A follow up to the Last-Minute Knitted Gifts, this book - designed for use by both first-time and long-time quilters - features 30 patchwork and quilted projects organized according to the amount of time it takes to complete them: less than 2 hours, 2 to 4 hours, 4 to 8 hours, 8 to 12 hours and 12 hours or more.

    These ingenious projectsfrom ultra-feminine and vintage chic to whimsical color-playinclude waist and bib aprons, pinafores, smocks, cobblers, and even something for the pint-sized cook. All of the projects are photographed in a playful style. And templates, sewing basics, and quick and easy projects for sprucing up store-bought aprons and whipping up aprons from recycled materials are here too!"

    Whether you are a beginner or have been sewing for years, this book is packed with all the information you need to get the most out of your sewing machine, simply by changing the feet.• Everything you need to know about feet attachments, from basic feet such as the zigzag foot to specialty fabric and technique feet that will help you invent new design ideas for your sewing projects.• Work effortlessly with a full range of fabrics, learn great time-saving tricks, and experiment with a range of decorative effects by following the authors' creative "ideas files."• Includes a guide to needle, thread, and fabric choices and buying advice for choosing basic, mid-range, and top-end sewing machines, embellishers, and sergers.

    Design journalist Kassia St. Clair guides us through the technological advancements and cultural customs that would redefine human civilization—from the fabric that allowed mankind to achieve extraordinary things (traverse the oceans and shatter athletic records) and survive in unlikely places (outer space and the South Pole). She peoples her story with a motley cast of characters, including Xiling, the ancient Chinese empress credited with inventing silk, to Richard the Lionhearted and Bing Crosby. Offering insights into the economic and social dimensions of clothmaking—and countering the enduring, often demeaning, association of textiles as “merely women’s work”—The Golden Thread offers an alternative guide to our past, present, and future.

    This inspiring book shows you how to record your experiences, using sketchbooks, journals and photography, to create personal narratives that can form a starting point for more finished stitched-textile pieces. Acclaimed textile artist and teacher Cas Holmes, whose work is often inspired by her life and the journeys she makes, helps you find inspiration through your own life and explains how to record what you see in sketchbooks and journals, which can often become beautiful objects in themselves. She explains how you can use photography, both as documentation and as inspiration, and sometimes incorporate it into the work itself, along with found objects and ephemera. Throughout the book are useful techniques that can be harnessed to add extra interest to your work, such as methods for making layered collages, how to 'sketch' with stitch, and advice on design and colour. If you want to create beautiful, unique work inspired by your life and travels, this is the perfect book for you.

    Showing that the silhouette of women's dress has been in a state of continuous change, allied to economic and architectural evolution as well as changing ideas of sexual attractiveness, she itemizes three cycles in the last 400 years in which women's silhouette was blown up to the utmost limit, by artificial means, and then collapsed again to a long straight line. At these points and extremes were invariably considered absurdities and the corsets and hoops were discarded by their users, so that in actuality very few specimens from the earlier periods at least have come down to us.

    A perfect blend of ease and functionality, the small, portable rigid heddle loom can be used to easily produce loose, drape-friendly fabric as well as dense, sturdy material. Eighteen projects—for scarves, bags, belts, tops, and a bevy of household goodies such as pillows, rugs, and blankets—explore how to combine colors and create textured fabrics using a variety of techniques. Additional tips on adding crocheted edges, beaded fringe, and needle-felted flowers are also included.

