So, I felt there was enough potential with that paper backed denim to give it another shot. This time I tried to overcome the shortcomings - weak backing material, fraying - by using a sturdier paper, and folding in the edges. 

note the cute crochet lace ribbon. only 50 cents a yard!

It's a lot more solid than the other book, but it's still very rough around the edges.  Basically any spot I didn't fold over has loose threads.

244 pages of blue, linen textured text weight paper btw

I ironed it after pasting to dry it smooth, but then when I applied the liner on the inside it wrinkled again, and this time despite ironing I just couldn't get that wave to go away. You can see a little of that here. It did make it VERY sturdy though. Not as stiff as actual boards, but stiffer than, say, a paperback cover.

Oh, another thing I discovered is that when you fold the cover to make the spine, the liner will separate away from fabric and wrinkle and it was just a real pain in the back. I'm not sure what can be done about that.

not sure how exactly this happened

Another unexpected difficulty came in the sewing. Normally when I sew I can find my punched holes pretty easily, but when you pierce fabric this thick apparently the threads come right back together. It made it VERY difficult to get the needle back in from the outside. It ended up.. a lot more uneven than I like. Oh well!

It was a good learning experience. I have a lot more ideas to try re denim and books, but I'm pretty sure now that the heavyweight denim I used here just isn't gonna work out with paper backing. We'll see how the next thing turns out!

Trying to use paper-backed denim

I went and pasted some paper to a scrap of denim today to see how it worked out

It's got potential! But... I think next time I need to use a sturdier backing paper, this sketchpaper was way too flimsy.

It's also really tricky to make precise slits and cuts in the denim itself even with a sharp knife and pressing it goddamn HARD. Look at that ragged slit there, that's no good. This model is gonna go to my kids or something, I can't sell that.

And another thing... If I want to make softcover denim books I have to figure out something to do with that edge. Fraying covers are no good... I either need to make them extra large, fold them over, and paste it down, or I need to hem/trim them with something before I paste them to the paper.

It's not a bad first try though! It feels good to be trying new things again.

oh also hey look it's my face

dealing with my camera software was too much trouble so i just snapped with the webcam because hahahaha what's professionalism

welcome back to the new, much more informal Binding Made Complicated.

I'm back.