When I was ordering book board and supplies from Hollanders last month, I saw that they had ready-made text blocks, aka all the pages sewn together and ready to put in a cover.
I added a few to the cart to practice casing in (getting the pages into the cover) and this is the first try with their chonky text block:
Hollanders also had pre-made endbands, or the little woven colored strip that you see at the top and bottom of the spine. (Historically they were hand sewn and helped keep the pages together, but they’re just decorative now in commercial binding. I am not to the level of learning to sew endbands yet.)
Making the cover is no big deal at this point, but casing in is still a little tricky: You have to get everything lined up on both sides while the glue is wet and there’s really no shifting once the covers hit the endpapers. This one didn’t quite get centered top to bottom, but I DID get the spine set well enough to give it the flex it needs to open nicely:
For my third book ever, I’m not mad at it (even if those endbands look a little chewed). Every mistake is progress!