The 'saddle stitch' tutorial that took me 8 hours to figure out

I was trying to bind a 64 page zine for a friend's band, and every guide online made saddle stitching look like a 15 minute job. Well I sat down with my awl and thread and spent 4 hours just getting the first signature to not look like a mess. The needle kept pulling through the paper wrong, and my thread kept knotting up on itself. I finally realized I was using too thick of a thread, the wax was gumming everything up. After switching to a finer thread and pre-punching my holes with a smaller awl, it took another 4 hours to redo the whole thing. Has anyone else dealt with a simple stitch taking way longer than it should have just because of the wrong materials?

3 comments

3 Comments

ryan_barnes20d ago

Classic case of the wrong tool making a 15-min job into a whole day, happens in every hobby.

kelly38520d ago

I've found that cheap tools sometimes teach you more than the expensive ones do.

jamie94020d ago

And see I feel the exact opposite. Cheap tools break at the worst time, cost you more in the long run when you have to buy twice. One good wrench set from the start beats replacing junk every six months.