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Vent: My first attempt at a French link stitch took me a full weekend.
I was binding a small poetry book for a friend. The holes in the signatures just would not line up right. I must have re-punched them four times. Finally got it after watching a specific video from a binder in Seattle. Anyone else have this kind of trouble starting out with that stitch?
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emery_black9d ago
Wait, is that a French link or a French stitch? The names get mixed up. A French link uses two needles and makes a chain on the spine. If you were punching holes in signatures, you might mean a kettle stitch. That one is a beast to start with.
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Yeah, the kettle stitch thing. My friend tried to bind a journal last year and had the same mix up with the names. She spent a whole day on it before she realized she was trying to do a kettle stitch but following instructions for a French link. The holes never lined up because the stitch she actually needed uses way fewer holes along the fold. She was so mad when she figured it out. I mean, the names are way too close for two totally different methods.
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masongonzalez9d ago
The real killer is the paper grain. If your signatures are folded against the grain, the holes shift like crazy when you try to line them up. I ruined a whole project before a guy at the art store asked me about my paper. Now I check the grain direction before I even cut a single sheet.
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