November NORBAG workshop - The French Stitch

The November workshop was presented by Michele Kamprath. She taught the French Stitch binding for use on a 10 signature journal that was 4 ¼ inches by 5 ½ inches. The covers were also paper (8 ½ by 5 ½ inches folded in half). 

Generally, the French Stitch is used when sewing onto tapes in a traditional case binding. This gives the book a little more structure, but isn’t usually visible as it is hidden under the spine. Today book artists have integrated it into exposed bindings. We used the French Stitch with a kettle stitch at the end of each signature to give the book stability.

Michele Kamprath brought several samples for us.

We started by folding our covers and signatures. Then, using the sewing cradle and a jig, we put holes in the covers and signatures.

We used a kettle stitch at the end of each signature and did the French stitch between.

This is how the interior of each signature looked.

Michele helped as needed.

After finishing the signatures, we sewed through the cover and tied off our stitches.

Here are samples of the covers and a peek at the French stitch on the exposed spine.

Wow! That's more than a few French stitched spines.