Posted on

Little Girls, Big Style

Last month I picked up a copy of Little Girls, Big Style: Sew a Boutique Wardrobe from 4 Easy Patterns from local Atlanta author Mary Abreu, published by Stash Books.

Since my older daughter is desperately in need of clothes and will only wear skirts that I have made her, I let her pick out some patterned corduroy from Bunte Fabrics and pulled it together with some fabric generously given to me by my friend Simone, who is moving to Singapore with her family next month. (Like I needed to come home with a car-load of fabric and sewing supplies!) I was actually surprised that my daughter chose all of these floral fabrics since she’s not such a “girly-girl”, but she is much more willing to wear things if she’s part of the process.

Anyway, I made two of the No-Hem Skirts, with varying fullness. Then I made one more basic corduroy skirt (the aqua with flowers) while I was at it. What I like about Mary’s book is that she has multiple variations on basic patterns, so you can change them up according to your own preferences or skill level. Perfect for me with two girls who have different styles. I’ll be sewing some of the Twirly Girly Skirts for my younger daughter, who likes things as frilly as possible.

You can look inside the book on amazon and read Mary’s blog here.

Posted on

1,2,3 Sew

This post took about 18 months to write. Although you still won’t be able to get the book in your hands until the spring, you can now pre-order my book 1,2,3 Sew from Chronicle Books. I’m pretty excited, but it certainly won’t feel real until I walk into a bookstore and see the thing sitting there on a shelf. So I thought I’d share it with you today in case you want to order something for yourself today, forget all about it, then have a surprise come in the mail sometime in April. You certainly don’t have time to learn to sew now so give yourself a few months to mentally prepare.

The book is designed for beginning and intermediate sewers, with 33 useful projects that will help you build on your skills. Projects are organized in groups of three, each building on the techniques from the previous project so that you can learn as you go. For example, in one chapter you’ll make pouches; first a simple fold-over felt pouch, then a zippered coin bag, then finally a lined cosmetic case with a few added features. The book follows the theme that practice makes perfect, which I have certainly found to be true for both sewing and life in general. And of course, you don’t need to sew the projects in order. I assume that those of you with more experience will just want to skip right to your favorite projects. That works too.

I wanted the book to be user-friendly in both content and design. And believe me, I drove the talented folks at Chronicle nuts about the design and layout of the book. My editor deserves a medal for her patience. But I’m so happy with the way it turned out and I hope that you’ll like it too. The photos for the book were taken by my wonderful friend and photographer Laura Malek.

Anyway, I’m sure you’ll be hearing lots more about this in the coming months.

Posted on

Book Review: Fanciful Felties

Recently I received some wonderful books for review from Stash Books, a division of C & T Publishing. I’ve been impressed with the books coming from them recently, including Scandinavian Stitches by Kajsa Wikman,  City Quilts by Cherri House and Little Birds, which is a compilation of adorable bird projects from some of your favorite crafters.

But the book that really caught my eye was Fanciful Felties from Mummysam by Samantha Cotterill. I’ve long been a fan of Samantha’s work, combining free motion embroidery and hand-sewn elements to make whimsical creations. This book features 14 artistic softies with instructions and templates to make them yourself.

I love the way each project is photographed with a hand-drawn background, pulling us into Samantha’s world of quirky characters and interesting objects. The book itself is clean and uncluttered, adding to the charming simplicity of the designs. The projects are straight-forward and may look intimidating at first glance, but I think they are quite do-able. She gives basic instructions for free-motion stitching and encourages you to do it on your own, as she says “A crooked line here and there won’t hurt–it will give the project character and make it yours.” This book inspires me to turn off the feed dogs and go do some drawing with my sewing machine. I think you’ll agree.

Samantha also has an adorable line of fabric out from Robert Kaufman and some other interesting designs that she’s selling in her Etsy shop. And if you live in New York, stop by Etsy Labs Craft Night tomorrow night, where Samantha will lead a workshop making a project from the book.

Posted on

Stitch by Stitch Blog Tour

I’m excited to kick off Deborah Moebes’ blog tour for her new book, Stitch by Stitch: Learning to Sew One Project at a Time. You can read more about the book in my earlier post here. I decided to ask her some random questions which she kindly answered below. In addition to writing the book, Deborah Moebes is a sewing teacher and owner of Whipstitch Fabrics. There she is in her shop with her adorable new baby girl.

What do you hope people will come away with after reading this book?

It is totally my mission in life to lead people to passionately love sewing, and I sincerely hope the book will do that for everyone who reads it.  I want for anyone who picks it up to feel confident at the machine, empowered to create, and guided in their practice and discovery of sewing.  I think sewing is about so much more than making stuff–it’s about the satisfaction of creation, the joy of exploring our artistic sides, the community of working with others and exchanging ideas, and even the therapeutic effects of taking the time to build something by hand (and learn about ourselves as we do that).  I see so many positive things come out of the process of learning to sew that don’t really get talked about, and if someone interacts with my book and gets even a little taste of that, I’m thrilled.

