#fanbinding 2026

Project 50, Binds 68 & 69, and Binderary Books #9-10 Left by lifeonmars ( @marsdaydream ) Completed: February 21, 2026 Size:  Legal Quarto.  45,153 words, 231 pages

This is a fantastic magical realism story that was one of the first fics I knew I wanted to bind when I turned my attention to past Sherlock reads.  Because John Watson’s left-handedness is a major plot-point I wanted to incorporate a hand into the cover design and ended up finding the perfect icon set from the noun project.  That ended up establishing a round theme with the Type Keys font for the title and chapter numbers.  This was one of the only times where I knew what the cover would look like before I started formatting the text, allowing for a bit more coordination than usual.

Because I was using a bookcloth sampler pack from Book Craft Supply Co. for the covers the two books are not identical.  Neither are the endpapers - in this case a cozy plaid was as close as I could get to the traditional Watsonian cuddly jumper.

Project 52, Bind 71, Binderary Book #12/end I’ve Got Nothing to Do Today But Smile by gyzym Completed: February 27, 2026 Size: Octavo.  19,867 words, 179 pages.

A classic Inception AU where Arthur is a stressed out corporate lawyer and Eames owns the coffee shop across the street from his office.

This bind was a bit of a disaster once I started printing and assembling.  The first issue I noticed was in the trimming - I don’t know what I did but there wasn’t a right angle on the textblock once I was finished.  I don’t have access to a guillotine at home and I didn’t have the time to go back out and try again (and probably didn’t have the margins to work with either) so I decided to see what I could accomplish with a straight edge and blade.  The results are serviceable but not terribly attractive.  It at least allowed me to avoid making a trapezoidal cover.

When it came time to make the cover I discovered another error.  I was making this at the same time as another octavo, and somehow had switched the endpapers I intended for each book.  It wasn’t the end of the world (at least they both matched) but the whole look turned out a bit more aggressive than I was planning.  The unexpected hazards of working on a Coffee Shop AU and a story about serial killers at the same time.

For all the issues on the outside of the book, the typeset for this text came out really well.  Times New Roman for the body text, which gets a bad rap for being very basic but excels at fitting a lot of text into a small space.  Grenzel for the title, which is another very versatile, not-at-all flashy font.  It picked up some toner haze in the printing process, which means it's probably time for a replacement cartridge.

42nd Project, 60th Bound Book, Binderary 2026 Book #1 The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized by the_ragnorak (@ursavorpalis) Date Completed: 02/07/2026 Size: Legal Quarto.  310 pages, 62,168 words.

Binderary is an event run by the Renegade Bindery’s discord server that is essentially a bookbinding intensive with online classes and workshops and everyone setting their own goals - whether that is finishing X number of books, mastering a new technique, or putting a dent in their work-in-progress pile.  This was my third year participating in Binderary and turned into the year of typesetting on the fly and sewn-in endpapers.

This year, like last year, I bound 12 books.  Unlike 2025, where I started the month with a few books already printed out and a slew of typesets in reserve, this year I got a late start because of travel and only started with four typesets prepped.  I blew through those fairly quickly and spent my lunch-breaks for the rest of the month frantically formatting fics, and made my goal just under the wire.

Binderary Stats!  12 books bound (3 folios, 4 legal quartos, 3 letter quartos, 2 octavos), making 652,621 words in 2,925 pages.  6 of the books were multi-work anthologies and 6 were single-fic volumes, with a duology included for variety.  There were 9ish fandoms represented, with 6 of the books being crossovers.  Only one author copy this time around, and in the end I’ve added around 9 inches of books to my shelf during this event. Thankfully I've acquired another bookshelf for this hobby, so I'm not in danger of running out of room from this event.

Like last year, all supplies were from stash.  I used up the last of my cobalt Allure bookcloth and finally finished a pack of scrapbook paper I bought at the dollar store about 20 years ago.  I also used up just over 100g of PVA, which made the level in my glue jar go down by nearly an inch (and that doesn’t include the methyl cellulose mix I was casing in with for the bigger books).

I'll be adding posts for the individual books in drips and drabs. It may take a while to get everything photographed with how gloomy things have been here recently. In the meantime, here's a cat.

Project 51, Bind 70, Binderary Book #11 Sour Cherry Pie Life by FaithDaria & paburke Completed: February 27, 2026 Size: Octavo. 19,101 words, 166 pages

Throwing it back to the early days of my fic-reading timeline with a crossover between Supernatural and Criminal Minds.  

Wordcount wise this is right at the breaking point that could work as either an Octavo or a Quarto, but given the time crunch before the end of Binderary and the pile of scrap materials I wanted to use up, I went with the smaller option.  

The typeset came together quickly with Coelacanth for the body font and Chenier for the title (going for a slightly age-worn look).  My octavos usually hover around 95 words-per-page but I managed to hit 115 with this bind.  

Things went a little haywire with the aesthetics once I was actually constructing the book.  I was making this at the same time as another octavo and it wasn’t until it came time to make the covers themselves that I realised I had accidentally switched the endpapers between the books.  It was too late to do anything about it since the textblock was all glued up with spine lining and mull so I just plowed on ahead.  And so my story about a serial killer has a very cozy feel.

43rd/44th Project, 61st & 62nd books bound, 2026 Binderary Books #3 & #4 The Marketplace - Crossover tales by @kryptaria & @bootsnblossoms Completed: February 11, 2026 Size: Folios. [263 pages, 84,499 words] [424 pages, 135,395 words]

A two book series - first covers an alternate meeting between Q and Bond, while the second includes the events of Skyfall and ends up as a OT3 with Bond, Q, and 007.

43rd Project, 61st Bound Book, 2026 Binderary Book #2 Conflicts of Interest (Series) by @rageprufrock Date Completed: February 8, 2026 Size: Folio.  417 pages, 138,105 words.

Bind #59 (1st book of 2026!) Rotten Work by for_autumn_i_am Date Completed: 01/25/2026 Size: Quarto.  202 pages, 26,313 words

I love a good modern-office-setting Terror AU, so it was only a matter of time before I bound this fic.  I worked on the typesetting while on vacation last year and for some reason thought it would work as a thin legal quarto.  But as I was gathering supplies to finally bind the book I decided I absolutely had to use this one particular sheet of cardstock for endpapers, which would only work if I quickly converted it into a quarto.  And given what a nice size it turned out as that was clearly the size I should have planned for all along.  

Fairly boring type choices since I was using a borrowed laptop during the initial formatting: Garamond for the body and Castellar for the titles. The endpapers are some double-sided travel themed scrapbook paper I've had in stash for at least a decade, and the cover paper for even longer. Allure bookcloth in cobalt from Hollanders on the spine, and some pink dollar-store HTV for the title.