I attempted my first all-sewn binding, meaning no glue is used to attach the pages to the covers. (I did use glue to put bookcloth onto the covers, though; we’re not savages.)
I watched the sewing part of this video once before starting and then followed along with it to do the actual sewing, but you can see only the middle line of stitching is making a nice braid pattern. But it holds together and opens entirely flat, which is the point of this style of binding.
I can’t resist a contrast end paper but I think the classical bookcloth-and-Florentine-paper combo is fighting with the vibes of the Coptic binding–it’s definitely a more primitive look, which makes sense if it developed in the second century CE.
But it looks and acts like a book, so it was a successful trial run. I’m going to try making another one using Bristol board for the pages and use it as a sketchbook for that Creativebug class I want to take.