Making the cover
I used the Cover & Spine Calculator I had created, to work out the size of the front and back boards, and not forgetting the spine.
I joined the spine, and the boards together by using brown paper. I glued the spine down on one side of the paper and then the boards glued on the other side of the brown paper.
Once the cover dried I tried it out for size, to make sure everything was fitting correctly. I was pretty happy with how it looked and was covering the text block nicely!
Covering the book cover
When it came to covering the cover I needed to choose the right colour. I didn’t have anything that would match the exact colour of the original cover, so I chose something as close to it which was red.
I cut this down to size and glued the cover down to the material, including the edges. I realised after it was too late (as always) that I had glued the cover upside down! The spine should have been facing upwards, not the other way around – but it wasn’t the end of the world for me!
Once the cover had dried and been pressed overnight I tried the cover again with the text block, and again was happy how it looked.
Sticking it all together
Once I had everything lined up and ready to go, I glued the end papers down to the cover, adding some paper to blot the moisture and a sheet of plastic to act as a barrier between the front and back cover and the text block. Then clamped it between some boards over night.
The next morning
The next morning I removed the clamps and had a look at the finished book and it turned out better than I expected, and can’t believe this was a book that was literally dropping to bits. Considering it was something I had never done before I am really happy with myself!
I had kept the spine from the original book which had the title in gold, as well as a pattern. I wondered if I might be able to glue this to the spine of the new cover because I felt it was too nice to throw away.
So I cut it down to neaten the edges because they were ragged and torn. Once this was done I simply glued it down onto the spine.
I was pleased with how this worked out, because I wasn’t sure if this would work or not. What do you think?
Overall, I’m really happy with the result of this book restoration. I must admit I’ve picked up some more books from car boots to have more practice at restoring books, so watch out for more posts like this!
