Homemade Bookcloth

Bookcloth is lovely but hard to find exactly what you want. Making your own is easy, and opens up a whole world of textiles for use your bookbinding projects. Here is the procedure I have been using.

Materials:

1. Fabric
2. Rice Paper
3. Wheatpaste
4. Masonite Sheet

I have successfully used this procedure with cotton and silk taffeta, but very thin silk lets too much paste soak though to the front, ruining the piece. If you don’t have masonite a sheet of plywood would work well, but is harder to clean for reuse. The paste should be fairly thick so it doesn’t run through the fabric. You can find a good recipe here.

The rice paper should be thin, but tissue is too thin and can wrinkle when it dries. If your paper is sided, apply paste to the rough side. Make sure to mark direction of the paper’s grain on the side away from the cloth.

Procedure:

1. Iron the fabric, good side away from the iron.
2. Cut rice paper. It should have a one-inch border when placed over the fabric.
3. Mark the grain direction of the paper
4. Iron the rice paper, but with no steam.
5. Lay the fabric good side down on the masonite, aligning the grain of the paper with the direction of the pattern.
6. Apply a thin, even coat of paste to the rice paper. It is critical the entire surface be covered or bubbles and wrinkles could form while drying.
7. Working from the center toward the edge, gently smooths the paper. Do not press too hard or paste could be forced through the fabric.
8. Firmly press down the outside margins, making sure the paper adheres to the masonite.
9. Let dry 24 hours
10. Slowly peel the dried piece off the masonite. Avoid using a knife so as to leave the surface as smooth as possible for reuse.
11. Iron with no steam at low temperature to remove curl.

Dried fabric and rice paper sandwich

This process is not a good choice for preparing fabrics whose pattern contain parallel lines. The paper does not shrink uniformly, so there ends up being a slight lateral wobble in the finished product. I assume this is due to the paste being unevenly applied. The effect is not noticeable on small areas, but would give headaches on a large book.

Finished Product

There are easier methods to make bookcloth that yield a more uniform result with less mess and waste. Those who walk the righteous path know to avoid them.