Making your own protective book covers
The Observer's Pocket Series

Although Observer's books are quite robust, the same cannot be said for the dust  jackets or wrappers, as the jacket determines the presentation of the book and is 75% or more of the collectible value, it makes sense to look after these.
The later books with pictorial laminated boards don't pose much problem, the later glossy wrappers although less liable to tears and rubbing, they are prone to creasing along the edges.  The earlier (pre-seventies) paper wrappers are very easily damaged even with careful handling, tears, creases, rubbing and staining is very common and if you care for your collection you will have to ensure that your book is protected from any further such damage.

Although there are propriety protective covers and other forms of protective sleeves available, these can be either or both  expensive and difficult to obtain. 

The Protective sleeve must be unobtrusive to the appearance of the book or jacket as possible,  it must be easily removable and in no way must it be fixed into position with tape or by any other means that may cause damage and it must protect both the book and jacket from any further wear.

I have adopted the following procedure to protect my books and you may be interested in these details.

So here is my solution to the problem.

Requirements:

• Thin plastic film available on rolls for this purpose can be obtained from some branches of W.H.Smiths, do NOT confuse this with similar sticky backed plastic book wrapping this is NOT what you want. If your branch does not stock it I am sure that they would order it for you.
• Some 'magic' Scotch tape which should be available at most stationers.
• Suitable sheets of thin paper for the backing, these should be cut to the size of the jacket accurately at least in width, use a guillotine or scalpel and straight edge not scissors.

Place the backing sheet onto the film allowing a 15-25 mm margin at bottom and fold over and crease to fit backing paper, fold over the top margin but allowing an extra 3mm over the width of the paper backing sheet and crease top margin.
Place the backing sheet centrally and tape the backing sheet to the film at two outermost and opposite edges only*.

*If you do not do this the backing paper tends to wrinkle underneath the jacket giving the finished job an uneven feel and appearance.

Place the dust jacket into the sleeve, it should NOT be a tight fit, making good any creases, tears or chips as you go.  Although desirable, it is not critical to have the sleeve extending the entire length of the jacket, in which case the front flap should be positioned to one end of the sleeve as the front flap is more liable to  wear.
Smooth flat and and crease the sleeve with inserted jacket at the original folds.
Cut out the 8 darts from the fold-over margins as indicated in the diagram, this makes the sleeve more flexible at the folds and puts less strain on the jacket and book, now crease again.

The cover is now ready to fit to the book, placing the boards between the paper backing and the jacket, ensuring that the original folds are kept at the correct position, the boards should be a close but not tight fit - if it is too tight then some adjustments will have to made to the sleeve size accordingly.
Close the covered book and smooth out any trapped air, finally tape the two remaining margin edges of the film and backing paper together to make secure. 
Upon closing the book there may be  a small amount of 'spring-open' but this will remedy itself after a short time.

The book will now look and feel just great and protected against any further damage from hand perspiration, bumps or shelf wear.

Colin D. Morris, March 2001