You don’t need to add to the spine’s measurement; this will stay the same.

You should now have three rectangles traced onto your chipboard: two large rectangles for the front and back, and one skinnier rectangle for the spine.

This step doesn’t require exact measurements—we’ll cut the cover fabric down to size a bit later.

The raw or unpatterned side of your fabric should be facing up.

If your new cover is too small or doesn’t close around the paperback, you may have to restart, this time leaving more room between the chipboard pieces for the spine to flex.

Don’t glue the spine into the new cover. You’ll want to leave this free and unglued so that it can bend and flex as you open and close the book. If your paperback is missing a cover, you can also glue the first exposed pages into the new binding.