Sewing the headbands

We choose two colors of thread to make the headbands and used two #3 darning needles. Headbands need to be sewn either at the kettle stich or below it. For the first band, I chose to prepunch the holes using the same holes used for the kettle stich. I thought this would make my life easier, alas, it did not. The little slips of paper you see sticking out mark the center of each signature. To sew the headbands, the book is placed upright in a press and tipped toward you for easier working.
I found sewing these to be really difficult and ended up with blisters on my thumb and index finger. I think it would get easier with time and after my hands toughen up a bit. Perhaps going back to the guitar will help with that. Anyway, the first thread, in my case, the gold one starts the sewing by going out through the spine from the first signature and wraps over. The second thread then goes out just beneath the lining and wraps around the outside.
I wish that I could describe this better. The second thread, the green one, is used to anchor the gold. The way they wrap around each other forms a bead on the inside of the band. The second time the gold thread would go over the band, I would hold it taught on the left side. I would then take the green thread over the gold, go out under the band and then over the top again, forming a new loop over the band and tying the gold down. The same pattern was repeated with each color change.
I did much better with my second headband than I did the first. I found that prepunching the holes did not help. I think part of the problem was that I didn’t trim this book after gluing, so my kettle stich was a lot further down in the book than it otherwise would have been. Also, rounding the spine, made it a lot harder to find the holes again.
Anyway, every couple of stiches, it’s important to go through the signature again to anchor the band to the book and to help shape the band to the book.
Once the headbands were sewn on each end, we cut and pasted MBM paper over the spine in the same manner that we had the japanese tissue paper. This helps to even out the spine and cover the new sewing before the leather is attached.