re-sew

Updated: May 6, 2025

With paste or glue well rubbed in, apply thick brown paper on the corners, which, when dry, will be as hard as desired, and ready to receive the leather. Then the sides may be covered with marbled paper or cloth, and the volume is restored. When the back of a book becomes loose, the remedy is to take it out of the cover, re-sew it, and glue it firmly into the former back.

Ainsworth Rand Spofford - A Book for All Readers: An Aid to the Collection, Use, and Preservation of Books: and the Formation of Public and Private Libraries

On one occasion an old coat was supplied to a native tailor as a guide to the construction of a new one; it so happened the old garment had a carefully mended rent in its sleeve a circumstance the man was prompt to notice setting to at once, with infinite pains, to make a tear of a similar size and shape in the new coat, and to re-sew it with the exact number of stitches as in the original."

J. J. Smith - In Eastern Seas : Or, the Commission of H.M.S. 'Iron Duke,' flag-ship in China, 1878-83

The cause of a loose signature is generally to be found in a broken thread in the sewing, and the only permanent cure is to take the book out of its cover, and re-sew it, when it may usually be re-inserted in the same binding. This is for cloth-bound books.

Ainsworth Rand Spofford - A Book for All Readers: An Aid to the Collection, Use, and Preservation of Books: and the Formation of Public and Private Libraries