Making the Practical Magic inspired Book of shadows.

The weather has been horrible today, and next week promises to be another busy one (two different meetings already tomorrow! yoicks!) so I took the chance to start putting together the Book of shadows I promised myself I would make.

To start with I needed some pages and three hardboard covers – If you are just making an ordinary book then two covers are fine.

I use cheap canvas covered cardboard as the covers for my journals. Since this one needed to quite big, I cut larger boards down to size.

Then I gathered paper together for the pages.

It is quite fun to have a range of paper for pages, I’ve also used fabric for this book as I want to experiment with plaster pages. The paper needs to be folded in half to be sewn into the book, but you can also make a hinge with another bit of paper or even fabric to join two bits of paper together.

here is an example of how I’ve joined two separate pages to make one bit that can be folded.

You don’t need to be too fussy about the size either.

Tuck your folded pieces together inside each other…like this.

Three or four or more pages together. These are called signatures.

Keep going until your book is as thick as you need it to be.

Remember the book of shadows in the movie has a secret section at the back?

Well I want one in this book too, AND I even have some pages already to go in it. These pages were made for an online swap several years ago, and have been tucked away and not seen the light of day since.

They are pages about BANEFUL herbs, each one poisonous, but used in both medicine and witchcraft for many different reasons.

 

 

There are really cool pages in this book, beautiful art, lots of pockets and flaps and tags, as well as interesting info.

 

 

But anyway….perfect for my secret /dark part of the BoS.

So…put your pages in their signatures together, stack them up and put them inside their covers, and measure the gap between the covers…add a bit extra so you have room to expand.

 

Cut a piece of fabric or in this case possum leather that is big enough to cover the gap, over lap the boards and also the top and bottom edges.

How much you want the overlap to be depends on you, but don’t make it too small.

It is easier to decorate the covers before you need to stick on the fabric…so do that next.

 

 

 

So far everything is pretty much as described at Tesha’s website, but the next part I’ve made up as I went, to see if I can get a look similar to the old leather bound books that have those ridges across the backs…So I cut some cord and will lay it across the leather back,

At this stage I stuck the leather backing to the cover boards.

I use plain old PVA glue. White glue. Give it a good coating. I left the middle part with out glue at this stage.

Put the covers in place and make sure you have the right distance between the covers and also that they are even across the top and bottom

 

Flip the covers over and smooth out the material, making sure there are no air bubbles. Put the covers under some books so there is good contact while the glue dries.

Next we have to measure where to put the holes in the signatures. It isn’t hard. I fold a bit of paper in half…to use as a pattern. It needs to be as long as the covers being used.

Mark on it, where the pages start, – in other words, your covers are bigger than your pages. The pattern is as big as the covers and you want to also mark the size of the pages. Then at the top and bottom mark where you want your first stitch to be. I usually make it one and a half inches in from the tops of the pages.

After that you need to measure the gap between your top and bottom mark. You want to have six marks altogether…you have located where to put two of them (top and bottom) so divide the gap between these marks into five and that will be your distance between each mark.

ie my pages are a half inch smaller than the cover…and I started one and half inches in from the top and bottom of the pages. the distance in,between was 9 inches, so each mark is 1.8 inches apart.

I should probably post more photos. poke a hole in the pattern at each of the six marks.

You also need a bit of fabric the exact length of the covers. mark on it the distance between the covers.

 

 

I’m sewing in three signatures so I need three lines of sewing marks. Use your pattern. Line up the top of the pattern with the top of the fabric and use a marker.

 

In Tesha’s  journals she sticks the inside fabric to the covers and the out side fabric and stitches through the whole lot. The stitches can be seen on the outside, which is really cool. But this part of the book is for the secret part of the book, and visible from the front, so I wanted these stitches hidden. You can see how the outside fabric folds over and hides the edge of the inside one.

I now go to the inside of the signatures and mark the stitching holes. This time line your pattern up with the first mark you made with the page top.

 

 

Poke holes in the crease of the signature where you made your marks. This makes the sewing much easier. Make sure your pages are all at the same level.

 

Decide what order your signatures go in, and start sewing…

I use waxed cord to sew with..and you need a strong needle with a large eye as well. Sometime I use a small pair of pliers to help pull the needle through.

Start at the top, on the outside going in. Go through the fabric first and then into the middle of the signatures. Sometimes you may need to go through each page separately, don’t worry about pulling the cord tight at this stage.

Keep sewing until all your signatures are attached to the material

Then go through and make sure all the cords are snug. Tie the ends of the cords to the stitch closest to it.

 

 

Then it is time to attach the inner fabric to the covers and outer fabric.

Again use PVA glue and put the material under weights to keep the contact while the glue dries. I’ll show you the result if I get time tomorrow.