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Wednesday, June 1, 2016

Bible Cover


I've had this Bible that I've started journaling in for many years.  It's a hardcover book and the cover was looking pretty beat up, so today I decided to put a new cover on it.  I wanted a strong fabric feel to it, so decided to use some vinyl wallpaper samples I had on hand.  I'm quite pleased with the result.  I expect to add something to the front - a title at least - but haven't yet decided on what I want to do for that.  Here's what I did to cover the Bible:
  • Wallpaper: Found the largest piece I could that I thought would look good.
  • Measuring: I knew I wanted the Bible to be able to close, so I needed to measure it with the Bible closed.  I needed all the width I could get to cover all the way from the front to the back, but the paper was taller than I needed, so I first cut off the excess.  Then, with the Bible closed and the paper wrapped around it, I placed it on my table, made sure everything was centered, and then drew lines around the back on three sides.  I then flipped the whole thing over and did the same for the front.
  • Spine: I wanted the ends of the paper by the spine to wrap to the insides, so I made cuts from the edge of the paper to where I had ended each pencil mark. 
  • Creasing: I folded the paper along the pencil lines and creased all with a bone folder.  Then I opened them all up and folded in a triangular piece at each corner.
  • Tongues: I folded the spine pieces in alignment with the other folds, and then trimmed the edges of each at an angle, so they would slip inside the spine.
  • Adhesive: I used my ATG gun, gluing all edges and some in the center by the spine.  I also made sure I had plenty of glue along the little triangular corner pieces. It might have been even better if I had put glue in the center of the front and back covers, but that also might have made it impossible to align well.  I'm happy with it as is, but there's a little bit of movement in the cover that can be seen on the front and back since they were only glued along the edges.
  • Assembly: After I had all my glue on the paper, I started with the top of the Bible.  I opened it up, standing it on end, and slid the "tongue" down the spine.  After pressing it in place, I went to work on the bottom tongue.  This one was a bit more challenging because the top one was adhered in place, but it wasn't too bad.  After those were in place, I went to work on the back cover.  I turned in the corners and pressed them in place, applied a bit more glue where the outside of the corner would be making contact with the cover and then folded over the three edges, pressing each in place with a bone folder.  Then I flipped the Bible over and did the same for the front.
  • Finishing: I finished the inside by cutting coordinating wallpaper patterns to fit, gluing them in place, and using a bone folder to burnish them.  Here's what the inside front cover looks like now:


And the inside back cover:


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