PDP - Bookbinding

We have to present a portfolio of our best work to date.
Portfolios are stupidly expensive. Sixty quid for a cardboard box? Ninety for four bits of wood, two bits of leather and a few screw posts? No way.
In my view, the portfolio case, or whatever you decide on, should be part of the portfolio itself. otherwise its just a demonstration of who's got the most money. So I decided to make my own.
The wood/aluminium variety looks the easiest to make, but I couldn't source suitably nice materials in the time I left available. The hinges are particularly elusive, though annoyingly easy to get in the States.
 
The next best option seemed to be a bookboard/bookcloth type. We're fortunate to have Ratchfords on our doorstep, so for forty quid I got enough fabric and board to make quite a few mistakes with.
 I got this book out of the library. It didn't have exactly what I was looking for, but some patterns came close, and it's full of techniques and ideas.

I looked online for something nearer to my vision, and I found this:



First of all, experiment. I built a small prototype, to practice gluing technique and to see if the hinge folded out flat.

No, it didn't. I think the lining paper is too tight, as it folded nicely before I covered it. Gluing is also trickier than I thought, at least on this type of fabric; one rogue drop would ruin the look of the whole thing. And there were a lot of rogue drops. I'd have to be much more careful next time. Maybe wipe - clean buckram would be a better choice of fabric.

These are the panels, inside and out. Note the reinforced hinge strip bottom left. Now to glue the lining papers.

And it works!

I've spent a huge amount of time this holiday researching, planning and building this. You could argue that my time would have been better spent elsewhere. But I reckon I'm playing to my strengths here. I'll never be more than adequate at the Adobe stuff. So I'll go with what I CAN do well.