Woo hoo, I finished my caterpillar practice book!  I did the first one last week before going on vacation, and then today (while my 12-year-old recuperated at home from having four adult teeth extracted this morning) I did the other two caterpillars.  It surprises me how simple the stitch is and how quickly it can be done.  Once the head is done, instructions aren’t even necessary because everything is so clear.

Now . . . I am not pretending that mine was perfectly executed by any stretch of the imagination.  I just think it’s pretty damn good for a first go :-).

Front of caterpillar book, done with 7gypsies covers and waxed linen cord from WalMart for 99 cents

I used one straight needle and one curved needle (would have used two curved ones but I broke one at the beginning of my first caterpillar and was too impatient to bend two more).  The curved one was nice but not absolutely necessary as when doing a Coptic stitch binding.  If you look closely on the middle caterpillar, you’ll see that I managed to break one of its legs by mistakenly gathering into the wrap of the body.  As Rick Perry would say, Oops!  (Can’t stand that man and am VERY SORRY he is my state’s governor.  I certainly didn’t vote for him.)

I think the caterpillar looks good, at least as far as I can tell.  If anyone who knows more about book binding than I do has any comments or things to point out, please do so by all means.

Caterpillar sewing across spine (this is the third– bottom–caterpillar, so theoretically it’s the best one since I did it last)

Back cover of book showing the caterpillars’ tails

Open book showing severe splayage due to too-tight sewing from covers to signatures