Or, How a Printing Crisis Turned Into a Binding Adventure

This year, as my daughter’s birthday approached, I had the usual plan in place: illustrate her annual birthday book (which my hubby writes) and have it printed and bound by my trusted local printers. It’s our little family tradition – an A5 booklet, colour printed double-sided on A4, folded and staple-bound. Fun. Familiar. Special.

But this time, things didn’t quite go to plan.

I sent the files off as normal, expecting a smooth turnaround. Days passed with no response. When I finally phoned to check in, they confirmed they’d received everything and reassured me it would be ready in time. But then… silence.

When I chased them again, just a few days before the big day, they told me their printer had broken – and they had no idea when it would be fixed.

At this point, I had a choice: wait and hope, or find another way.

I started calling around, hoping someone local could take it on at short notice. Eventually, I found a lovely printer who could handle the job – but with one caveat. Due to the number of pages they couldn’t bind it, unless I wanted it spiral-bound. For an illustrated birthday book? Not quite the look I was going for.

So I had a little “thinking-on-my-feet” moment.

I’ve taught miniature bookbinding before – it’s on a smaller scale, but I figured the same principles would apply. A quick bit of research confirmed that this size and format could be bound using a method called saddle stitch (basically stitching through the spine) which was similar to the “simple stitch” method I taught. I found a great blog post with step-by-step instructions and followed their advice, including a brilliant tip about using clips to hold the pages together.

It worked perfectly.

The book was printed, stitched, and ready just in time for her birthday. The day was saved, and I actually really enjoyed the hands-on part of it. There’s something incredibly satisfying about making a book by hand.

As for the original printers? They finally got back to me – on her birthday – asking if I was still interested and offering to send a quote. I still believe in supporting local businesses, but I was disappointed in how this one turned out. That said, we’re all human. Sometimes things just don’t go to plan.

But sometimes, when that happens, we find new ways forward. And sometimes, they’re even better.