Crafts

Knitting, Textiles, Paper, Wood, Seasonal, Needlearts, and more

Tuesday, June 30, 2015

How to Show & Sell Your Crafts: How to Build Your Craft Business at Home, Online, and in the Marketplace

Filled with visual, step-by-step tutorials, this excellent resource for readers who want to take their craft business to the next level provides branding, selling and merchandising tips along with profiles of some of the world's most successful crafters. Original.

Thursday, June 4, 2015

Beautiful Buttons

Make buttons out of fabric, clay, beads and more! There are 25 designs to make with easy-to-follow instructions and step-by-step photographs accompanying every project. Buttons are not only practical additions to bags, jackets and other garments but they also make great fashion accessories all on their own. Starting with a detailed explanation for making each button, the projects span an incredible array of crafts including crochet, embroidery, knotting, felt and paint for embellishing your handmade beautiful buttons.

Materially Crafted: A DIY Primer for the Design-Obsessed

Design enthusiasts are bombarded with beautiful inspiration at every turn, but many lack the foundation necessary to re-create their dream projects.Materially Crafted is a must-have guide for design mavens seeking to develop their DIY chops, even if they’re embracing their crafty side for the first time. Victoria Hudgins, creator of the popular design blogA Subtle Revelry, uncovers the best and least intimidating ways to work with the most popular crafting materials—from spray paint and concrete to thread, wax, and paper—and presents more than 30 easy projects to get everyone started.
Peppered with Hudgins’s tips for “merrymaking the everyday” (using simple DIY ideas to live life more joyfully) plus inspirational photos of projects created by other prominent bloggers,Materially Crafted is an indispensable guide for a new generation of design enthusiasts looking to DIY their own distinctive style.

Coastal Crafts: Decorative Seaside Projects to Inspire Your Inner Beachcomber

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When life's a beach . . . get crafty! Coastal Crafts carries you straight to the shore, with projects that incorporate seashells, ropes, fishing baskets, and nautical motifs. Learn how to weather surfaces, make driftwood and sea glass, and cast with sand. These beautiful items-from hanging jars to model sailboats and shell-encrusted lanyards-celebrate summer all year long!

Magpies, Homebodies, and Nomads: A Modern Knitter's Guide to Discovering and Exploring Style

Cirilia Rose is the epitome of the new knitwear designer—young, educated, curious, and excited to share her passion for all ideas knit and purl. Her attitude toward curating her own collection of designs is informed as much by travel, cultural history, and tried-and-true sourcebooks as it is by modern media and technology. In Magpies, Homebodies, and Nomads, Rose takes readers behind the scenes of her design process, showing them how she curates and organizes ideas and translates them into knitwear designs. Through 25 projects that fall into three categories—Magpies (accessories for the small amounts of precious yarns that knitters inevitably collect), Homebodies (garments for time spent close to home), and Nomads (garments to wear when venturing out into the world)—Rose shares her modern aesthetic and invites readers to develop their own.

Vintage Crochet: 30 Specially Commissioned Patterns

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Vintage Crochet contains a gorgeous collection of timeless fashion pieces, modern accessories, classic and quirky gifts, and modern-retro furnishings for the home and garden, all specially commissioned by Loop's founder, Susan Cropper, from a variety of leading international crochet designers.
Using an array of sumptuous, textural yarns - such as alpaca, silk, cotton, mohair and cashmere - in subtle, earthy and vibrant colours, such as dirty pinks and blues, shades of cream, earthy brown, leafy green and burnt orange, these nostalgic designs will let you indulge your inner hippie-chick while creating future heirlooms to treasure.
The projects feature a variety of different stitches and techniques - some quick and easy, and others requiring more time and skill. Each pattern comes with yarn specifications and suggestions for embellishments using buttons, ribbons and pompoms.
They are divided into four chapters: 'Boho Babes' - beautiful clothes and accessories with a hippie-ish vibe; 'Nostalgic Home' - modern-retro home furnishings; 'Lazy Summers' - pretty items for outdoor living; and 'Gorgeous Gifts' - perfect presents to give away or to keep for yourself.
Vintage Crochet bursts with enough originality and inspiring ideas to get even the most un-crafty of people running for their knitting needles.

