Bookbinding: The Leather Long-Stitch Book
Bookbinding: The Leather Long-stitch book
Instructor: Derek Bacchus
2 Days - Saturday and Sunday October 3 & 4, 2026
Time: 11:00am – 2:30pm
Fee: $180 ($160 for Workshop and $20 Materials fee)
Maximum capacity is 8
The Long Stitch book is a simple and beautiful book form that has been used since medieval times in Germany. This is a non-adhesive structure in which the book’s folded pages are sewn directly through the cover material. In this workshop the cover will be flexible with a softly rounded spine (commonly known as a Limp Binding), and an enclosing flap.
The book will use a leather cover (a few color choices will be available) that includes a sewn-in leather cording to wrap and enclose the entire book. It will use the traditional kettle stitch for the outside sewing stations, and the long stitch for the interior sewing stations. These make excellent sketch or writing journals. In addition to a beautifully finished book, you will leave with your own illustrated step-by-step instructions so you may go home and make another for a loved one, with your paper of choice!
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Derek Bacchus has been a publishing consultant, creative director, designer, photographer, educator, letterpress printer, and bookbinder. He was a magazine art director for a number of titles, a book publishing design director, and a publisher and chief product officer at a children’s edtech startup.
He has taught for over twenty years, including design history at Parsons School of Design and The Cooper Union (New York); 2-D Design, and Information Design at Cooper Union; and bookbinding at the Pont Aven School of Contemporary Art in Brittany, France. He has design degrees from Parsons School of Design, and Yale University, where he also studied Greek, Roman, Medieval and Renaissance history.