    "For Fans of NBC's Making It, Bravo's Project Runway, or shopping vintage: A sweater gets a hole? Sew it closed... Part history and part how-to, Mend! traces the task's evolution from a 1950s chore to a DIY sustainability movement." -- Marie Claire For thousands of years, mending was a deep craft that has for too long been a secret history. But now it's back, bigger and better than ever. In this book Kate Sekules introduces the art of visible mending as part of an important movement to give fashion back its soul. Part manifesto, part how-to, MEND! calls for bold new ways of keeping clothes and refreshing your style. Crammed with tips, fun facts, ravishing photography, and illustrated tutorials, MEND! tells you exactly how to rescue and renew your wardrobe with flair and aplomb--and save money along the way.Whether you've never owned a needle or are an aspiring professional, MEND! gives you clear instruction and witty advice, with over thirty techniques, from classic darning and patching to cheeky new methods invented by Sekules, to help you turn every garment into a unique fashion statement. Including interviews with menders, shameful fashion industry facts, a ten-step closet mend, cheat sheets, stitch guides, moth elimination, museum conservator and vintage dealer tricks, and more, this is a book to inspire, delight, and galvanize. Sharp, funny, and incredibly timely, MEND! leads the slow fashion revolution into its next phase, where getting dressed is a joyful, creative experience for all.

    This book takes a detailed look at the background and impact of The Ambassador. Driven by the vision of founder Hans Juda and his wife, Elsbeth, who was responsible for much of the magazine’s striking photography, the magazine created ambitious photo shoots to showcasing the latest couture fashions, promoted fine art as an inspiration for design, and commissioned artists such as John Piper and Henry Moore for their covers. The Ambassador Magazine brings this trove of art, textiles, and fashion to a new generation.

    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.

    This book offers a fashionable, contemporary update of crewel embroidery with designs and a colour palette that will have every crafter reaching for their needles and thread.

    Juried by Karey Bresenhan, one of the most prominent figures in quilting, it presents 500 magnificent contemporary art quilts, made in fabric and other media, and showcasing diverse designs, materials, and techniques.From their very inception, these quilts were destined for display rather than practical use, with an extraordinary quality of image, form, line, and composition.  Artists include:Pamela Allen  -  Alice Beasley  -  Eszter Bornemisza  -  Jane Burch Cochran  -  Judith Content  -  Chiaki Dosho  -  Noriko Endo  -  Caryl Bryer Fallert  -  Jamie Fingal  -  Linda Gass  -  Jenny Hearn  -  Judy Coates Perez  -  Yvonne Porcella  -  Susan Shie  -  Jen Swearington  -  and many more!

    A comprehensive visual reference, the book covers everything a home sewer craves: the basics of sewing by hand or machine, along with five other time-honored crafts techniques, and step-by-step instructions for more than 150 projects that reflect not only Martha Stewart’s depth of experience and crafting expertise, but also her singular sense of style. Encyclopedic in scope, the book features two main parts to help you brush up on the basics and take your skills to a new level. First, the Techniques section guides readers through Sewing, Appliqué, Embroidery, Quilting, Dyeing, and Printing. Following that, the Projects A to Z section features more than 150 clever ideas (including many no-sew projects), all illustrated and explained with the clear, detailed instructions that have become a signature of Martha Stewart’s magazines, books, and television shows. An enclosed CD includes full-size clothing patterns as well as templates that can be easily produced on a home printer. Fabric, thread, and tool glossaries identify the properties, workability, and best uses of common sewing materials. And, perhaps best of all, when you need it most, Martha and her talented team of crafts editors offer you the reassurance that you really can make it yourself. The projects are as delightful as they are imaginative, and include classic Roman shades, hand-drawn stuffed animals, an easy upholstered blanket chest, a quilted crib bumper, French knot-embellished pillowcases and sheets, and Japanese-embroidered table linens, among many others.With gorgeous color photographs as well as expert instruction, this handy guide will surely encourage beginners and keep sewers and crafters of all experience levels wonderfully busy for many years to come.

    Simple and easy step-by-step instructions with clear understandable line drawings.

    Packed with modern computer-aided designs, cutting-edge advice on tools, supplies, and fabrics as well as a new, inspirational fabric gallery, and hundreds of specially commissioned full-color step-by-step photographs--the book maintains its original appeal, while enticing a whole new generation of readers.