A beautiful and instructive video from the good folks at Poets and Writers Magazine!
How Coptic binding works
Coptic binding is one of the oldest stitched bindings, and it has a trick the others don’t: the book opens completely flat, so a page never fights you. It’s a good choice when your booklet runs longer than a simple pamphlet stitch handles well.
Instead of one folded stack, you sew several small folded groups of pages, called signatures, to each other with a chain stitch along the spine. Because the signatures link directly rather than nesting inside a single cover, the spine flexes open all the way.
- Several folded signatures of a few sheets each.
- Two cover boards, if you want a hardcover.
- Waxed thread, a needle, and an awl for the sewing holes.
In short: mark and punch matching holes along the fold of every signature, then sew them one after another, looping each new signature to the one before with a chain stitch that runs up the spine. The video from Poets & Writers walks through the stitch itself, which is far easier to follow watching than reading.
Coptic binding rewards a little patience and gives you a booklet that feels handmade in the best sense. For quicker methods, see staple binding or the pamphlet stitch, and for the whole process, how to make a chapbook.