Upcyclist: Reclaimed and Remade Furniture, Lighting and Interiors

Upcycling goes upscale in this beautiful, elegant, and global collection that showcases what today's designers are creating out of yesterday's materials. Upcycling is the process of transforming seemingly low value items into something new. Filled with an enormous range of materials and objects, this unique book will inspire any designer or design-conscious consumer to incorporate upcycling into their creative practice or interior design projects..

Alabama Studio Sewing Patterns: A Guide to Customizing a Hand-Stitched Alabama Chanin Wardrobe

Alabama Studio Sewing Patterns: A Guide to Customizing a Hand-Stitched Alabama Chanin Wardrobe by Natalie Chanin is a companion to the Alabama Studio Series:Alabama Stitch Book, Alabama Studio Style, and Alabama Studio Sewing + Design. In this final volume of the four-book series, Chanin offers, by popular demand, three new core patterns—the A-Line Dress/Tunic/Top, the Long and Short Wrap Skirt, and the Classic Coat/Jacket/Cardigan—and a guide to customizing garments to fit and flatter. For ease, convenience, and to ease its ecological footprint, this book comes with a CD rather than paper patterns. The disc contains patterns for all of the garments from the previous books in the Alabama Studio series with additional sizing for XXL, the three new patterns, plus five Alabama Chanin stencil designs, including the Polka Dot in three sizes, the popular New Leaves, and the classic Magdalena (all for readers to print as needed for their individual sewing purposes).

Monday, June 1, 2015

Hexagon Happenings: 15 Quilts & Projects

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Hexagons are a versatile shape used in both traditional and modern quilting and often combined with hand piecing. Forster (Quilting-on-the-Go; Utility Quilting) explores this iconic shape and its component parts (half-hexagons, equilateral triangles, kites, and diamonds) in this comprehensive guide to hexagon quilts. The highlight is the terrific overview of methods for sewing and finishing such quilts. Most books focus on a specific method of piecing hexagons (often English paper piecing), but Forster presents methods for hand-sewing and machine-sewing hexagons, as well as time-saving tips for cutting and directions for drafting hexagons and hexagon-based shapes. A variety of finishing and binding techniques for hexagonal quilts are also presented. The 15 projects allow quilters to practice the techniques on designs small (table runners, placemats) and large (full-size quilts). VERDICT This superlative book is akin to taking a workshop with an expert. Quilters who enjoy hexagon-based quilt designs will appreciate the thorough approach and well-presented information. LJ Reviews 2015 February #2

The Modern Medallion: 11 Designers Share Quilt Projects to Make, Mix & Match

Medallion quilts are a traditional style that has been wholeheartedly embraced by the modern quilting movement. Most such quilts consist of a central focal block surrounded by a series of symmetrical borders, giving an appearance of a framed picture. This collection, curated by two well-known quilt bloggers, gives full instructions for piecing 11 different medallion quilts, with styles ranging from traditional-made-modern (Erica Jackman's Oviedo Medallion) to minimalist (Christina Lane's Graphical Modern Medallion). The quilt designs are beautiful, but what's most impressive about this collection is the variety of techniques included—everything from hand stitching to curved piecing to improvisational piecing to appliqué makes an appearance. A coloring sheet is provided for each design, allowing quilters to plan their color scheme and audition fabrics. VERDICT It's rare to find a quilting book that is both trendy and widely appealing. There are projects in this collection that will suit diverse tastes, and the customizable nature of medallion quilts guarantee quilters of a variety of skill levels the opportunity to challenge themselves creatively. LJ Reviews 2015 March #2

Crochet the Perfect Gift: Designs Just Right for Giving and Ideas for Every Occasion

Kat Goldin's delightfully inspiring book provides dozens of fabulous, modern crochet designs. Within its pages you're certain to find something just right for that someone special on that special occasion: Choose from hats, socks, mittens, sweaters, shawls, bags, throws, and so much more. You'll find patterns for women, men, babies, children, and home accessories to boot, plus ideas for birthdays, housewarmings, holidays, and other festive celebrations.