The first step was to prepare the spine reinforcement with gauze and bookbinding glue. The gauze is about 3x the width of the spine. The extras on the sides will form part of the hinges when they’re finally glued to the inside of the covers.

I made a temporary support out of wood for gluing the curved cardboard to the underside of the cloth that will become the new back. Fat-resistant baking paper is placed between the cardboard and the wood to make sure it doesn’t all stick together. The entire thing is wrapped in an elastic bandage.

The cloth+cardboard spine has been glued to the covers by gluing the cloth under the leather strips. Notice in the middle that the cloth has been folded over the top and bottom of the cardboard (on the left and right of the photo).

The two tabs that are sticking out will be folded and glued to the insides of the covers under the paper. The gauze reinforcement on the book’s spine is also easily visible at the top of the photos.

I made 5 bevelled leather strips and glued them to the inside of the leather backing. Because of the twist in the leather, it looks like they’re not parallel, but they are… I promise…

The four tabs were glues to the insides of the front and back covers.

New, machine-sewn headbands were glued onto the spine and reinforced with a little more gauze.