How to bind your own Hardback Book

The art of book binding is an ancient craft, but actually it is not very difficult to do and with almost no practice you can get really awesome results. If you are on the look out for fun craft projects or quick ways of making nice presents and gifts, then this could be the project for you.

I know that there are other instructables on the art of book binding but this project is meant to be a simple quick project that will give a very acceptable finish and a book that looks like it has been professional made, yet without the need for any special equipment.

All you will need is:

Some paper
minimum really is about 32 A4 or US Letter sized sheets, to make a half A4 (half US Letter sized book), although small books can be made as can ones with more pages. You can use tracing paper, thick or thin paper and of course colored or even preprinted or written on paper.

Some glue
You will need PVA (Elmer's White glue) or a rubber fabric adhesive (in the UK that is called Copydex, perhaps someone could tell me what it's called in the US), (a glue gun if you have it, would help with one of the stages, but is not mandatory)

Some stiff cardboard or corrugated (fluted) cardboard

Some fabric or leather
Any old stuff will do for the cover. I have used the fabric from some old pairs of trousers that were being thrown out (actually nothing gets thrown out in my house, just put to one side for later use). But you could use a bit of leather, some old curtains, cushion covers...etc etc, I'm sure you get the idea.

Step 1 Stack your paper neatly in (at least 4) piles of 8 sheets

You are going to be binding your paper in 8 sheet folios. Of course you could do more or less. I have found 8 sheets to be a good number. because you are folding it in half each sheet is going to make 4 pages of your book, so this 8 sheet stack is going to make 32 pages.

Your book should have at least 4 or these 8 sheet folios which will therefore make 128 pages. (apologies to all the maths wizards out there).

You can use just plain paper or paper upon which you have already printed a header and footer (remember to get this the right way round and remember that there will be 4 headers and four footers per sheet of paper.

If you want to mix in different papers then remember that they will appear further into the book as well. (don't worry, this all becomes obvious as we go through the project).

Comments

[midin]

I have tryed stapleing two ,better to sew them together. I used fablon to cover book works well. I made 12 pages each time to sew together.but you need bigger paper to fit the inside. thank it's very easy to follow .

[joanietroester]

I am recovering a soft leather (no cardboard backing) cover from a Bible. The binding is in tact - the cover just came loose and needs replacing.
I have a soft, very pliable piece of leather. Is it advisable to use cardboard, also, as shown above, to make it stronger? Or would it be okay to repair the cover, glue the binding and then glue the inside sheets to front and back.
I also am very impressed with this explanation! I've looked at several that were very confusing.

[AussieAnglerGal]

nice idea! i'm a writer (not professional, just a hobby) and with 300 stories as work i progress i need a way to bind them
will this be able to be used for 600-1000 page books? :D
also, instead of fabric can i use paper for a custom cover?

[KaptinScarlet]

The idea is to make a hardback book, but I guess you can use a paper cover if you want, although I doubt it would be strong enough for the sort of page numbers that you are thinking of. I'm sure you can bind many hundreds of pages like this, but big books may need stronger fabric at the spine, but I am no expert at book binding, so I guess you have to do it by trial and error.

[AussieAnglerGal]

yea, i am thinking of a hardcover but instead of fabric, paper, thanks 4 your help

[apotthoff]

Thank you so much for posting these instructions. You have saved my back-side for a college project.
Thank You
Elephantswind.wordpress.com

[KaptinScarlet]

Great, glad I can be of assistance (great blog BTW)

[zscott1]

why not use whole pages, instead of folding them, and punch holes in the folios and sew them with a thick thread? Then attach all the folios to the spine and such later? I'm just curious because I don't really like using glue or staples, and sewing would seem to last longer, to me anyway.

[KaptinScarlet]

You can do this, and there are other instructables that show you how. I just wanted to make and bind a book in a more traditional way. You can always stitch the folios together with thread. This would be much more authentic stapling.

[nietzscheansuperman]

Whenever i download a (free) e-book or PDF i always print them out and bind them into books using this method. Brilliant tutorial, thank you x

[juelsi]

Hi,
Might be thick here- but l dont understand the Folio bit what is the folio bit and do you stick a folio to each page ?? confused

[stoeff]

There is no need to glue the end paper entirely to the first/last page. It is enough to put a thin line of glue next to the fold. You can do this even before you glue the fabric on the covers. When you glue the end papers to the cover boards it is good to put a piece of paper, which should be a little bit larger than the board, inside the end papers and put the whole book inside a press or under a stack of heavy books for at least 3-4 hours to dry out. So the paper inside will stay dry and flat.

[mitarienteh]

This is just AMAZING :D Thanks so much!

