Making Book Cloth

After viewing my Iron Craft Challenge, a couple of people asked me how I made my book cloth. There are two major ways to make your own book cloth--one more traditional and one more modern.  While I have made book cloth the traditional way (with wheat paste and/or Methyl Cellulose), I find that I have more control when I make it the more modern way. The traditional way has the benefits of a more subtle final product and tends to work better on higher end fabrics (velvet, silk, and moires). I prefer the more modern method because you have more control over the products, is less messy, and requires less space.

The modern method of making book cloth uses an ironing board, an iron (non-steam), fabric, Japanese mending paper (or other fibrous paper), and ThermoWeb heat adhesive sheets. Unfortunately, this method produces a little bit of waste in materials because you are limited by the size of the ThermoWeb sheet.  In the traditional method, you are only limited by the size of your fabric or the size of your paper backing (whichever is smaller).

Step One: Preparing your fabric. You should wash and dry your fabric to allow for any shrinking of the cotton. Although this step isn't extremely necessary, it usually helps in the final product. Iron the fabric flat after it has been prepared.

Here is the pressed fabric. Right side up.

Step Two: Adhering the ThermoWeb. Turn the fabric over--right side down.  Following the instructions on the ThermoWeb, cut a sheet that is slightly smaller than the fabric you have prepared. With the adhesive side down, iron the adhesive onto the fabric. Follow the instructions on your product but be sure to take your time and cover the entire sheet to ensure that all edges are thoroughly glued down.

Here is the adhesive sheet ironed onto the fabric. Notice that the fabric is larger than the adhesive sheet.

 Step Three: Adhering the Paper backing. Keeping the fabric right side down, peel off the wax paper backing of the ThermoWeb. This will expose the remaining glue that will adhere to the paper. Cut the backing paper larger than the adhesive sheet and larger than the fabric.  The purpose of this is so that there is no chance for excess glue ruining your iron. If you get adhesive on the bottom of the iron, your project AND iron will be ruined.

Here is the oversized paper ready to be pressed against the adhesive. Notice the size of the backing paper.

Step Four: Trimming the book cloth. The final step is to trim the book cloth to a usable sheet. Trim off the excess of fabric and backing paper. Take your time in this step because you want to make sure that your final product is perfectly glued to each other. If you have one seam that isn't adhered correctly then make sure to cut the cloth shorter than that section. Your final product must be totally glued to each other. Also, this is the perfect time to square off your book cloth for future use.

The final product.