Bookbinding tools from book board

I have been meaning to post about some easy to make bookbinding tools made from book board. Right now my book board comes from upcycled notebooks from the thrift store - if I can find some in good shape. For just a couple of dollars you can make these essential tools. I can't take credit for the design as these are copies of what I remember using in the conservation lab at BYU-Provo.

First up is a cutting guide with finger guard. It is about 3/4" wide and is ideal for trimming book cloth. This design is not ideal - the ones I remember had a built up section in the middle that made it easier to grab and hold on to. Still, this works pretty good and I may get around to fixing it. The upright end goes to the outside, facing away from the book to protect your fingers from the blade as you cut.

This is a punching cradle bought as a kit from a book binding/paper store. It is fairly simple and could easily be reproduced. (The kits are no longer available). The white section is tyvek, but could also be cardstock. Over time you have to glue additional tyvek or paper because lots of punching will weaken the join.

Finally, this is what was fondly called the corner-matic in the conservation lab. It is used to cut the corners of book cloth when making up the cover. I think the Banister book has instructions for something similar, but I much prefer this design. This pictures shows the corner-matic face up so you can see how it is put together. To use it, place it face down over the corner you want to trim and you will get a nice 45 degree cut the right distance from the board corner.

A chair from the factory floor

This is the chair I sit on nearly every day and it has a story. It's not fancy, in fact it is rather ugly and uncomfortable. It has a few paint splatters from being used to repaint rooms in my house. The seat and paint is worn. What makes this chair so special?

This chair came from a local sewing factory as it was closing its manufacturing operations - the factory where I was first employed out of college. I don't know what possessed me to buy it other than it was cheap. It was after I brought it home that I noticed the date on the bottom of the chair. The same year I was born. A foreshadowing of destiny? More like life coming around full circle.

This particular factory produced little girls' dresses. My mother bought dresses from their factory outlet store - and yes I wore them. No one ever thought that I would be working in that same factory.

Sitting on this chair every day reminds me of where I came from, where I got my start. It is also give me tremendous sympathy for the poor women (literally) who sat on this chair and sewed little girls dresses day after day. Dresses that literally thousands have worn. All in an effort to earn meager wages. Even though the chair is uncomfortable, it keeps me from getting too cocky.

Disappearing Ink Pens for the Sewing Room

These disappearing ink pens are among my favorite tools. I go through several of them every year. I use them to trace around a pattern directly on to fabric for cutting. I also use them to mark stitching lines like darts, fly-fronts, or even quilting lines. It is great for marking match points in the middle of a piece. I rarely make tailor tacks or sew-baste thread markings.

In this picture, you can see how well the line shows up, even on difficult to mark fabrics like blue. This drawn line came from a pen that is nearly dead (I use them until they are dead). It works on most light to medium colored fabrics. It has difficulty with anything that is pink, red and of course black. For those colors I whip out chalk pencils or soap remnants (soap usually works better). I have used these pens on a variety of fabrics from silks, satins, laces, flannels, broacloths, to denims. I use them on personal projects and in industry settings.

The back of the package says to test on fabrics before using. I have had very few problems with the ink not disappearing. If I were to topstitch a fly, I may test it. The last pair of pants I made, the fabric had a finish on it that prevented some of the ink from disappearing. But it all came out in the wash. I wouldn't iron over the ink until it has completely disappeared - the heat/steam from the iron may set it. It would be rare for the ink to become permanent. Most of my ink lines are from tracing around pattern pieces, so they would never be seen anyway. The package states the ink disappears within 24-72 hours. I find it disappears much faster than that, especially when exposed to air. The age of the pen also determines how long the mark will last.

I have difficulty finding this exact pen in the fabric stores. They carry disappearing ink pens, but they don't work as well. For some strange reason fabric stores (the ones near me) carry Dritz marking pens, but not this one. This pen is from Dritz and I can be ordered from Amazon.

Grading Rulers

Kathleen Fasanella posted a blog back in Feb 2006 about grading rulers. Imagine my surprise when I opened a book I picked up at a thrift store. Inside the front cover was a little used hinged grading ruler in it's original packaging with instructions! The ruler was stashed in an older edition of the Price/Zamkoff grading book. The book was priced at a measly $2 - the original price sticker for the ruler was still on the packaging of $5.35. Funny thing is, I bought the book about 3 years ago and stuck it on a shelf. I only opened it up a few days ago as I was working on my new infant grading charts. I wanted the book as a grading reference, but rarely use it because of how poorly it explains grading. What a great bonus to find the ruler!

About 98% of the grading I do is in a CAD program. Grading on the computer is so easy! Select a point and tell the computer how much growth should occur in the X,Y directions. It redraws the curves automatically. It is easy to double check the grade in the larger sizes by laying the pieces on top of each other or walking the pieces along side.

Every CAD program varies in ease of use. I have done computerized grading using Gerber's Accumark, Autocad/Betacad and Optitex. I will blog in the future about the differences between the three. Suffice it to say, Optitex is the easiest to use thus far, and quickly becoming my favorite. Grading by hand, is another story. It is tedious and takes a lot of time. I can see why grading is considered an art form. I am grading my personal patterns by hand and it is a big learning process.

In design school, I learned to grade with only a ruler. My 18" clear ruler with 1/16" increments, is photographed above. Grading with only a simple ruler is fairly straightforward. You measure out the changes and re-draw your pattern for each size step. Using a grading ruler makes the process so much simpler! I graded my infant flat block patterns with the grading ruler in a couple of hours (I was re-working some of my grades at the same time). The ruler is marked in 1/16" increments. Your grade rules need to be in 1/16", 1/8", 1/4", 1/2" increments to use this ruler effectively, which means you may need to re-work some of your basic pattern measurements to make grading easier.

I hope to demonstrate the process of actual grading, but for now I am enjoy playing with my lucky find!