An Illustrated Bookbinding Guide: How to Make A Coptic Stitch Journal from Scratch
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Time to read 11 min
Introduction
This guide walks you through the creation of a Coptic stitch hand-bound book. This bookbinding style gets its name from early Christian texts made by the Copts of Egypt. The finished book will lie flat and use minimal glue.
Table of Contents
Introduction Materials and Tools Materials Tools Tips and Tricks Folding the Paper Measuring the Cover Covering the Boards Making a Jig for the Holes Punching the Holes in the Text Block Punching the Holes in the Covers Stitching the Back Cover and First Section Stitching the Sections Attaching the Last Section and the Front Cover Glossary Try Bookbinding Yourself
💡 Did you know
The Coptic stitch technique originated in North Africa around the 2nd century AD. To learn more see our blog post about the history of the technique.
Materials and Tools
Materials
- Short-grain paper for the text block
- Bookboard/greyboard for the core of the cover
- Decorative paper or bookcloth for the outside of the cover
- Decorative paper for the inside of the cover
- Waxed linen thread for sewing the cover and text block
- Bookbinder’s glue for glueing the cover material to the bookboard
- Waste paper for aiding with glueing
- Waste paper for making a measurement jig
Tools
* = optional
- Bookbinding needle
- Scissors
- Pencil
- Ruler
- Craft knife
- Self-healing cutting mat
- Awl
- Glue brush
- Bone folder
- Guillotine*
- Rotary cutter*
Tips and Tricks
- Most A4 printer paper is long-grain. To find the grain direction of your paper, bend it lightly (without creasing) in both directions. The direction that resists the least is the direction your grain runs in.
- If you can't find short-grain paper, you can cut long-grain paper in half to make two short-grain sheets. This will make a smaller journal, but the grain of the paper will be in the right direction. Use a guillotine to cut the paper to get the cleanest edge.
- Bookboard also has a grain, but it can be harder to tell the direction, particularly on small pieces. Use the same method as above to determine grain direction.
- Bookbinding is a versatile craft that allows you to use various materials. If you can't get hold of bookboard, don't worry. You can use any other cardboard you have, such as cereal boxes. However, you may need to laminate multiple layers to get a stiff enough cover.
- Baking parchment, glossy magazine pages, or acetate are perfect waste paper for glueing as they don't absorb the glue.
- If you can't find a bookbinding needle, any sharp, strong, and appropriately-eyed needle will do. Some prefer straight needles, and some prefer curved needles; it's a personal preference.
Folding the Paper
- Decide on the structure of your journal. How many pages? How many sections? How many sheets per section? Making a journal with forty pages would require twenty sheets of paper (one folded in half gives two pages in the journal). There are a few ways to make sections for twenty sheets - ten sections of two sheets each, four sections of five sheets each, or five sections of four sheets each. The type of paper you use for the text block determines the number of sheets per section. For example, watercolour paper might need two to three sheets per section, whereas thinner printer paper might need four to five sheets.
- Fold the paper in half, short edge to short edge (Fig. 1).
Fig. 1
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Folding one sheet at a time leads to a very consistent section. Folding all sheets in the section simultaneously is quicker but less precise.
- Use the bone folder to crease the paper (Fig. 2). Make sure to flip the paper over to crease both the front and the back of the section.
Fig. 2
- Stack the folded paper inside itself to create sections. Ensure a consistent number of folded sheets per section (Fig.3).
Fig.3
- Stack your sections on top of each other to create your text block (Fig. 4).
Fig. 4
Measuring the Cover
- Measure the height and width of one of your sections (Fig. 5). The covers will be 3 mm bigger than the section on either side apart from the spine side. We will need two covers.
- Cut the bookboard to size using a ruler and a craft knife. Try to have the grain of the bookboard run head to tail (parallel with the spine).
Fig. 5
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H + 6mm x W + 3mm
- Lie the bookboards down on your cover material (wrong side up), ensuring at least 15mm all around each board. If you’re using paper to cover your boards, make sure the grain of the paper runs in the same direction as the grain of your board (Fig. 6).
Fig. 6
Covering the Boards
- To glue the boards to the cover material, place them on scrap paper and brush the glue from the centre out. Make sure to get the glue right up to the board's edge. Then, stick the boards down firmly.
