I spent some time this evening sewing a Coptic bound book. I cut the cover off of the 1940 book, The Trees by Conrad Richter. A heavy blue book cloth covers this book and it is still in relatively good condition considering it is 70 years old. When sewing a Coptic book, I like to cover the sections with paper in order to give it a decorative embellishment as well as to provide a small amount of room for growth in case the person who uses it chooses to add photos or other ephemera. The unsewn book has been sitting around for a while waiting for me to tend to it. (I teach second grade full time and has taken up the bulk of my week).
I love the feeling of pulling out my various colors of waxed linen thread, looking at them - trying to decide which ones would be just right for the project at hand. Tonight, I settled on olive green, blue, and red. While these vary from the braided thread used as a closure, I think the colors compliment the cover nicely. Sometimes, the thread pulls or gets tangled, causing frustration on my part. Not so this evening. This upcycled journal came together perfectly.I think back to the first time I sewed a Coptic stitch book by following the directions presented in Keith Smith's book, Exposed Spine Sewings. I used cardboard and copy machine paper since I knew it was for practice. It didn't turn out too bad, but it wasn't something worth keeping. Putting it in my "give-away" pile at school made a little second grader very happy though! I have come a long way since then. I feel rather confident about this particular stitch and would like to branch out and try something new. I played around with the Celtic Weave a week or so ago. It didn't turn out right. With practice though, this too will likely become second nature one day.
