In this video, we're going to extend the paper covered pamphlet to include a cover that has pockets that firmly
hold the pamphlet in place.
In the first video I described the paper covered pamphlet as the ultimate beginners project for bookbinding.
And this is a nice extension of that, focusing on precision of cutting and folding.
Again, this project comes from the book "Book Forms", and the details are in the description below.
This video will focus on making the cover with the pockets.
However, I'll quickly go over making the pamphlet.
But if you need more details, it's covered in-depth in the first video on paper covered pamphlets.
I'll fold 6 sheets of A5 short grain paper to make an A6-sized pamphlet, and then I'll cover that in a
plain, slightly heavier paper.
I'll punch 5 holes to do the five hole pamphlet stitch.
Here I use the template to punch the holes, though you could just do it by eye: 12 millimetres in from each end,
one hole in the center, and then a hole halfway between the holes in the center and the ends.
I'm putting the knot on the outside.
So I start on the outside, weave my way down to the end.
Back to the other end, skipping the center hole, come back to the center, and then tie a knot over the top of the
thread that goes from head to tail.
Trim the head and tail and then the fore edge.
We want the same nice square spine that was on the simpler wrapper.
For that, we need to measure the thickness of the book.
So we use a scrap piece of paper to fold around the thickest part of the book, which is about a centimetre, or a
half an inch, in from the spine.
We'll crease the paper over the top of the book, which will give us the thickness of the book.
The pockets are going to add some thickness to the box, so we'll add a millimetre to compensate for that.
The decorative paper that we're going to use needs to be twice the height of the book and at least four and a half
times the width of the book.
Five times the width is what is recommended in the book, but I just didn't have paper that wide and anything over
four and a half will work.
This is what the paper will look like after it's been marked up and folded along the crease lines.
And this is what it looks like after it's cut out, before it's folded.
We start by folding the paper in half and then marking the width of the spine from our scrap piece of paper, and then
folding along the new line.
Depending on the light that you have, it can sometimes be very hard to see the creases.
So it can be helpful to put a mark in the crease so that you can see it easily.
We'll do all the folds the same way; we'll put the ruler up to the left edge of the mark - or the right edge if you're
left handed. Score the paper with the bone folder then lift the paper up and crisp up the fold with the bone folder up
against the edge of the ruler and then complete the fold.
We center the pamphlet in the middle of the paper from head to tail, and then make a pencil mark a millimetre away from
the top and bottom, the head and the tail, of the pamphlet.
Using the scrap piece of paper, we can transfer that measurement to each end of the paper and then we'll fold the
paper at those marks.
Now we'll do the vertical folds.
The innermost ones are just slightly wider than the width of the pamphlet, about a millimetre again.
So we'll put the pamphlet in place firmly up against the spine and make a mark, again, a millimetre away from the
fore edge. Again, we'll use our scrap piece of paper and transfer that measurement to the head and tail either side
of the crease lines for the spine.
Then we'll fold the paper at these marks.
The next part of the flap needs to wrap around the inner part of the flap, so it needs to be ever so slightly wider.
So we'll just add a tad, maybe a half a millimetre to the measurement that we used before, and then we'll transfer
that to the head and tail out from the folds that we just did.
And again, fold at the mark.
The next step is to make the cuts to remove the unwanted pieces of paper.
In the book, it says that some fine tuning will be required.
And it doesn't say anything, but in the pictures in the book, the flaps are clearly cut at a slight angle.
So we're going to just do that anyway, because it just makes folding the cover up much easier.
So what we want is for the edges of each of the flaps to angle in ever so slightly, maybe a millimetre or two.
Now, I'll draw these in with the pencil so it's easy to see, and it's probably easier to understand if you can see
it. In addition to the corners, a thin strip of paper is cut out the width of the spine at the head and tail.
The final step is to fold up the cover and fit the book.
The trickiest part is to turn in the outer flaps, and you sort of roll those in.
And putting in the second cover of the pamphlet.
And again, you sort of roll that in.
That is our little pamphlet with decorative paper wrapper with pockets done.
I've been making books for 30 years and I still enjoy making simple pamphlets like this.
They are beautiful in their simplicity and also practical.
I hope you've enjoyed today's video.
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Until next time, cheerio.