- Flip the attached boards and cover material over. Use a bone folder on the right side of the material to ensure that it is adhered (Fig. 7).
Fig. 7
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A rule of thumb is to apply glue on the thinner surface, as this can prevent wrinkles and puckers. Strictly speaking, the adhesive should be applied to the covering material, not the bookboard in the previous step. It can be more challenging to do this, particularly with decorative papers that swell a lot, but that is when it’s needed most. Run some tests on some scrap to see how your cover material reacts to the glue.
- Flip it over again, and using a ruler and a rotary cutter (for a fabric covering) or craft knife (for a paper covering), cut the material around the boards, leaving an allowance of at least 15mm (Fig. 8)
Fig. 8
- To cut the corners, leave a gap 1.5 times the thickness of the bookboard and cut at a 45-degree angle. For example, if the bookboard is 2mm thick, the gap to leave is 3mm (Fig. 9).
Fig. 9
- Using scrap paper, glue up the flaps on the cover's head and tail (Fig. 10).
Fig. 10
- Fold the flaps to glue them to the board (Fig. 11). Use a bone folder to ensure they are securely attached.
Fig. 11
- Glue and tuck the tiny flap around the board's edge (Fig. 12). This is why we left a gap when cutting the 45-degree angle on the cover material.
Fig. 12
- Glue the remaining flaps to the board (Fig. 13). Use a bone folder to ensure they are adhered well.
Fig. 13
- Measure and cut the decorative endpapers. They should be around 3mm smaller than the cover all the way around. Ensure that the endpaper's grain direction also runs head to tail.
- Glue the endpapers to the cover (Fig. 14). Make sure to get the glue right to the edges of the endpapers. You can use scrap paper to help. Use a bone folder to ensure the endpapers are adhered well.
- Place the two covers under weights to dry.
Fig. 14
Making a Jig for the Holes
- Cut a notch from some card to make our measuring jig. This jig will help us make the sewing holes (also known as sewing stations) (Fig. 15).
Fig. 15
- Hook the notch over the edge of the text block and mark the other edge (Fig. 16) The notch will help us maintain a consistent distance for our sewing holes. We'll mark our hole positions between the notch and this edge mark (Fig. 17).
Fig. 16
Fig. 17
- Next, let's decide on the number and spacing of our sewing holes. Consider how many holes you want, what distance they will be separated by, and if the distance between the holes will be the same throughout. For our example, we'll go with something simple: five sewing stations spaced equally apart. We'll come in the same amount from the notch and our edge mark to denote where our sewing stations will start and end. This distance can be any amount that looks good. We'll go with 2cm.
- 2cm from the edge mark, mark sewing station 1. 2cm from the notch, mark sewing station 5. Halfway between station 1 and station 5, mark station 3. Halfway between stations 1 and 3, mark station 2. Halfway between stations 3 and 5, mark station 4 (Fig. 18).
Fig. 18
Punching the Holes in the Text Block
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Always place the notch at either the head or the tail, never both. There may be slight discrepancies in the jig or measurements, and if those discrepancies are always the same across sections, they aren’t noticed.
- Open a section and push the notch of the jig up to the edge. Using an awl at a 45-degree angle, punch the holes through all the section pages at the marks on the jig (Fig. 19) (Fig. 20).
Fig. 19
Fig. 20
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We hold the awl at a45-degree angle so that the holes come out on the section’s crease (Fig. 21)
Fig. 21
Punching the Holes in the Covers
- Dry fit the covers to the text block. From now on, keep the journal together like this, as it can be easy to get the covers or the sections mixed up and end up with holes in the wrong place (Fig. 22).
Fig. 22
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Because we made the covers slightly larger than the text block, we can’t hook the notch over the edge like we did with the sections. Instead, centre the jig on the cover using the notch and the edge mark as guides.
- Mark the holes on the front cover with an awl. The holes should be (Fig. 23) 15mm in from the spine edge.
Fig. 23
- Punch the holes with the awl. Go all the way through the cover (Fig. 24).
Fig. 24
- Do the same for the back, making sure that the holes are on the spine side (Fig. 25).
Fig. 25
Stitching the Back Cover and First Section
- Dry fit the journal again, with the spine facing you (Fig. 26).
