A book headband refers to bands located at the 2 ends of the spine of a book.
Traditionally, headbands were used by bookbinders to align book signatures and more importantly, strengthen the ends of a book. It led to the creation of sturdier books that last longer.
The making of a traditional book headband is a time-consuming process that requires patience and finger strength. A tutorial to making a traditional book headband can be seen here.
With the advancement in book binding technology, the headband is no longer used in most commercial books.
However, it adds a nice finishing touch to any book. And craft bookbinders love to use it as a form of decoration or a distinguishing mark on their books.
This tutorial shows you how to make a simple headband.
Do note that this tutorial features headbands for decorative purposes only.
How to Make A Headband For Your Book
Materials:
- Ribbon / paper that matches with your book’s cover paper
- Thick Cotton String
- Plastic Spring Clip
- PVA /Craft Glue
- Glue Sponge
- Tape
- Scissors
- Bone Scorer
Instructions
Step 1:
Prepare the following:
Ribbon: About 5 cm
Thick Cotton String: About 6cm
Step 2:
Fold the Ribbon into 2 equal halves, along its length. Apply glue to the top half of the ribbon.
Step 3:
Place in the thick cotton string in the middle (the region that separates the area with glue and the area without glue).
Step 4:
Fold the ribbon in half.
Get rid of air bubbles and excess glue using your bone scorer.
Make sure there are no gaps at the region where the cotton string is being held.
Use a plastic spring clip to secure the ribbon together and leave it for it to dry (approximately 1 hour or until the glue has dried).
Step 5:
When the glue dries, remove from the clip and trim off excess cotton string.
Step 6:
Measure the thickness of your book spine and cut the headband according to the thickness of the spine.
Step 7:
Glue one side of the headband starting from the bump of the cotton string, moving downwards.
Step 8:
Paste your headband onto the book spine.
Step 9:
Use a piece of magic tape hold the headband in place.
Leave it to dry.
Step 10:
And glue is dried, remove the magic tape and the headband is completed.
This tutorial was contributed by Sheryl Ng. Check out her tutorials at:
I Love Bookbinding[goal id=”156″]
I do agree with all of the ideas you’ve presented in your post. They are really convincing and will certainly work. Still, the posts are too short for newbies. Could you please extend them a little from next time? Thanks for the post.