I’ve been pretty busy with design work for the past couple of weeks, so I’ve barely had time to make more than a few cursory scratchings in the sketchbook. I have, however, been experimenting with bookbinding techniques, in an exploratory effort to design my own hand-bound portfolio book; this book was a huge help in figuring out the techniques and creative variations. Below, you can see the few samples I made with cheap materials to test different types of binding.

Tape Stitched:
I love the look of hand-made books with exposed stitching—they somehow seem more ’special’ than standard hardback books with spines. The boards were covered with black fabric (an old pair of combats!), the interior signatures were created with alternating pink and white heavy-weight paper, and the stitching was pink embroidery thread over black-and-pink striped ribbon.

Basic Codex:
This is just a very basic hardback book with a spine, and it was amazingly simple to make. I covered the book with fairly lightweight paper, which is not ideal, but is actually pretty sturdy. That said, I think fabric is definitely the best option for a covering material.

Codex with Wrap-Around Cover:
Here’s a slightly smaller version of the basic codex, with a little wrap-around hinged cover and button-and-velcro fastener. The boards are covered in the same black fabric as the first book, and I recycled a pretty paper shopping bag for the patterned endpapers.

I’m still not quite sure how I’m going to bind my portfolio book, but I definitely want to make a few editions of it, so it really has to be quite easily duplicatable and/or updatable. We shall see!

Tiphanie Brooke (AKA Antigirl) has some fantastic examples of her bookbinding and design work on her site. I particularly love the gorgeous portfolio-style sketchbooks with bra-strap clasps. Her work really showcases the professional quality you can achieve with hand binding; unbelievably, she created 102 copies of her Babylon Beware project by hand.

I can finally show this wee guy - he’s been given to his intended owner (Hi Bek!) and she naughtily opened him before Christmas. Behold, the Big-Headed Kitty!

You can find the pattern (originally from a Japanese stuffed toy book) over on Craftster, courtesy of Sewing Stars. This is only my second attempt at a stuffed toy (and, boy, is it an improvement on the first), but it was fairly easy to get the hang of - despite the pattern being written in Japanese! My brain is percolating with modifications I can make to the pattern; I think I’ll try to make a grey-style alien stocking filler for Mr Baggio.

Presenting my first foray into the world of stuffed toys: Minimoopy!

This little guy is based on the uber-cute pattern from Moopy & Me, and you can see how other folks have interpreted him over on Flickr. I raided the huge fabric stash in the barn (Baggio’s folks were in the rag trade many moons ago) and came out with some felt-like material in different shades of red, an old heart-patterned table cloth and some white toweling. It was actually huge fun to do—even by hand! I’m beadily eyeing more patterns and laying down an intricate carpet of subtle hints about a sewing machine for christmas.

Oh, check out the stuffie/plushie creations over at The Sweetest Pea and Sewing Stars—insanely cute.