Ethiopian Chain Stitch

A green and silver chain stitch binding that I did recently. I have done a bunch of non-leather books recently, mainly because I had someone ask me to make something that their vegan friend might like. Obviously, the leather books that I make would not be suitable gifts for vegans. This is one of the books I made after getting that request. She didn't buy this particular book for her friend, though, so I still have this one.


Covered with pale green handmade paper that has silver star-bursts on it. The spine edge of each section is also reinforced with some light green handmade paper. I decided to use silver and green metallic embroidery thread for sewing. Generally that made everything really difficult and I don't recommend it. This is sewn with four needles using an Ethiopian chain stitch binding.

I summarized some historical information about chain stitch bindings like Coptic and Ethiopian bindings, for the Bookbinding Etsy Street Team blog.