Encasing Structure : July 27, 2015, Week 4

Hello Everyone,

This week I'm binding the book with the French Link Stitch.

Here's what you need: The signatures lined up and ready to go, a book binding needle, waxed linen thread (Mine is a brown color that I thought would like nice against the white pages. It's a little over 5 ft. in length.) and a clip to hold the pages together as you sew.

I started with the last set of signature and worked my way forward.

Starting with the hole at the top, I inserted the needle and thread through the outside to the inside

leaving about a 4 to 5 inch tail. (Most instructions usually say to leave about 2, but my Fingers are not that nimble, so I find the extra length helps when I have to tie it.

Then I wove the thread in and out of the holes for the length of the signature.

As you can see, the thread is on the outside of the signature after it is woven.

Here is what the inside looked like.

Then I took the next signature and ran the thread from the outside in.

No knot or tie is necessary for this juncture.

I then inserted the needle into the second hole (inside to outside) and ran the needle underneath the first thread line of the first signature.

From there I inserted the needle into the third hole and back up the fourth hole. Once again running the needle underneath the second line of thread from the first signature and then back down into the fifth hole.

The Pattern continued until the second signature was complete.

When I got the the end, I took the teil that I had left at the beginning and tied a square knot to secure the two signatures together.

Then I added the third signature by just inserting my needle from the outside to the inside. I did find that securing the pages together did help keep things lined up and allowed me to tighten the Stitches better.

For the third set of weavings I had to adjust the first set by just pushing them with my needle a bit, so that I when I threaded the needle I was only picking up the thread of the second signature set.