Mending — JesterCat Binding Co.

Book Mending — JesterCat Binding Co.

A Custom Service

Book Mending: practical repairs, honest work.

Book Mending is about fixing what's there — loose pages, a broken hinge, fraying stitches — without rebuilding the whole book. It's the right call for books that just need a little structural support to keep going.

This is repair work, not archival conservation. I'll always make repairs as seamless as possible, but depending on the damage and materials, some repairs may be visible — think binding tape, patches, or reinforcement strips. Functional, durable, and honest about what they are.

What's Included

What I can fix.

✦Loose or detached pages — reattached and reinforced so they stay put.
✦Minor tears in text pages — mended cleanly, with care for legibility.
✦Separated sections — resewn or reattached to the main text block.
✦Broken or torn stitches — restitched by hand to restore structural integrity.
✦Glue failures — reglued where adhesive has failed or come loose.
✦Basic repairs for fragile paper — handled with care, within reason.

Good to Know

What mending can and can't do.

What I Can Do

Fix loose or detached pages
Mend minor tears in text pages
Reattach separated sections
Basic repairs for somewhat brittle or fragile paper

What I Can't Do

Preserve original covers (rebinding removes them)
Chemical treatments for damaged paper
Museum-level conservation work
Restore severely damaged or extremely fragile materials

Pricing & Process

Billed for the time it takes.

Mending is billed at $45/hour rather than the standard custom rate, since most repairs are quicker and more straightforward than a full rebind. If your book needs major structural work, I'll let you know and we can talk about a full rebind instead.

Not sure if mending is enough? Send me photos of the damage and I'll let you know honestly whether mending will hold up, or whether a rebind makes more sense.

For the full process — consultation, estimate, and timeline — see the Pricing & Process section on the Custom Orders page.

From the Bindery

A mending project, start to finish.

The Golden Treasury of Caroline and Her Friends — a quarter-bound mending job, from torn pages and a failing spine to a book sturdy enough for another generation of reading.