A second crossed long stitch leather book

The second book will use a a thicker less flexible dark blue leather cover, a short wide dark blue leather strap and button to keep the album closed, five signatures of three folios of acid-free paper with cut edges, and tipped in handmade marbled endpapers with swirls of gold, black and blue.  Like the previous book, the binding will use long stitch, crossed long stitch and link stitches.  Unlike the previous book, this one will have a handmade raku button closure instead of a leather strap.

Since the signatures for this book are only five inches high I was not able to use the templates I had previously made for the signatures and spine of a leather covers.  I needed to create new templates which had only two groups of long stitches per signature.  One less then I used on my six inch high books.  Also, because this leather is thicker and stiffer I would need to punch larger holes in the leather to keep from breaking needles.  The weakest part of the needle is the eye which can very easily be bent and broken.

I used tan 4 cord waxed linen thread for all the stitching.  The leather strap was attached to the back of the leather cover using crossed stitches matching the crossed long stitches used to attach the signatures to the leather cover.  The central long stitch is flanked on either side by crossed long stitches.  I used templates to position the holes for the stitches attaching the strap to the leather cover, as well as the holes for the button and cut for the button hole.  I used a punch at ether end of the cut for the button hole to prevent the hole from ripping when being used.