cookbook project update

after a ton more work/frustration/cursing....i made it to a much happier place in the cookbook repair project. i finished clearing the spine of yellowed, dried glue to the best of my ability and began disassembling the sections of paper. OMG. so, the last page of one section and the first page of the next was GLUED TOGETHER at the spine. just to make my life extremely difficult. well, it might have had to do with making the book more sturdy too, but still. so i took an exacto knife and carefully cut through 21 sections of obnoxious glue. awesome. it actually turned out okay and i can breathe a bit easier now that the deconstruction is finished.

because of all the glue removal and the use of the book itself, i had to do some reinforcing of the sections of paper. each section is folded in half & in order to bind the book, i sew through the fold. here's a pic of the reinforcement:


i wanted to do something a little fun and interesting, so i used scraps of Japanese paper. it wraps just around the spine of the section without covering any of the information. so as the owner uses the book, she'll have fun little pops of color. pretty & functional!

i saved the original covers of the book and updated them just a little - will show a pic or two soon, but they are drying under weight right now. time to continue planning the binding!