A method of sewing a bookbinding, using linen, vellum, or other
tapes (using Webster’s first definition) as a support for the
signatures – the signatures are sewn to the tapes, which are
later attached to the boards. This will deal just with the
sewing and gluing of a binding done using tapes – there are many
different ways to bind a book sewn in this manner, and they will
be dealt wit h in separate writeups. Once the signatures have
been folded, the next step is to sew the binding. If the
endpapers are going to be sewn to the book block, they should be
chosen and cut to size at this time. For simpler books – printed
books that I am rebinding, I tend to use very plain endpapers –
a nice, lightweight paper of a color that matches the color of
the paper of the book, usually Rives Lightweight. The advantage
of using a paper like this is that I can make an additional
quarto signature for the endpapers, and two sheets of paper are
stronger than one, and more able to support the stress of
sewing. When the sewing is