Bookcloth - questions for book binders

What qualities does one seek in potential book cloth for making hard cover books?

Is it always cloth?

Would thick paper be okay?

I found a few videos on making fabric into book cloth, but it seems to require iron on interface which I don't enjoy.  Are there homemade options?

Basically, I found all the other ingredients, got a textblock, forgotten about the cloth part.  But I have some pretty, handmade paper that would look really good.