Amy Butler's In Stitches: More Than 25 Simple and Stylish Sewing Projects


Amy Butler - 2006
    In this lavishly illustrated collection of patterns, she presents more than 25 charming projects ranging from cushy floor cushions to smart aprons to stylish handbags. Our innovative packaging makes for easy usepattern sheets are neatly tucked into a folder on the inside cover of this full-color, lay-flat spiralbound book. Lush photographs inspire, while how-to illustrations and straightforward text (minus the confusing sewing lingo) make it a cinch to achieve beautifully finished projects. In addition, Amy offers thoughtful tips on finding and treating new or vintage fabrics, an easy-to-navigate techniques section, and a glossary and resource guide at back. Whether it's chic placemats and napkins for the kitchen, a luxurious kimono-style robe for the bath, or handy organizer baskets for the home office Amy Butler's In Stitches makes it easy to create beautiful accessories for every room and every mood.

The Crafter's Devotional: 365 Days of Tips, Tricks, and Techniques for Unlocking Your Creative Spirit


Barbara R. Call - 2009
    Crafters dabble, collaborate, muse, and make, all in their own way and on their own timeline. For all crafts, there are established techniques to follow but wild, innumerable ways to experiment, using the basics to launch crafters to new heights. Crafter’s Devotional can aid that launch. Each day of the year is given its own focus, on which the reader will find a daily dose of craft content that inspires, instructs, and illuminates.

Pretty in Punk: 25 Punk, Rock, and Goth Knitting Projects


Alyce Benevides - 2007
    Indulge your girly side with the Ready Steady Go mini skirt, rebel with Feel the Pain wrist cuffs, or channel your inner rock star with the very same Mohawk hat Depeche Mode's Martin Gore wears on stage. Whether you're new to knitting or a veteran desperately seeking patterns with an edge, you'll find projects here for every mood and every genre. With step-by-step instructions, helpful technical illustrations and intarsia graphs, plus high-fashion photos of all the finished projects, Pretty in Punk is the only authority on anti-authority knitting.

Subversive Cross Stitch: 33 Designs for Your Surly Side


Julie Jackson - 2006
    The author has brought cross-stitch firmly into the 21st century. Her work has the look of an oldfashioned sampler, surrounded by hearts and duckies, but filled with messages such as Bite me, Beeyatch, and Homo Sweet Homo.

The Complete Decorated Journal: A Compendium of Journaling Techniques


Gwen Diehn - 2012
    The combined contents offer readers an unmatched collection of great ideas and techniques, from the latest supplies (papers, adhesives, paints, pens) to innovative layouts (mandalas, diagonals, cutouts, grids). Sidebars highlight specific genres, such as pillow books, nature journals, and illuminated manuscripts. Plus, newly added content includes journaling artist profiles along with galleries of their work, new techniques, and a new project where readers learn to make a journal from a butter box.

Sew Subversive: Down and Dirty DIY for the Fabulous Fashionista


Melissa Rannels - 2006
    The three twenty-something co-owners of Stitch Lounge, an urban sewing studio in San Francisco, teach you, in plain, fun language, how to do it, whether you're hand sewing, machine sewing, or, in a few cases, simply wielding a pair of scissors.The first three chapters lay the ground work: Hand Sewing Basics, You and Your Machine, and Gearing Up, which includes Fabric 101, how to set up a sewing space, and a run-through first project on the sewing machine. Then the fun begins with Embellishing and Customizing projects, including adorning your pant legs with ribboning, turning a computer-scanned image into an iron-on that you can apply to a t-shirt or skirt, taking in a skirt, or untapering a pair of pants (the authors believe tapered pants are the devil's work). Then move onto Refashioning: The Next Life of Your Old Clothes and turn a t-shirt into a skirt, a sweater into a halter top or legwarmers, or a pair of pants into a hip belt. There are 22 projects in all, some of which only require an iron and/or pair of scissors, while others can be sewn by hand, for those readers who haven't yet made the sewing machine plunge.

Make Your Place: Affordable, Sustainable Nesting Skills


Raleigh Briggs - 2007
    And it's not as hard as we may think! This hand written and drawn book of charming tutorials is both fun and accessible. It's full of simple skills that anyone can and should learn. From creating tinctures and salves to concocting all-natural cleaners and body products to gardening basics, this book is great for anyone looking to live more simply, create a comfortable nest, and truly do it yourself.

Stitchcraft: An Embroidery Book of Simple Stitches and Peculiar Patterns


Gayla Partridge - 2019
    Through extraordinary, stylized photography and detailed close-ups of designs, the embroidery art in Stitchcraft is entirely achievable with basic stitches and easy-to-follow instructions, enchanting beginners and expert crafters alike. Stitchcraft features: - 30 intricate embroidery designs, using a combination of nine basic stitches- Insights from the author on how she created each piece - 30 basic patterns to get you started embroidering your own version of her designsFrom the anatomy of a snake to floral skulls, from palmistry hands to botanical hearts, readers will be inspired to recreate Partridge's spellbinding designs and to make them their own.

Gardening in Miniature: Create Your Own Tiny Living World


Janit Calvo - 2013
    Gardening in Miniature is a complete guide to creating lush, living, small-scale gardens. It has everything you need to pick up this new hobby, including scaled down garden designs, techniques for creating tiny hardscapes, miniature garden care and maintenance, tips on choosing containers, how to buy the right plants, and where to find life-like accessories. Inspiring step-by-step projects feature basic skills that can be recreated in any number of designs, like a tiny patio, a trellis, a pond, and a secret garden.Whether you want to build a miniature fairy empire in your garden bed or design a private garden with a pebble patio for an indoor centerpiece, Gardening in Miniature is the primer for creating your own tiny, living world.

