How to Make a Book Jacket Cover
- 1). Determine what kind of material you'll use. If the purpose is for the archival protection of a valued treasure, consider polyester film. This is the dust jacket material recommended by the Northeast Document Conservation Center. If the goal is purely for decoration, get inventive. Perhaps binding your book in supple leather would create the perfect look. Or maybe you just need something temporary that a kid can customize; a brown paper grocery bag may be enough.
- 2). Cut your book jacket material to size. Cut your material to be two times the book's height and four times its width plus thickness. Then fold the construction material evenly until the edges meet and your book is enclosed with its spine taut against the material. Unfold the sheet, leaving the book in place. Your book should sit slightly right of center but vertically aligned.
- 3). Re-fold the sheet and create sharp creases around the book's edges with a ruler. These creases will be guides for later steps, so make sure that the folds are easily visible.
- 4). Ready your scissors. This part can be a bit complicated. In addition to the two center creases formed by the book's spine, there should be vertical creases at the point where the book's width ends and the extra book-covering material begins. There should also be horizontal creases at the top and bottom, where the book's height ends. Cut out the material above and below the horizontal creases only where it's also outside the vertical creases that represent the book's edge. You should now have something that looks a little like a Roman number 1 laid on its side.
- 5). Wrap the book again, this time folding the material into the front and back cover. There should be tabs coming out of the top and bottom at both the back and the front of the book. Fold these tabs over the the book cover and under the construction material wrapping the outside of the book cover. You have created tabs that should lock your new book jacket into place. If the tabs don't immediately fit, round the corners to ease insertion in between the outside of the cover and the inside of your book jacket.
- 6). Consider the designs you have seen on other book jackets. It should summarize the contents while also presenting an attractive visual appearance. Don't neglect the spine. That sliver of the book will be what catches the eyes of people scanning your bookshelf.
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