How to saddle stitch a book?

Let us get to know the history of saddle stitch and why it has been named thus. During the middle ages the leather work was very crude. It was probably invented by leather smiths who had to sew the leather on the saddles for the royals and hence they had to invent a stitch which would be tight enough to bind together both the sides. This sewing technique was used before the sewing machine was invented. Sewing by hand with needles and thread by creating two rows of stitching neatly in a single row of holes. Saddle stitching uses less thread at a time and must be hand- made. The thread used in this kind of stitch has to be a thick one as each stitch is made up of two strong stitches. This kind of stitch stays together even if a thread breaks. Few people know of this technique but it is very easy to learn if you follow the steps. Slowly, this technique was being used in binding books. Saddle stitching is simply known as stapling in the print industry. It is another name for saddle stitch booklet printing. All the sheets which have to stapled are loaded on a saddle like apparatus to be saddle stitched. The number of pages which can be stitched together should be preferably in the multiples of four. In most cases the cover of the book differs from the texture of the internal pages. This means the minimum number pages in a book is four plus the cover page. The maximum number of pages depends on the thickness of each page but the general rule is 64 pages will be apt for flat book. If the paper is thin then a saddle stitched book can have at least 100 pages. Only problem with this kind of stitch is you cannot have a printed spine on the book as it does not have a flat surface. But the best part is saddle stitching works for multi-dimensional shapes and sizes. Many professionals use this technique for book binding. Any kind of books can be saddle stitched. For example catalogs, manuals, musical notes, directories, wall calendars etc. Steps to saddle stitch a book 1. Fold the cover page and the rest of the pages into half. Preferably, one sheet at a time. Make clean folds 2. Unfold the papers and lay them atop one another 3. Make even holes with a needle on the fold. The holes should be evenly spaced. You can take few pages together and poke the holes to save time. But avoid crumpling them. 4. Align the papers with holes on top of each other. 5. Cut a thick piece of thread. The length of the thread should be double or slightly more than that of the book. 6. Thread the needle. Tie at least two knots so that while threading into the book the knot should not get pulled through the hole. 7. Push the needle through the first hole and then into the second one. Tug the thread slowly but firmly through all the holes till you are out of the last one. Then continue threading in the opposite direction. Once you reach the first hole, tie a knot tightly and then flip the pages. Lastly cut the extra thread if any. Your saddle stitched book is ready.