[jtomlinson2]

I took a look at a book (Harry Potter) and noticed that they did not glue the page to the first or last page. What they did instead was folded the page as you have shown, and had it glued down to the initial fabric that was glued to the paper. Then they had it glued to the board covering up the board covering (they had used paper). In this way the paper at this stage becomes the first page of the book. Just a thought that might save the first page of your book from getting all wrinkled and wobbly looking.

[cguerra]

Using cardboard to make books or any other kind of archival anything is a bad idea because the cardboard has acid in it and will make your paper turn yellow over time. Just sayin'!

[billbillt]

Yes, it will turn yellow in 2 or 3 hundred years...

[KaptinScarlet]

Sometimes you want that yellow (ancient look), although perhaps sometimes you don't. I suggest that this instructable is not for binding very precious documents.

[tcarney57]

This is a good warning, but there are acid-free materials available in just about every art-supply store these days. I'm not sure, but with all the scrap-booking going on, I'll bet that even craft stores have at least some acid-free papers and board.

[cguerra]

This is very true, but corrugated cardboard and things like that definitely are not acid free. Although they are cheap, beware because you'll pay for it in the long run!

[Fishyfartie]

sigh... I can't find an eraser and my stapler is so stupid. If I stretch it out, the staples fall out.

[WhyHello]

yeah i just have a cheap 1 dollar mini stapler

[superitchy]

You can also use a mousepad for this step.

[WhyHello]

how? *n00b*

[KaptinScarlet]

good point

[aDimWit]

This is awesome, I have to make one. Thanks a lot.

[KaptinScarlet]

thanks

[themixtape27]

There is a way to bind the corners that allow you to get a more professional look. Simply take the corners of the fabric, and pull them and glue them down first. This will create little triangles that are glued from the corners while the rest of the edges aren't glued yet. Then, when you pull the edges down, they look like this:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/maria_papel/5633998135/in/pool-59608321@N00

See how there is a seam on the corner, so that there seems to be two pieces meeting, rather than one side of the corners being on top of the other. The trick is to pull the corner in at a perfect diagonal, think a 45 degree angle. Also, if your fabric is thick or your cardstock is wide, it may gap a little, but it will still look very nice.

[KaptinScarlet]

Looks cool, good comment

[vegasredbear]

I'm an amateur book binder, and this a great instructable. I do have a few hints. Sewing signatures together is fun (to my mind), and I've seen to many older books with rust spots from wire to ever staple anything that I wanted to be remotely long lasting. Also, bookcloth can be made by fusing a piece of acid-free tissue paper to the back of a piece of fabric with Pellon fusible interfacing. The Pellon prevents the PVA from soaking through the fabric and the tissue paper adds stability. And for beautiful papers and supplies check out www.hollanders.com. Be prepared to drool.

[KaptinScarlet]

Thanks, nice comment. yes sewing would be better but I figured that most people would have a stapler but that a proper paper sewing needle and etc would not be as common. Hollandres... hmmmm nice.

[himselfamily]

Try using glue sticks instead of liquid glue. Then you shouldn't get the wrinkles. A brayer will help remove unwanted air pockets.

[clapitan]

can you bind the same way as in magazines

[boid3]

can I just fold each piece of paper individually so they come out neater? If I do, where should I staple them, if anywhere?

[defaultninja]

Thanks so much for these directions! I made a sketch book for my girlfriend - a bit amateur, but not bad for a first go. I hope to get better with the next book :)

[njenkins]

I recently made my own hardbound book without the help of this tutorial (I wish I had known about it!), and I found that using a spray glue for the cover, be it fabric or otherwise, works waaaay better and you don't have to worry about using too much and the covers looking wrinkled! The spray glue itself is pretty inexpensive, about $5 at my local craft store, and you can use it for tons of other projects too!

[KaptinScarlet]

Good call, spray glue or rubber cement (we call it copydex in the UK) would be good. Spray glue (or Spraymount) can be very messy though and the glue tends to get on the front of the book too, which is not good.

[tcarney57]

3M has some archival-quality spray adhesives, but rubber cement is well-know for leaching sulphurous compounds that eventually stain whatever it's used on--it completely ruins photographs! I actually like rubber cement because you can reposition things fairly easily, but I never use it on anything I want to keep for more than a few months. Again, I think the scrap-book folks might have plenty of good suggestions for archivally-safe adhesives.

[xxu]

Thanks soooo much for these posts! the pictures and instructions are priceless! :)

[bill2009]

excellent - thank you.

[carly.tuma]

You could also try putting waxed paper between the cover and the paper if you wanted to have it dry closed. I would think that would be easy to peel off in the end, and if tiny bits are left behind, you're going to be covering it in the next couple of steps anyway.