Fig. 26
- Take all except the bottom cover and the last section, and flip the group over with the spine facing away. Make sure not to rotate the group. The head of both groups should be on the left. The small group with the spine facing you is the working group, and the large group with the spine away from you is the waiting group. As you work through the stitching, flip a section from the waiting group onto the working group to continue. This arrangement keeps everything in the correct position and order (Fig. 27).
Fig. 27
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The amount of thread needed:
(Length of spine) x (number of sections + 2) + 10%
However, don't try to use all that thread at once, particularly for a large journal. The longer the thread, the more awkward it is to sew. To make it more manageable, you can join threads using a weaver's knot as you go.
- Thread the needle and tie a knot at the end. Start sewing through sewing station 5 from the inside out (Fig. 28).
Fig. 28
- Come up through the cover at sewing station 5 (Fig. 29).
Fig. 29
- Pull the thread tight, making sure the working thread comes out on the left (as we are moving left) (Fig. 30)
Fig. 30
- Insert the needle between the cover and the section and pull tight to wrap the thread around itself (Fig. 31) (Fig. 32)
Fig. 31
Fig. 32
- Insert the needle back into the hole you came out of (Fig. 33)
Fig. 33
- Continue in the same manner until you reach sewing station 1. Do not go back into the hole; you should end with your needle on the outside, not the inside of the section (Fig. 34)
Fig. 34
- The thread will be visible inside the section (Fig. 35).
Fig. 35
Stitching the Sections
- Flip over a new section from your waiting group on top of your working group. Insert the needle into the hole at sewing station 1 (Fig. 36).
Fig. 36
- Come out of the hole at sewing station 2 (Fig. 37).
Fig. 37
- Insert the needle underneath the previous section (Fig. 38).
Fig. 38
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Always insert the needle ahead of the direction of travel. If you’re moving from left to right, insert the needle to the right of the hole and come out to the left.
- Insert the needle back into the hole at sewing station 2 (Fig. 39).
Fig. 39
- Continue in the same manner until you reach sewing station 5.
- After inserting the needle under the previous section, come up through the loop you’ve just created instead of going back into the hole. This is called a kettle stitch (Fig. 40).
Fig. 40
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Do not stitch the last section yet. We attach the last section and the front cover at the same time.
- Flip over the next section onto your working group and continue until you reach the last station on the second last section. Don’t go through the last hole; instead, end on the outside (Fig. 41).
Fig. 41
Attaching the Last Section and the Front Cover
- Come through the cover at sewing station 1 (Fig. 42).
Fig. 42
- As with the other cover, the working thread should come out in the direction of travel, in this case, to the right (Fig. 43).
Fig. 43
- Wrap the thread between the cover and the last section. Pull tight (Fig. 46).
Fig. 46
- Insert the needle under the previous section to lock in (Fig. 45). Pull tight (Fig. 46).
Fig. 45
Fig. 46
- Come through the hole at the second station (Fig. 48).
Fig. 48
- Go through the cover from the outside (Fig. 49).
Fig. 49
- Wrap the thread behind by inserting the needle between the cover and the last section (Fig. 50)
Fig. 50
- Insert the needle underneath the second last section (Fig. 51).
Fig. 51
- Insert the needle into the hole at station 2 (Fig. 52).
Fig. 52
- Continue to the end
- Insert the needle into the last hole of the last section and tie off the thread on the inside.
- All done! (Fig. 53).
Fig. 53
Glossary
- Book cloth: Special fabric for lining the outside of the cover
- Bookboard: Stiff cardboard used for the covers of a book, and in some cases, the spine of the book
- Endpapers: Decorative paper used for lining the inside of the cover
- Folio: A sheet of paper folded in half
- Fore edge: The side of the book on which the pages aren’t bound
- Greyboard: See bookboard
- Head: The top of the book
- Kettle stitch: A knot at the edge of a section
- Long-grain: The fibres of the paper sheet run parallel to the long side
- Section: Folios stacked inside each other
- Sewing stations: Holes on the sections/covers through which the book is stitched
- Short-grain: The fibres of the paper sheet run parallel to the short side
- Signature: Often used interchangeably with section. Traditionally, a signature was a mark placed on a section to make it easier to collate the book
- Spine: The side of the book on which the pages are bound
- Tail: The bottom of the book
- Text block: Sections stacked or stitched together
- Weaver’s knot: A secure way to join threads
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