It's a Book! (Or is it?)

Welp.  That went faster than expected.

Used a leather punch to put holes in the bookboards, only punching about, um, five mistake ones.  That works better when you dig the little punched-out bits out of the puncher, FYI.  Used a leather awl to transfer holes to my quires (which only had two sheets - I wanted a bit of practice sewing?)

I had waxed linen thread and an S-curved needle (plain curved would have been better) and got to it. I think I understand the difference between herringbone and link stitch now - link stitch is a herringbone that goes up to the next quire, at the end of the line.  Or I did it wrong.  (Also, hm, that may not make sense in context of that Carolingian book page... eh.)

I started with the back cover, on the theory that I would get better as I went and so the front cover would be neatest.  Not so much.  It turns out the final cover is rather harder than the first cover, and... well.

Things I Learned: 

• It's probably better to switch direction on the herringbone stitch depending on which way you're working.  I liked it when the stitch going into the quire gets pulled tight in the direction of the next hole to sew.
• The link stitches at the end could probably be made really consistent if I always hooked in from the free end of the book.
• Paper tears if you pull your thread too tight.

Right on Page One, I managed a little rip that makes opening the book a little off.  The thread is now a few millimeters off of the crease so things are just... kind of wonky  Oh well.

But it's done!  No cover on it.  It doesn't have to have one - unlike the modern craft-style booklet I put together back in 2009, which was literally held together with glue.  (Flypages glued to covers, book cover glued to boards.)  I've got flypages, which right now look faintly stupid (just being blank and not glued to anything) but I could always draw something on them, I suppose.  I do have a very, very thin bit of garment leather that was an impulse purchase and probably isn't suitable for the impulse (a Swallowcliffe Down-style reinforced belt pouch) that I could use... 

Hey, I could bring this to Battle on the Bay for the A&S display!  Need to do some documentation in that case...