In this fascinating study, Rozsika Parker traces a hidden history--the shifting notions of femininity and female social roles--by unraveling the history of embroidery from medieval times until today.

    Even people who have tried origami and decided they were all thumbs can now succeed.

    His sources include oral traditions, documents, family albums, and photos. Pearson combines a social history of the villages and the living history of these crafts with detailed patterns and practical instructions for knitters. Richly illustrated, including 32 pages in color.

    John Rice Irwin has personally conducted interviews with hundreds of old-time quiltmakers, some of whom were over one hundred years old. Detailed photographs taken by Pulitzer Prize winner Robin Hood depict an opulent conglomeration of quilts, from the community quilt which became known as the Murder Quilt. More importantly, Irwin looks under the quilts, at the lives of the people who created and used them. He explores their ambitions and aspirations, their struggles and disappointments. From the young ladies of Salem Valley who pieced a quilt for the town's most eligible bachelor in the hope that one of them would sleep under it, to the retired physician who began quilting in his late sixties to fill his spare time, Irwin presents their stories with compassion and candor. This lavishly illustrated volume is a treasure trove of creative needlework, colorful anecdotes, and intriguing personal histories which will entertain readers of all ages.

    Simple in cut and decoration, they feature distinctive vertical and horizontal effects and unique imagery. You can make dozens of these beautiful traditional patterns with the more than 100 graphed designs featured here! This pictorial overview not only gives readers patterns to follow, but suggests way of adapting the styles to individual tastes. Every technique is covered. Try purling, openwork, multicolored knitting, and casting. Create narrow and wide ribbing, zigzags, and decorative patterns. Make typical designs, with the fine touches that distinguish Nordic knitwear. Knit sweaters with a stockinette stitch, damask shirts, raglan sweaters, coarse yarn sweaters, and small jackets such as farmhands once wore. Make a Norwegian peasant coat, with its wide yoke, cloth edging, and slanted ribbing. Stay warm all winter with knitted mittens, caps, socks, and leg warmers. For something more delicate, use lacework for pretty blouses, shawls, and scarves. Bonus: details on caring for your handiwork to keep it in great shape! Lark 128 pages (8 in color), 260 b/w illus., 8 x 10 7/8.

    Forty years of tailoring experience - construction technique nowhere detailed in the available tailoring textbooks.

    The durability and serviceability of the form of handmade lace known as Irish crochet makes this time-honored craft especially appealing to today's needleworkers. Here is an excellent turn-of-the-century introduction to Irish crochet, available in this attractive and inexpensive paperback edition.Irish Crochet is a lucid, well-planned guide for crocheters of all levels of skill and experience. Newcomers to Irish crochet will find helpful suggestions on materials, detailed instructions for making even the simplest designs, and a thorough grounding in the special techniques characteristic of Irish crochet. Also included are clear explanations for the basic crochet stitches so that even a newcomer to crochet may begin in the Irish way.Experienced crocheters can skip to the step-by-step illustrated directions for dozens of stunning background stitches, borders, beadings, insertions, medallions, and classic Irish crochet motifs — rose leaf patterns, wild rose designs, blackberry flowers, passion flowers, and others. Here, too, are expert suggestions and assistance for combining these elements into purses, collars and cuffs, bonnets, jackets, gowns, and other beautiful and ambitious pieces.Irish Crochet combines challenges to sharpen the skills of the most advanced needleworkers with a step-by-step approach that will prepare even beginners for intricate projects. Here is a full Irish crochet vocabulary of attractive ornaments and figures that you can draw upon again and again in the practice of this fine craft.

    Nancy Zieman of public television's "Sewing With Nancy" gives easy-to-read tips on how to sew faster than you shop, get organized and use the latest sewing techniques, and create beautiful garments quickly.

    

    Includes a family history.

    Sometimes called "the poor man's lace," it requires very little outlay for materials or tools, yet produces beautiful and decorative effects. Anyone with patience and a little dexterity, can make elegant edgings and insertions for lingerie; collars or edgings for collars; yokes for blouses and nightdresses; short-sleeved cardigans; trimmings for bedclothes, handkerchiefs, and fine linens; and many other attractive items.In this comprehensive and informative guide, a noted tatting expert defines and explains the craft (including a helpful glossary of tatting terms), explains its history and development, and provides clear, profusely illustrated instructions in the art of tatting.To meet the needs of both beginning and experienced tatters, the author has divided the book into two parts. Part One, for the novice, offers excellent coverage of materials and tools, making the stitch, the continuous thread, patterns, special arrangements of stitches, working with multiple threads, and finishing the work.Throughout, you'll find clear step-by-step instructions supplemented by nearly 60 drawings and photographs. In addition, patterns are progressive in difficulty; mastery of the simple versions will enable you to undertake more elaborate projects. Whatever project you select, this superb handbook offers the knowledge, guidance, and inspiration you need to discover the creative satisfaction and lasting rewards of tatting.

    One vibrant way women have spoken out is through quilts, and in the pages of Homage to Amanda the voice of more than six generations of American women can be heard. Originally created as a catalog to accompany a quilt exhibit sponsored by the San Diego Museum of Art and taken on tour by the Smithsonian Institution, Homage to Amanda chronicles the growth of American quilting from colonial days to the twentieth century. Seventy-two color plates illustrate the development of the American quilting tradition, examining ways in which the pastime has grown from necessity to art.

    It contains over 1,000 transfers.

    Today, artists, designers, and typographers avidly search out authentic specimens of the endlessly inventive Art Nouveau fonts. This versatile volume offers Dover's largest and finest royalty-free collection of Art Nouveau typographic materials: 137 complete alphabets (upper and lower cases); 23 upper cases; 33 sets of decorative initials; 1,951 monograms; 146 signet designs; 179 miscellaneous designs (many with borders) and numerous ornaments. In addition to Art Nouveau typography, you'll also find a choice selection of Gothic, Roman, and Italic fonts. This volume is an authentic facsimile of what is arguably the greatest album of Art Nouveau typography produced during the heyday of the style: Schriftenatlas neue Folge, a compilation of type specimens from the leading foundries of the day. In its pages can be found the timeless creations of some of the most influential type designers of the early 20th century: William Morris, Otto Eckmann, Eugene Grasset, and others. An informative Publisher's Note to this edition outlines the development of Art Nouveau typography while simultaneously illuminating the fascinating background of the original collection and its creative milieu.

    

    

    Here is a treasury of hundreds of authentic Japanese design motifs — all royalty-free and easy to reproduce — sure to appeal to artists and craftsmen striving for distinctive touches in their projects.Noted artist Joseph D'Addetta presents 264 strikingly beautiful pen-and-ink renderings of motifs from ceramics, textiles, lacquerwork, screens, fans, woodblock prints, and other valuable objets d'art found in museums and private collections. Designs date from the thirteenth and twentieth centuries and reveal something of the evolution of Japan's remarkable artistic sophistication.Plates are grouped into seven categories: Plants and Flowers; Animal Life; Human Figures; Symbolic Objects; Geometric Patterns; Water and Wave Forms; and Ceramic Objects.Within each category you'll find stunning variations on the major motifs — a crane encircled by plants, scenic vignettes, thunder and wind demons, family crests, and much more — as well as marvelous border elements.Captions identify and date motifs — for designs taken from ceramic objects you will usually find identifications by "school" or style as well.