Case Binding: Buddy’s BBQ

Oh man, this book. This book was a problem child. And yes, the cover is upside down.

My idea was to use a paper bag from a local BBQ joint, new off-white endpaper, brown-and-white headbands, and two sections of vellum in the middle of the book instead of paper. (Why? It reminded me of the paper meat gets wrapped in. I don’t know. Just roll with it. And yes, you can write on vellum.) I also wanted to create flexible made sewn-on endpapers for the first time. If you want to dive into that, watch this video. They’re basically a step up from the usual tipped-on endpapers.

Let’s get into my tale of woe.

1. The book block slipped from the press while I was trimming the tail (epic fail). It’s impossible to line things up perfectly again to continue with the same cut line, so I had to make it a bit shorter. As you can see in the detail photo, my edge ended up choppy. Needless to say, I skipped trimming the head.
2. Obviously, I glued the cover upside down. End of the world? Certainly not. And no, I couldn’t just rotate the case—the front showed the full logo. Always make sure that you label the parts of your book while working: front, back, head, tail. Always! I got distracted working with the cover material.
3. The cover material (paper bag sealed on the front side with mod podge) performed some Olympic-level stretching and wrinkling. I don’t feel the need to elaborate further. I accepted the risks when I chose a slapdash material.
4. While casing in the book block, it ended up very crooked. Thankfully, by the grace of God, I was able to peel up the pastedown and try again. The casing turned out better, but the front pastedown still looked pretty off, so I had to carefully trim the outer edge once dry.

So yeah, lot of experience points earned! I never panicked, so there’s that. And, despite everything, I think this book is structurally better than the similar Good Chop book. I’m pretty confident rounding and backing at this point (trimming is a different story), and I’ve learned some strategies for making my bookbinding life easier going forward. (I sound so healthy, don’t I?)