between my knees. Take a sting from each page and crisscross it-overlap them.  Lay one of the beads over the criss cross and tie using a square knot.  Don't make it too tight, you want some wiggle room.  Grab another page and tie it the same way.  Continue until all the pages are tied together.

Here are two pages together. and all of the pages








Next is to create your covers.  I cut chipboard 7 3/4" x 5 1/2"-a little larger than the pages.  I wrapped the front of the chipboard with velvet upolstery fabric and embellished with chipboard cutouts I treated with gold paint, Ultra Thick Embossing enamel, water color paint and Gilders Paste to look like metal.  The cameo center was a flea market find.

I did the same for the back cover.  I wanted to have a clasp, so I planned that out and used a decorative bronze pin You will need to add ties, only single ones, to the binding edge.  I suggest you do that before you glue on the endpaper on the inside of the covers.  Once your covers are done, tie them in place!
 
In lieu of the beads I created you could also use pony beads or buttons to hold the pages together. Here are examples.




On my finished book, I cut the ties short and frayed them.  Here are pics of my bound book.  I threaded thin chain through the loops on the top and bottom of the beads and also through the jump rings in the center.  I hung some charms. at the top and sides.

 

Front cover and Binding, below is the front clasp.