Why Coptic stitch suits a handmade notebook

Few bookbinding structures repay a couple of hours' work as generously as Coptic stitch. Because each folded section — a signature — is sewn individually and linked to its neighbour along the spine, the finished book opens completely flat. Press it open on a table and it will stay put, which makes it ideal for sketchers, journallers and anyone who has ever wrestled with a stiff paperback that refuses to lie down.

The stitch is thought to have originated in Egypt in the early centuries of the common era, and it is one of the oldest book structures still in everyday use by makers. The good news for a beginner is that it needs very little equipment, no glue along the spine, and no press. If you can fold paper accurately and count to five, you can bind a notebook this afternoon.

What you will need

• Paper: 80–120gsm cartridge or text paper. Around twenty to twenty-four sheets of A4, folded in half, will make a generous A5 notebook.
• Linen thread: 18/3 or 25/3, waxed with a block of beeswax to stop it tangling and to help it bed into the paper.
• Needles: a bookbinder's needle or a size 18 tapestry needle with a blunt tip.
• An awl, a bone folder, a metal ruler and a cutting mat.
• Cover board: two pieces of 2mm millboard, or heavyweight card if you prefer a softer cover.
• Bulldog clips or a small piercing jig, plus a phone book or thick catalogue to pierce into.

If you plan to make several notebooks, make yourself a folding template from card — a strip with the station positions marked through it. It takes ten minutes and saves a great deal of measuring.

Folding and pressing your signatures

Check the grain direction of your paper before you cut anything. Tear a scrap and watch which way it rips straight: that is the grain. Grain should run parallel to the spine of the book, so that the pages turn cleanly and the spine does not crack.

Fold each sheet in half with the bone folder, pressing firmly from the centre outwards towards the head and tail. Then nest the sheets into groups of three to five — four is a comfortable default. Too many sheets and the inner pages will buckle at the spine; too few and you will be sewing all evening.

Tap each signature on a flat surface so the folds and the fore-edges sit square, and clip the stack together. Leave the folded signatures under a heavy weight overnight if the paper has any memory to it. Flatter signatures mean neater stations and a tidier spine.

Marking and piercing the sewing stations

Decide on your stations. Five is the classic number for an A5 notebook: one 15mm in from the head, one 15mm in from the tail, and three spaced evenly between them. Measure from the outside of the folded signature, and mark lightly in pencil.

Make a template by marking these positions on a strip of card cut to the height of your pages. Slide the template into the centre of each signature, and pierce from the inside of the fold outwards with the awl. Work over a phone book or a block of scrap card. Keep the awl vertical — a slanted hole will pull the thread off course and show as a wobbly spine.

Pierce the cover boards at the same positions, using the same template so everything lines up. This is the step where accuracy matters most: a millimetre of drift across twenty signatures becomes a visibly twisted book.

Sewing the signatures

Cut a length of thread roughly three times the height of your spine — about 60cm for an A5 book — and wax it by drawing it across the beeswax block. Thread the needle and knot nothing; you will tie in at the end.

Lay the first signature open on the table with the back cover beneath it, if you are sewing the boards on. Take the needle through the first station from the outside, leaving a 10cm tail inside the fold, then run along inside and out through the second hole. Zigzag your way to the final station.

Now work back along the section. At each station, pass the needle under the thread already spanning the spine of the section below, then take it back through the same hole in the current section. That simple link is the chain stitch that gives Coptic binding both its strength and its distinctive braided spine. On the very first section there is nothing to link to, so simply take the needle back through each hole to form the loops.

Add the next signature, lining up the stations, and repeat. Every section is sewn the same way, linked to its predecessor. Finish by passing the needle to the inside of the last section, tying it off with the starting tail, and trimming the ends neatly.

Finishing touches and troubleshooting

If you glued your boards, leave the book under weight for an hour before handling. If you sewed them on, the book is ready as soon as the thread is tied off — one of the great pleasures of this structure.

Common snags are easy to fix. Loose signatures usually mean you have been inconsistent with tension; pull each link snug, but never tight enough to crush the paper. Tangled thread is nearly always a sign that it needed more wax. And if the spine looks untidy, check that you have been passing the needle the same way at every station rather than alternating.

Make your first attempt with cheap paper and no ambition beyond learning the rhythm. The second one will be a notebook you actually want to use.