Lost in Austen

June 1st, 2025

Since I have been studying bookbinding at my internship and seeing hundreds of unique bindings every day while cataloging, I have wanted to pick it up as a hobby. I scoured reddit and facebook groups for tips and advice and ultimately I kinda just tried to 'figure it out' on my own. I bought book cloth off amazon and tacky glue and ribbon from hobby lobby. Out of all of the tutorials I looked at, At Home with Ashley had the clearest tutorial.

Fig.1 - Blue quarter-bound with yellow cloth boards binding.

This first project is a birthday gift for my lovely mother. I thought of binding a new book for her, but I know she has a very deep relationship with her kindle. So I rebound her favorite book, Pride and Prejudice.

Fig.2 - Floral endpapers I recycled out of a collage book.
Fig.3 - Title page.

I was delighted that she was so delighted to receive this. I learned quite a few things this first go around (a straight edge is non-negotioable when cutting book boards) but I am very excited to see what I will bind next! I also hope to learn how to stitch bind from scratch rather than recover a pre-bound text block.