My neighbor's old book collection led to a surprising find about bindings

I was helping my neighbor clean out their attic last week. We found a box of really old books, and one had this weird stitching I'd never seen. It looked like the stitches were hidden under the spine, almost invisible from the outside. I tried to copy it on a practice journal, but the thread kept pulling too tight... Any ideas on how to manage that tension? I'm curious if this was a common method back in the day. Would love to hear from anyone who's come across something similar.

3 comments

3 Comments

lewis.betty2d ago

Actually hidden stitches aren't that unusual. They're just a specific method for certain bindings, not some lost art. You probably just need more practice with the thread tension.

uma_west761d ago

Yeah Victor has a point though. Trying to get the needle through those middle layers without messing up the paper is a huge pain, it's way more than just tension. You're basically sewing blind and hoping all the holes line up. Most people I know stick to a regular stitch because it's just more reliable.

brown.victor2d ago

Look, I have to disagree here. Most modern bookbinders avoid hidden stitches because they add hours of work for little visual payoff. It's not just about tension, it's about the whole method being way more complex than standard stitching. You rarely see it outside of high-end restoration or specific artistic binding. Calling it just another method really downplays how skilled and uncommon it actually is.