#austen

I like doing stuff in batches, so last night I had another book cloth boogaloo. One problem I'd run into before was lacking the space for more than two book cloths at a time, because I only had two glass panels to dry them on, but I found a new thingie to try on the internet: put those suckers on your windows to dry.

Genius!

I made a stash of six and a half cloths before I ran out of paste! Booyah!

Here's some pics of the book cloth I made previously:

The brocades are probably too busy for most projects, but I loved the way they turned out for Northanger Abbey and Lady Susan, respectively.

Also good to have low-level stakes projects where it does not matter if you fuck up. You can just live with the newly learned lesson and move on. Or redo.

So I want to bind each of the seven books in a different colour, because why not. I envisioned something of a rainbow of Austen novels on my shelf. Good to have goals.

Sadly I don't live in a part of the world where multi-coloured book cloth is easy to come by, and I was still trying to abide by the resolution to use my own resources first, if possible. So I started to learn how to make my own book cloth, as the logical solution to obtaining my Austen rainbow. I've been following this tutorial, using cloth and flour paste:

It's been a little hit and miss, but I attribute that to my absolute amateur status. But even if some of the fabrics ended up curling, I have enough to use for my bindings, and I think they turned out quite pretty. I absolutely love the fact that I can take pretty much any of fabric out of my ever-growing hoarder's stash and use it for books!

My plan was to have green fabric for Northanger Abbey, and I had a nice little piece that would fit the vibe and the silky look of its predecessors PnP and Persuasion (mark I). Or so I thought! But the little bastard fought me every step of the way.

Not only did the glue come through in the front, the edges started fraying and coming apart, and then the PVA made truly hideous splotches on the inside when I tried to glue the fraying into submission. Also, I had again cut the boards too wide, as with my first try at the Pride and Prejudice cover. I had to admit defeat, and start afresh.

Here are some other progress pics:

Sense and Sensibility, signatures getting sewn up. I had run out of white thread and had to use green. XD I don't even mind how it looks. Maybe I'll use colored thread on purpose for other projects.

My stash of darlings, sewn and glued and freshly cut, now waiting to be cased in! On the left, Sense and Sensibility, Emma, Lady Susan, and Persuasion mark II for my friend, on the right Northanger Abbey, and my first stab at fanbindings. Mansfield Park is still being typeset, it's taking me awhile. Another chonk in the making.