First you want a starch paste. I like wheat paste. It's inexpensive and simple to find. All you want is pastry flour or wheat starch and water. Pastry or cake flour is available in any food shop and wheat starch is available in speciality stores. You can also buy real wheat paste. Mix a fourteen ratio of flour to water. Mix it well, no mounds. Now cook it, whisk continually over medium low heat till it becomes glossy and see though.
This quantity of paste will make plenty of book material and paste paper. I might suggest using distilled water it will not have any funny chemicals in it that may stain later on. If you're an acid free freak add a half tsp to baking soda to the water it'll neutralise any acid content.
Cut your fabric to the size you want. se pre-washed and ironed fabric in order that it doesn't shrink when you're gluing it. Cut your thin paper one in. bigger all around than the fabric. I actually like washi paper best but student grade sumi painting paper is more than perfect.
Now you want to spread your glue. There are tons of differing viewpoints about how to do that, a few of the people like to employ a rubber spreader and other like glue brushes and others like inexpensive chip brushes or gesso brushes. I am a brush girl myself. I once used a 2-inch wide chip brush. It worked well, but now that I am working with a smaller size of paper I employ a medium glue brush. I suggest that you try a spread of styles and see what works for you.
I hold my paper down with one hand in the middle, spread glue allover the edges- freely. And then begin to work the center. Work the glue around till the wrinkles relax out of the paper. With thin washi paper it takes twenty seconds or so for this to occur, continually move the brush and glue, work fast and loose, spread the glue freely. Don't stint on the glue. When you see the paper relax, begin to move excess glue to the edge and off the paper.
Now your paper is relaxed with a thin even layer, you want to drop your fabric to the glue covered paper wrong side down into the glue. Carefully rub the fabric into the glue. Now you want to choose the fabric, glue and paper sandwich up and take it to a window and place the sandwich to the window, fabric side to the glass, the additional glue covered paper will hold the paper and fabric taught even though it dries keeping it for the main part flat and keeping strain on the fabric. ( if you're fortunate to have it- old window panes work well for this- I was fortunate that when I purchased my place there were a couple of enormous pieces of plate glass in the garage. ) AS it paper will peel away from the glass when it dries, if it does not it cleans simply with water and soap. There are plenty of reasons to back your fabric with paper.
First it makes the fabric really easy to work with when binding, you fabric won't stretch when you glue it to you board. Second it keeps the colour of the material true to the fabric. 3rd , it decreases glue seepage. 4th it creates a powerful sturdy bond of fabric to paper to ski.
There are a few instructions out there for making book fabric with wonder under or other fusible interfacing.
While it's convenient to use its dearer and unknown apropos it's being archival or acid free. ( Let it be known here that I am not an acid free freak. There are paper and books out there that were made long before PH was accepted so my philosophy is that you can do what you need and most things are going to outlive you and doubtless your kids.