Twinkle Sews: 25 Handmade Fashions from the Runway to Your Wardrobe by Wenlan Chia Potter Craft, 2009 Linen Wool Cotton: 25 Simple Projects to Sew with Natural Fabrics by Akiko Mano Trumpeter/Shambhala, 2009 Like Susan Wasinger’s Fabricate, which Mary Beth reviewed last week, today’s books both are great for sewists wanting to explore different kinds [...]
Sew Liberated: 20 Stylish Projects for the Modern Sewist by Meg McElwee, Interweave Press, 2009 If, like this reviewer, you had a baby a few years ago and revived your interest in crafting at the same time, you might remember seeing patterns on a blog called Montessori By Hand. Ring a bell? Meg McElwee was [...]
Fabricate: 17 Innovative Sewing Projects that Make Fabric the Star by Susan Wasinger Interweave Press, 2009 The beauty of Susan Wasinger’s Fabricate is the way she shows you how to create beautiful fabric, not just shop for it. For some of us living in the wilds of the American Midwest (far from a Bolt or [...]
Design-It-Yourself Clothes: Patternmaking Simplified by Cal Patch Potter Craft, 2009 When I read about Design-It-Yourself Clothes: Patternmaking Simplified by Cal Patch (ooh! She has a blog!) on Disdressed and on Angry Chicken, I knew I had to have it immediately. You see, I sewed my first dress a couple months ago, and it turned out [...]
Sustainable Fashion and Textiles: Design Journeys by Kate Fletcher Earthscan Publications Ltd., 2008 Most of us consider the growing and harvesting of fibers and the production, printing, and finishing of the cloth in our assessment of whether a fiber is a “green” choice. But too often, oversimplification, myths, and greenwashing by marketers cloud the truth. [...]
During book month, we’ll be following our longer reviews of recent titles with mini-reviews of similarly themed books. Mary Beth wrote about Amy Karol’s Bend the Rules With Fabric yesterday, so today, here are a handful of other surface design books, both new and old, that we think you’ll enjoy. And don’t forget, if you [...]
Bend The Rules With Fabric: Fun Sewing Projects with Stencils, Stamps, Dye, Photo Transfers, Silk Screening, and More, by Amy Karol, Potter Craft, 2009. Bend The Rules With Fabric is Amy Karol’s second book, the followup to the popular Bend The Rules Sewing and every bit as fun. I assume you all know who Amy [...]
2009 was sure a fantastic year for craft books, wasn’t it? Over the next two weeks we’ll be running reviews of all the recent textile and pattern-related titles we could get our hands on. You might notice that we will be linking profusely to Amazon. As you might know, we receive a small commission if [...]
Kata Golda’s Hand-Stitched Felt: 25 Whimsical Sewing Projects, by Kata Golda, with photography by Frank White, published by STC Craft, October 2009, 128 pages. Some people have comfort food. Me, I have comfort reading. So Kata Goldman’s Hand-Stitched Felt is like mashed potatoes in craft book form, a book I’d like to crawl into on [...]
Kevin Kosbab of Feed Dog Designs, our senior PC-using correspondent, reviewed Electric Quilt’s Stash software for us last month. He’s back today with this very helpful and thorough review of Amy Butler Softwares, which was released in May 2009. Amy Butler Softwares is a collection from the Electric Quilt Company of 22 quilt, home dec, [...]
Earlier this year Fabric on Demand joined the pioneering Spoonflower in offering affordable digital fabric printing over the internet to the everyday crafter. Soon after, two more services popped up, Karma Kraft and Eye Candey. (Full disclosure: the latter two are also True Up sponsors.) I had a single design printed by all four services [...]
This is the first in a mini-series of posts about digital fabric printing that we’ll be posting over the remainder of this week. Check back tomorrow for a digital printing service roundup, and on Friday for a big list of ideas and inspiration. Digital Textile Design by Melanie Bowles and Ceri Isaac Lawrence King Publishing, [...]
Like many Mac-using sewists, I’ve been tempted many times to “go PC” just to have a chance to play around with the The Electric Quilt Company‘s software. But when the opportunity recently arose to review the Spring 2009 edition of (the Mac-incompatible) Stash, I was happy to have an excuse to ask Kevin Kosbab of [...]
I found this book, Digital Textile Design by Melanie Bowles and Ceri Isaac, while browsing around on Amazon yesterday. It’s just what I’ve been looking for. Here’s an excerpt from the publisher‘s information: Digital Textile Design covers everything students and practitioners of textile design will need to learn about designing and printing digitally. [It] provides [...]
Here’s a new one in my fabric and pattern book library: Plaids: A Visual Survey of Pattern Variations (A Schiffer Design Book)by Tina Skinner, 1998. Lots of color and pattern inspiration here — it definitely confirms my love of plaids and checks. The link is to Amazon but I found mine used for cheap, and [...]
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