Good Mail Day: A Primer for Making Eye-Popping Postal Art


Jennie Hinchcliff - 2009
    Mail art is a collaborative art form with a long and fascinating history populated by famous artists as well as everyday practitioners. The term “mail art” refers to pieces of art sent through the mail rather than displayed or sold in traditional venues. Mail artists often use inexpensive and recycled materials including postcards, collage, rubber stamps, and photocopied images. Mail art is a truly international activity and a fun way to connect with people in every corner of the globe. Readers will learn to create decorated and illustrated envelopes, faux postage and artistamps, find penpals, make a mail art kit, and much more!

The Sewing Bible: A Modern Manual of Practical and Decorative Sewing Techniques


Ruth Singer - 2009
    From simple tutorials to in-depth masterclasses, Ruth Singer packs in lesson after lesson on both practical and decorative techniques.The Sewing Bible includes:• Easy-to-use instructions accompanied by hundreds of beautiful photographs detailing every stage of each technique•20 functional, fashionable sewing projects that illustrate many of the lessons—from an easy T-shirt transformation to a complex handbag—making this a how-to guide and pattern book in one•Extensive guides to fabrics and tools, and resources to help you choose the perfect materials and equipment for your projects•Advice on using organic and eco fabrics and working with recycled and vintage fabrics With more excitement than traditional sewing manuals, and much more depth than a book of projects, The Sewing Bible is an easy-to-use guide that's as attractive as it is comprehensive. This is the one book you need whether you're a beginner, an expert, or anywhere in between.

My Crochet Doll: A Fabulous Crochet Doll Pattern with Over 50 Cute Crochet Doll Clothes and Accessories


Isabelle Kessdjian - 2013
    Instagram sensation Isabelle Kessedjian has created this adorable doll with her own very stylish wardrobe in crochet! Using Isabelle's easy patterns discover how to crochet your doll and then personalize her with your choice of hair, clothing and accessories for home and abroad.Each project is presented as a mini story to bring your crochet doll to life with a whole heap of extras to complete each scene, including: At the Beach with a bucket, paddling pool and air bed, Good Night! with bed linen, a pillow and cuddly teddy for sweet dreams! At the North Pole with a camera, penguin and a fish!The cute mini suitcase pattern is perfect for storing all your doll's belongings and doubles up as a bed too!Create the doll of your dreams for a little girl you love or the little girl inside!

Learn Tunisian Crochet: Beginner Stitch Guide & 6 Easy Potholder Patterns (Tiger Road Crafts Book 2)


Tara Cousins - 2014
    The "Getting Started" section will give you a great overview and help explain some things for the very beginner. Next, learn some easy stitch patterns in the section "Basic Stitches." When you're ready to try your first project, take a look at the "Potholder Patterns" section, but make sure to read the "Pattern Information & Notes" first for some important stuff that pertains to all the patterns. The ebook is also filled with photos to help you along your way.Why Potholders?Potholders are a great project to work with Tunisian crochet because:• The back/wrong side is hidden between the two layers• Tunisian crochet makes a very thick final product• Working square shapes is easy for the beginnerHave fun, and happy hooking to you!

Catification: Designing a Happy and Stylish Home for Your Cat (and You!)


Jackson Galaxy - 2014
    Don’t just go to your local pet shop and adorn your home with unattractive cat towers and kitty beds. In Catification, Jackson Galaxy, the star of Animal Planet’s My Cat from Hell, and Kate Benjamin, of the popular cat design website Hauspanther.com, walk readers through a step-by-step process of designing an attractive home that is also an optimal environment for cats.This gorgeously designed, full-color book includes more than twenty fun DIY projects, from kitty beds and litter boxes to catios (cat patios) that will be sure to make readers—and their cats—purr in approval.

Gelli Plate Printing: Mixed-Media Monoprinting Without a Press


Joan Bess - 2014
    Simply apply paint with a soft rubber brayer, make your marks and pull your print. It's that simple! Wipe the plate down with a spritz of water and a paper towel, and you're ready to go again.In this premier guide, artist Joan Bess--inventor of the concept for the Gelli plate--unleashes the fun through more than 60 step-by-step techniques. Create intriguing patterns using tools like sponges, textured rollers and homemade combs. Learn how to incorporate stencils and rubber stamps. Experiment with metallic paint, dimensional paint and gel medium. Become a texture-hunter, creating a wide world of effects using embossed papers, natural objects, rubber bands, lace, corrugated cardboard, metal tape, die cut letters...anything goes!Even beginners can enjoy immediate gratification--just grab a textured surface, smoosh it into your painted Gelli plate, and you'll have a stack of amazing prints in no time. For experienced printmakers, the inspirations in these pages will push you to experiment, adapt, combine and layer. It's easy, fun and totally addicting!Printmaking just got easier!- Expert tips from the creator of the Gelli plate - 60+ awesome step-by-step techniques - Ideas for incorporating stamps and stencils, using ghost prints, salvaging uninspired prints, and more - 26-page gallery shows the many wonderful ways artists are incorporating Gelli printing into their work