I’ve always been interested in the super ornate decorative bookbinding technique called the Caterpillar stitch – it looks like it sounds – actually, it looks a bit more like  a centipede…but bleeegghhhh centipedes are so gross! I’d rather say it looks like a caterpillar! Anyway, for an upcoming gardening themed book I’m making as a special commission I thought it would be neat to integrate a caterpillar! I used this helpful caterpillar stitch tutorial video by Mike Commons
Here’s part one of my Caterpillar binding efforts – I decided to try it out on raw book board because I thought it would look neat and it was handy. I am not sure if I’m doing it right, but I thought I’d sew up the book using coptic stitch as usual except for the sewing stations that I’m going to have the caterpillar “cross” the spine on.
Stay tuned for Part 2!
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This looks fabulous…looking forward to part 2…
have a good Tuesday!
Thanks Cynthia! In classic form I ran out of thread about 8 holes away from the end :'( haha, more pics soon though 🙂
Must try this! I am looking forward to the end result. I think the bare book boards look nice, the stitch gets all the anttention.
Looking good so far! I was able to take a workshop with Daniel Essig on this stitch and yes, we started with a book already bound in coptic then added the bug. I’ve yet to return to this stitch, other than some quick “reminder” ones on scrap board, but it’s one of my favorite decorative stitches out there. Perfect choice for a garden-themed book. = )
yes, the garden themed book came out really cool with the caterpillar stitch! I just finished it – ONE of these days I’ll post it … so bad at blogging, lol
What a cool binding stitch! I’m teaching myself the art of bookbinding, and I love your blog! Lots of great information!
My first caterpillar binding. I used a combination of Keith Smith’s excellent ‘Open Spine Bindings’ book and downloadable instructions from the Canberra Craft Bookbinders Guild
Part 2???