how to make a photo album / sewing a kettle stitch

When making a photo album you have to account for the thickness of the pages with photos added. In order to do this you create a lip on the edge of each folio. Use dividers or a ruler to measure about 3/4 an inch from the edge of  the paper and fold that in to create a lip. 
































Stack and bind the pages together as if each folded lip was a whole page. This way for every long page there is a short strip of paper adding a page thickness below it. Then when photos are added the book will still remain flat and not become a bulging or "hungry" book. When pressing the book during casing in, fill in the blank spaces/recesses with paper or light weight cardstock so that the height is maintained without creasing, etc. 




























SEWING IT:


Cut a piece of cardstock or heavy paper to the height and width of a folio/page in your book and fold it in half to match the pages. Mark in from the head and the tail, leaving slightly more room on the tail side for trimming. Typically about 10mm at the head and 15 mm at the tail is good. Split the difference of those two points and make a mark at  the center. Then from there, find the middle between the center/head and the center/tail. Mark this and create two equidistant holes on either side for sewing. Use an awl to perforate all of the holes except for the very center, which you will not sew through. You should end up with six holes- head/tail and two sets of holes about 10 or 15 mm apart in between. Use this awl guide to perforate all your signatures, making sure to keep them oriented the same way so all the head/tail marks go in the same direction when you sew.




To sew, put a board down and sit slightly to the left of your book. It feels a little awkward at first but ultimately will give you better leverage and lead to faster sewing. Thread your needle and pull it through the first hole on your left, closest to you. Thread in and out until you get to the end. Place another page on top, and go in through the closest hole ( the farthest from you on the right). When you come out through the next hole you should be above the thread from the previous page. In a downward motion, thread the needle behind the existing thread and back into the next hole closest to you.Continue until you get to the end and tighten the threads taking in any slack, then tie a knot. Add another page on top, and continue across in the same method. Always take the string closest to the hole you're about to thread into,aka the direction you're sewing, not the one below the hole you came out of.  It should look like this:

right

wrong

     not this: 

After each page is added place a piece of binder's board over the book and gentle hammer across the spine. This is called "tapping the swell out". 


At the end of the third page you will need to do a kettle stitch. Thread your needle between the section below your page, so a loop is created like this. Then pull your needle through the loop and pull the slack out to tighten. Continue as before, but from now on do a kettle stitch at the end of every section instead of a regular knot. 


Eventually you will run out of thread, since you only use an arm's length each time to prevent twisting and knotting (see: threading a needle). 
When the thread gets short, stop at the head or tail you are closest to and use a slipknot to add more thread. (See: adding a slipknot.)