Generation T: 108 Ways to Transform a T-Shirt
by Megan Nicolay
from Workman Publishing Company
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
by Aimee Ray
from Lark Books
Jelly Roll Quilts
by Pam Lintett
from David & Charles
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.
The Knitter's Book of Yarn: The Ultimate Guide to Choosing, Using, and Enjoying Yarn
by Clara Parkes
from Potter Craft
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
by Elizabeth Zimmermann
from Dover Publications
Fabric Art Workshop: Exploring Techniques & Materials for Fabric Artists and Quilters
by Susan Stein
from Creative Publishing international
This technique-driven book explores a wide range of new possibilities and materials available to fabric and journal artists. Each unique technique is presented with an inspirational, full-page photo of a fabric journal page. How-to steps with photos explore all the possible results from applying the technique. The reader can create journal pages and/or quilt blocks, which can be sewn together to make one large journal quilt, matted and framed individually, displayed on a meditation screen, or used as book pages sewn into a traditional journal format.
- Full-page fabric journal block to introduce each technique
- Step-by-step photos for exploring and executing the technique
- Gallery showing ways to display and use the fabric journal blocks
- Great value. Like two years of classes rolled into one book.
- Beautiful "journal page" opens each of 28 technique chapters
- All techniques are easily mastered by anyone. No complex dying involved. All products are readily available at craft, fabric, and quilt shops.
One-Block Wonders Encore!: New Shapes, Multiple Fabrics, Out-of-This-World Quilts
by Maxine Rosenthal
from C&T Publishing
One-Block Wonders definitely wasn’t a one-hit wonder. This fresh, fun follow-up spins more one-block quilts, new visual effects, and great ways to add even more color to your quilts with multiple fabrics. Whirling kaleidoscopic hexagons...simple straight-line piecing (no Y-seams!)...and the dramatic large-scale prints that make these colorful quilts a fabric-lover’s favorite. They’re all here, sure to make One-Block Wonders Encore a big, bit hit on all the charts.
The Art of Manipulating Fabric
by Colette Wolff
from Chilton Book Company
Those who knit, crochet, or embroider have long had sources to which to turn for in-depth instructions on specific stitches and stitch combinations. Now there is such a reference for the sewer--an encyclopedic approach to gathering, shirring, ruffling, tucking, pleating, and quilting and their myriad variations. Filled with hundreds of diagrams and crisp black-and-white photos, this volume explains in detail how to achieve a tremendous range of three-dimensional fabric effects. This is not a book of particular projects; this is a book of instruction and inspiration for anyone who has ever wielded needle and thread. --Amy Handy
Little Felted Animals: Create 16 Irresistible Creatures with Simple Needle-Felting Techniques
by Marie-Noelle Horvath
from Watson-Guptill
* Sixteen meltingly adorable animals
* All the favorites, including cats, dogs, birds, bunnies, more
* Easy to make, great as gifts, toys, decorations
All together now: Awwwww! In Little Felted Animals, author Marie-Nöelle Horvath shows how to make the cutest little miniature animals, using just a few simple tools and some wool roving. Birds, bears, cats, dogs, mice, a fox, a sheep, a seal, and a bunny--sixteen little bundles of fluff in all. Picture all those little eyes looking up at you as if to say, "Thank you for making me!" Then give these critters as gifts, use them as decorations, or arrange them on tabletops. Beautifully photographed in their natural habitats, these sweet dumplings will melt the heart of every crafter.
Lotta Jansdotter's Simple Sewing: Patterns and How-To for 24 Fresh and Easy Projects
by Lotta Jansdotter
from Chronicle Books
Internationally celebrated designer Lotta Jansdotter collects 24 of her most popular sewing patterns into one irresistible collection. Our innovative packaging makes for easy use reusable pattern sheets are neatly tucked into a folder inside this full-color, lay-flat spiral bound book. Lotta has included patterns for handy tote bags, smart aprons, chic bed linens, and much more. Each project is paired with step-by-step instructions, charming photographs, inspiring design ideas, and helpful, hand-drawn how-to illustrations everything you need to make whimsical pieces for the home and beyond. Best of all, there's nothing complicated about the projects. Never has simplicity looked so sophisticated.
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