The book is ready

I've had the final pages of my publication ready since last week, but I've been hunting down the perfect shade of magenta embroidery thread before think about putting anything together. So after finding it, I hand stitched and cropped my book today.

I'm fairly pleased with the outcome, the stitching gives the dark covers a little hint of colour, and using the guillotine gave the pages a crisp, even edge. I practised both sewing and cutting on a dummy book which I'm glad of, because it went a bit wrong.

Here is the finished version of the publication:

Before printing last week I had also created a belly band to hold the book together and add a final touch. However after trimming it to size, I realised that it's not that great. The lighter colour looks very odd sat next to the book.

I had initially thought that this design for the band would provide some texture to the blank covers, and contrast against the black. But I think it's too severe. I plan to invert/darken this template and reprint the band.

Despite this hiccup, I do think the finished thing looks quite professional - a good quality print on a heavy paper type. A fancy zine.