Crafty Tomes

I've been slowly building a list of craft-themed book titles that I'm lusting after. I made a little promise to myself that if I actually made good on my intentions to sew a number of items in the Amy Butler book, I would treat myself to a new one but now I'm not sure which I would pick. This weekend I finished off the Amy Butler Kimono (photos and a review to follow later this week) and I'm feeling like I may have reached my own imaginary threshold to allow for another crafty-book purchase. Here are the titles currently on my list, I haven't actually seen any of these in person so haven't been able to thumb through them. If anyone has reviews or opinions please feel free to sway me in one direction or the other.

• Simple Sewing with a French Twist: An Illustrated Guide to Sewing Clothes and Home Accessories with Style. I first saw this one over at Alex's delightful Hygge House blog a few months ago.
• Lotta Jansdotter's Simple Sewing: Patterns and How-To for 24 Fresh and Easy Projects. This one appeals to my Scano-lust in a big way and would help me reconcile my lack of any Lotta loveliness.
• Wendy Mullin's Sew U: The Built by Wendy Guide to Making Your Own Wardrobe seems like it might be good inspiration for wardrobe sewing, which is always fun at a change of seasons. I seem to be most inspired to sew at a season change.
• Tricia Guild's Pattern looks like it very well may lead to some friction between my "femme-tastic" decorating leanings and Martin's preference for a more minimalist approach. But it sure does look like a fun time.
• And Amy Karol's book is available for pre-order already.

I'm sorely tempted to just jump off the deep end and get them all, but my Visa balance and the knowledge that having them all would leave me less time to savour hold me back.

Comments

[alex]

The Sew U - a whole bunch of us were just talking about this book today! One of my friends (who is the visual clothing girl at Anthropologie) came in wearing an AMAZING dress that she'd taught herself to make using this book. This book rocks.

I have the Tricia book and I'm surprised at how much I love it. I thought it might be a little overwhelming but it's a beautiful, beautiful book.

[Anita]

Why not suggest to the Library that they acquire them? I'm sure others would be interested in poring over these in renewable three-week periods too.

[Carrie]

I have the first one, Simple Sewing with a French Twist, out from the library at the moment. While it's certainly beautiful and fun to flip through I must confess that nothing made me want to run to the sewing machine.

[emira]

Thanks for the feedback. Funnily enough I think that Sew U was really at the bottom of my list and French Twist more towards the top. So nice to have such smart ladies to show me the way.

As for the library. Our library does have a few of them and I regularly do that with books I'm interested in. But I would like to add a new one or two to my personal collection.

[Johanna]

I have both French Twist and Sew U and the latter is the winner imho. French Twist is a beautiful book, but a bit too much eye candy for my taste. I agree with Carrie, it didn't make want to rush to the sewing machine. The foucs is on interiors and accessories, clothing not so much.

Sew U on the other hand is a gold mine of info and ideas that are very hip and inspiring. I own abot 10 sewing books and Sew U is the most up to date, with great tips for more modern RTW techniques. Plus the writing is great! The patterns are good, but not 100 % my style. My only complaint is that it is sometimes unclear how much sewing allowance she is using on the patterns.

[Jennifer]

I have In Stitches and Sew U. I agree that Sew U is great. I just purchased Lotta Jansdotter's Simple Sewing online after reading glowing reviews from many of the designers'/crafters' blogs that I admire.

I've also perused Simple Sewing with a French Twist at the bookstore just to see if I wanted to purchase that one as well. I agree that this book is more "eye candy" (and would be a beautiful coffee table book imo) than anything else.

[emira]

Thanks everyone. This is such great advice!