A Useful Sewing Reference

Still somewhat on the topic of things to keep us busy for quite some time, The Guild of Bookworkers has some useful resources on its website, including this delightful little booklet, Stitches and Sewings for Bookbinding Structures. The booklet was a handout for a conference presentation in Toronto last year, and features sixty (count 'em, 60!) sewing structures for books. Prepared by Betsy Palmer Eldridge, a name you will recognize if you have ever found your way through the Keith Smith books on non-adhesive sewing, the pages are descriptions and reproductions of five dozen ways to bind a book. 

While the booklet is mostly a visual reference (the photos are digital images of the presentation boards), you can find your way through the sewings by following the helpful arrows that appear on each example. Where Keith Smith explains each movement of needle and thread in great detail, this instruction provides only a succinct description and is elegantly simple, maybe just enough to learn a new binding or two. If nothing else, you can appreciate the thread color patterns, use it as a quick visual guide when reading Keith's books, and marvel at the imagination of those who came up with all these variations. (Ooooh, bright color thingies .........) 

Did I mention this treasure is free? You can download it from the Guild of Bookworkers as a handout or in booklet format that you bind yourself. (I printed out my copy on nice paper and bound it with the 7-hole pamphlet stitch. I may add a cardstock cover with a nice label at some point.) While you are visiting the GBW resource collection, you might browse the other resources there and see if anything else catches your eye. See how easy it is to expand your project list? Enjoy!