Needlecrafts

Generation T: 108 Ways to Transform a T-Shirt

Make it yours. This inspirational guide with DIY attitude has everything you need to know about the world’s great T-shirt: how to cut it, sew it, deconstruct it, reconstruct it, and best of all, transform it. • Features more than 100 projects (plus 200 variations) for customized tees, tank tops, tube tops, T-skirts—even handbags, a patchwork blanket, iPod cozies, leg warmers, and more. • Not a DIY expert? Not to worry. More than one third of the projects are no sew, meaning anyone who can wield a pair of scissors can put a personal stamp on her wardrobe. But the sewing basics are here too: backstitch and whipstitch, gather and ruche, appliqué and drawstrings. • And the mission statement for Generation T: Ask not what your T-shirt can do for you; ask what you can do for your T-shirt. And then Do-It-Yourself!

The T-shirt is the centerpiece of a girl’s wardrobe. But even better, that same T-shirt is a blank canvas just waiting to express the personality and creativity of its owner. You can cut it, sew it, twist it and turn it. You can deconstruct it, you can reconstruct it. Recycle it, resuscitate it, refashion it, re-invent it. Make it punky, make it funky. In the hands of Megan Nicolay— who knows the DIY pride of accomplishment and the pleasure of making something chic and unique (and cheap)—the T-shirt is like fashion ore, as she shows how to turn any ordinary, preferably well-used T-shirt into a halter, a tank top, a peasant blouse, or, for a total transformation, into a T-skirt. Or a hat. Or leg-warmers, a drawstring purse, an iPod cozy. Even a patchwork T-blanket.

In 108 unexpected, easy-to-follow projects, this pied piper of DIY shows first how to tee off with the basic materials plus add-ons (ribbons, lace, safety pins) and techniques (stitching, hemming, gathering). Then come recipes: 13 projects for customizing a T-shirt (i.e., doing everything to it you possibly can and still be able to call it a T-shirt); 21 projects for tank tops (less shirt, more style); and 14 projects for tube tops and halters (even less shirt and more style).

There’s the Two-Tiered Peasant Skirt, the Bow-Tie Beanie, the Sweet Dreams pillow. Plus gauntlets, pot holders and tablecloths, pillows and braided rugs. Not a DIY expert? No problem. More than one third of the projects are “no sew,” so anyone who can wield a pair of scissors can put a personal stamp on her wardrobe.

Doodle Stitching: Fresh & Fun Embroidery for Beginners

Inspired to Knit: Creating Exquisite Handknits

Jelly Roll Quilts

Jelly rolls are the new fat quarter bundle! They consist of 2 ½ inch strips of color-coordinated fabric, rolled up to create a solid disk and tied with a ribbon. Jelly Roll Quilts is the first book to show quilters the best ways to use these desirable, laborsaving fabric packs. The author shows how to make 15 quilts; each perfectly suited to the color-coordinated jelly rolls and includes variations in color, style and size for each project. Jelly roll quilts are suitable for quilters of all skill levels, especially those quilters with a passion for a variety of fabrics. With names like Bars of Gold and Blue Lagoon, the quilts demonstrated in Jelly Roll Quilts are on the cutting edge of the craft.

Sew What! Skirts: 16 Simple Styles You Can Make with Fabulous Fabrics

Sewing is back! Young, crafty women are discovering the fun and creativity of working with fabric, needle, and thread to create simple, colorful skirts, suitable for showing off as wearable art. Sew What! Skirts assumes no prior sewing experience (and no home ec. class or mother with sewing skills!), and doesn’t get bogged down with overly complicated instructions or patterns.

Author Francesca DenHartog, a fabric fanatic and sewing instructor, has stripped skirts down to the basics: 15 styles, ranging from an A-line to a circle, wraparound, gored panel, tiered “hippie,” layered, and more. All it takes to get started is basic body measurements (no need to go out and buy an expensive pattern), a machine, great fabric, fun embellishments, and a few sewing fundamentals.

With a creative can-do attitude, playful photographs, and super-simple step-by-step instructions, Sew What! Skirts will connect a whole new generation with the craft of making clothing that expresses your own unique look and personality. It’s all about the fabric, as DenHartog demonstrates with the colorful array of patterns and motifs featured throughout.

Whimsical, colorful, and easy, the designs in this book are sure to unleash the creative spirit of every budding seamstress.

Masters: Art Quilts: Major Works by Leading Artists (The Masters)

The Knitter's Book of Yarn: The Ultimate Guide to Choosing, Using, and Enjoying Yarn

Not all yarns are alike. Some make our hearts and hands sing, some get the job done without much fanfare, and some cause nothing but frustration and disappointment. The gorgeous pair of socks that emerged from their first bath twice as long as when they went in. The delicate baby sweater that started pilling before it even came off the needles. The stunning colorwork scarf that you can’t wear because the yarn feels like sandpaper against your neck. If only there were a way to read a skein and know how it would behave and what it wanted to become before you invested your time, energy, and money in it. Now there is! With The Knitter’s Book of Yarn, you’ll learn how to unleash your inner yarn whisperer.

In these pages, Clara Parkes provides in-depth insight into a vast selection of yarns, giving you the inside stories behind the most common fiber types, preparations, spins, and ply combinations used by large-scale manufacturers and importers, medium-sized companies, boutique dye shops, community spinneries, and old-fashioned sheep farms. And, because we learn best by doing, Parkes went to some of the most creative and inquisitive design minds of the knitting world to provide a wide assortment of patterns created to highlight the qualities (and minimize the drawbacks) of specific types of yarns.

The Knitter’s Book of Yarn will teach you everything you need to know about yarn: How it’s made, who makes it, how it gets to you, and what it longs to become. The next time you pick up a skein, you won’t have to wonder what to do with it. You’ll just know–the way any yarn whisperer would.

Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitter's Almanac

Things I Learned From Knitting (Whether I Wanted To or Not)

The Yarn Harlot strikes again! Best-selling knitting author and humorist Stephanie Pearl-McPhee is back with an irresistible collection of witty observations on how knitting and life wisdom are spun together.

In Things I Learned From Knitting (Whether I Wanted To or Not), Pearl Mc-Phee examines age-old aphorisms in light of knitting. From "Hope Springs Eternal" to "A Friend In Need Is A Friend Indeed" and "Birds Of A Feather Flock Together," Pearl-McPhee casts a fresh, off-beat light on these sayings. Presented in quick, punchy takes, each entry in this book calls out to be read aloud and shared with anyone who enjoys playing with yarn and needles.

Pearl-McPhee's observations are hilarious; the situations she describes strike a familiar, "not you, too?" feeling in the heart of anyone who knits. Interspersed throughout the book are her notes on the things that "Knitting is still trying to teach me. . ." That no matter how well you knit, looking at your work too closely isn't helpful. It's like kissing with your eyes open. Nobody looks good that close up.

Amigurumi World: Seriously Cute Crochet

Get hooked into the quirky world of Amigurumi! Crochet these irresistibly cute creatures today's coolest craze in crochet.

* Over 20 projects are super hip and super quick to make you need only basic crochet skills and small amounts of yarn
* Funky designs include mommy and baby owls, hedgehogs, and penguins, plus silly crocheted treats like cupcakes and ice-cream cones


* Find complete instructions for crocheting designs and adding facial features and other embellishments