Adventures in case binding.

AUGHHH. What a frustrating morning.

Here's the problem. I can do coptic binding all day long, I can longstitch like crazy, but case binding... I always have issues with case binding. I can never figure out how to structure the spine. When I have my cover boards cut, and I have the hard spine piece cut, I always have problems deciding how to glue them to the card that makes up the spine hinge. So I don't have the right amount or shape of space for the book block. Then when I glue the book block into the case, I end up with a book that either won't fully close, or won't open all the way. It's a real bummer to have a beautiful book put together, with leather covers and hand-sewn headbands, sanded paper edges and snakeskin leather quarter binding - to then have the whole book be a throw-away. Curses! So frustrating.

I never have these issues when I don't use that third piece of bookboard for the hard spine. And I can't seem to get the right French groove going when I use a hard spine piece. I'll have to post up some photos so you all might be able to help me figure out what I'm doing wrong.