Do you enjoy sewing for the process or the end result?

There are few things that I love more than admiring a finished product, but I think that the biggest thrill I get out of sewing is in the challenge of it.  I love trying something new and seeing how it all comes together, even if that means that some of the experiments don’t really pan out.  I love the planning part of each project, and envisioning all the different ways it could go together, usually for wayyy too long before actually cutting anything out and putting needle and thread through fabric.  Once I get started, though, it’s a little bit of a sewing blitzkrieg, and I usually power through until I hit a roadblock or finish–it’s so exciting to see the whole thing evolve right in front of me!

I read the story on your blog about Sandra, will you tell us about her?

I never got to meet Sandra, but she’s become a mixture of sewing muse, shop mascot and icon.  I’ve shared her story with so many people, and the more I learn about her the more she inspires me and the more grateful I am for the random things that happen in our lives, things we never could’ve planned, that lead to huge places for us.  “Meeting” Sandra was one of those events, and it put my feet on a path that I wouldn’t have chosen for myself because each of us can only see so far ahead–I would never have guessed that the satisfaction and the joy and the wholeness that I have in my life now would come to me because I bought a used sewing machine on eBay, but in a funny way, that’s exactly what happened.  I’ve never been so grateful to someone who I never saw in real life before, but I sure feel as though I owe Sandra a lot!

Since you did all three in one year, which was harder — having a baby, opening a fabric shop or writing a book?

Yeesh, I have to pick one?!?  They were all happening at the same time, so I think a lot of it blended together.  My dad asked me the other day if I felt overwhelmed, and I told him if I really believed that any of this is happening for real I probably would, but a big part of me still thinks this year is all a big dream!  Our new baby is #4, and my husband is an amazing father, so were seasoned parents at this point and I’m lucky that I have a lot of help with her.  At the shop, I have an incredible staff who are all indispensable, and make it possible for me to get all the zillion things done that need to be done each day–I’m so grateful to have these talented women who love the store so much and work so hard to keep it running day in and day out.  The book, though, might’ve been the hardest of the three, because even though I have an awesome editor and a very supportive publisher, ultimately the content of the book was all my work, and required a lot of hours and research and editing and anxiety and trial-and-error.  I’ve also never written a book before (unless you count my Master’s thesis, which is 127 scholarly pages about acorns, and just as exciting as it sounds), and being in new territory with all the uncertainty that comes with doing something you’ve never done before is always tough.  I’m enormously proud of all three and feel so delighted and happy when I see each of them, but I’d have to say the book was the greatest challenge I’ve had to meet this past year.

Are you watching Project Runway this season? If so, who’s your favorite?

Totally hooked!  I am very, very fond of Mondo, which is kinda odd because I don’t think I could pull off a single one of his looks, and I generally gravitate toward a much more subdued color palette.  But I’m really into how his pieces seem so disparate and yet they make a really cool whole.  And I dig that he has such a clear vision but he’s still very humble and doesn’t seem to be out for blood or have a grudge–some of the other designers this season have this wild, angry, competitive energy that overshadows their actual work, which is a shame. I also like Christopher quite a bit, and think his style is very clean and under-the-radar–he’s one to watch.

To see the full list of blog tour stops, click here. And Whipstitch is hosting an all-night sew-a-thon in just a few weeks, so if you live in Atlanta, get ready to sew until you drop for a chance to win a spot at Deborah’s mountain sewing retreat.

Posted on

Book Review: Design Your Own Tees

I received a review copy of Design Your Own Tees: Techniques and Inspiration to Stitch, Stamp, Stencil and Silk-Screen Your Very Own T-shirts by Jennifer Cooke of Raeburn Ink, published by St. Martin’s Press.

One of my goals for the summer was to learn to screen print. Well, I’m doing lots of experimenting with screens and stencils, still afraid to dive into the messy world of light boxes and photo emulsion. But what I love about this book is that it gives you so many different options to make cool designs, whatever your skill level or interest. Jennifer Cooke brings her years of experience making and selling tees to this book. She covers all kinds of techniques, including freezer paper stencils, hand embroidery, spray paint, block printing, machine stitching, stamping, and yes — several different screen printing methods.

I found this book extremely user-friendly with clear directions, whether you want to use the designs she’s provided at the back of the book or create your own. And of course you can use these methods for printing on most any kind of fabric, not just tees. I think this book works well for both beginners and those wanting to become more professional with their designs.

You can see more of Jennifer’s work on her website, her Etsy shop, and her blog.