Well things have been a little quiet around here sewing wise. After I finished my Minoru, I started on a muslin of the skirt from Simplicity 2215. I should have learned my lesson from the Sewaholic Crescent skirt, but I didn't. Skirts with gathering/pleats that hit at my hips are just not flattering on me. I did not take a picture.
Then I decided to make a Pendrell out of some leftover fabric that I had from my St. Simon's Dress, but it turned out that I didn't have enough fabric. I did have enough of the scraps to make the blouse from the Lisette Market pattern, but I've never made that blouse before, so I decided to make a muslin first because I knew that I'd have to make some adjustments to the bust. Then I discovered that I didn't have any muslin left. Gah!
So, things haven't quite been working out. Then I got sick and had absolutely no energy all of last week. So I read The Hunger Games trilogy! I somehow managed to avoid most of the Hunger Games trailers (it must be our cutting back on TV), so I didn't know much about the books before I started reading them. I started the first book last Monday and finished the third book yesterday. What quick reads! I've mentioned before that I am a huge Harry Potter nerd, which I read back-to-back during the summer of 2007. It was the summer of Potter! I guess this past week was the week of Hunger Games. They weren't my absolute favorite books, but they were interesting enough to make me want to keep reading.
Have any of you read them? If not, I recommend, especially since they won't take up too much of your time! This week I hope to whip through a khaki version of the Lisette Market skirt. As long as I don't get sick again I think it will happen!
Showing posts with label Books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Books. Show all posts
Sunday, April 1, 2012
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
What I've Been Reading: November
Appetite for America: Fred Harvey and the Business of Civilizing the Wild West—One Meal at a Time by Stephen Fried
I mentioned last month that I had been reading Appetite for America: Fred Harvey and the Business of Civilizing the Wild West—One Meal at a Time, which I picked up when we were at the Grand Canyon in August. I enjoyed the book, although I will say it's not for everyone. At times I had to force myself to keep reading, but it was worth it.
The book covers the history of the Fred Harvey Company, one of the earliest examples of a company starting small and expanding into a large, country-wide and multi-faceted organization.
All of that was interesting enough, but Stephen Fried went further than just recounting the company's history by integrating how the United States was developing as well. For instance, Fried claims that the railroads were the driving force behind creating time zones. If this is true, it was really interesting to learn who had the power in this country around the turn of the century.
The Fred Harvey Company story is also a good study of business strategy and customer service. I wonder if MBA students are aware of this book. They should read it!
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
Before we left for our Great Western Adventure, Nick and I discovered the TV show adaptation of How the States Got Their Shapes. It is hosted by Brian Unger and it is super entertaining. We loved it! For my birthday, Nick got me the book and I didn't get around to reading it until now. I didn't get very far though because it was boring and nothing at all like the show. How is it a New York Times Bestseller?
My issue with it is that it's written so matter of factly. This group and this group both owned land and the settlement made the state line here. That's how the entire first five states' chapters were written! The fun tidbits and interesting storytelling that was in the TV show were sadly not present in the writing. Perhaps I gave up too early, but one day's worth of train reading was all I could handle. Has anyone read this book and enjoyed it?
I mentioned last month that I had been reading Appetite for America: Fred Harvey and the Business of Civilizing the Wild West—One Meal at a Time, which I picked up when we were at the Grand Canyon in August. I enjoyed the book, although I will say it's not for everyone. At times I had to force myself to keep reading, but it was worth it. The book covers the history of the Fred Harvey Company, one of the earliest examples of a company starting small and expanding into a large, country-wide and multi-faceted organization.
All of that was interesting enough, but Stephen Fried went further than just recounting the company's history by integrating how the United States was developing as well. For instance, Fried claims that the railroads were the driving force behind creating time zones. If this is true, it was really interesting to learn who had the power in this country around the turn of the century.
The Fred Harvey Company story is also a good study of business strategy and customer service. I wonder if MBA students are aware of this book. They should read it!
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
In September I reminded everyone to read Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close before the movie comes out in January. It's been a few years since I read it, so as soon as I finished Appetite For America, I cracked open Extremely Loud, and a few days later I was finished. It's seriously a really quick read.
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close tells the story of a boy living in NYC and his life following his father's death on September 11th. He ends up going on an adventure of sorts, but that's all I'll tell you. I don't want to give anything away!
Extremely Loud is one of my favorite books. It's written through a few points of view and it jumps back and forth through time depending on who is narrating. I will warn you though: it's emotional and you will most likely cry. Keep your tissues close.
How the States Got Their Shapes by Mark Stein
How the States Got Their Shapes by Mark Stein
My issue with it is that it's written so matter of factly. This group and this group both owned land and the settlement made the state line here. That's how the entire first five states' chapters were written! The fun tidbits and interesting storytelling that was in the TV show were sadly not present in the writing. Perhaps I gave up too early, but one day's worth of train reading was all I could handle. Has anyone read this book and enjoyed it?
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
What I've Been Reading: October
When we were at the Grand Canyon I picked up a copy of Appetite for America: Fred Harvey and the Business of Civilizing the Wild West—One Meal at a Time as a birthday gift for my brother in law, who is both a history and food buff. The perfect gift! It seemed interesting enough that I ordered myself a copy when I needed to reach $25 in order to receive free shipping from Amazon. I’ve been diligently reading, but the font is quite small, the book is long, and the writing is a little dense, making it a very slow read. I’m enjoying it but I’ll refrain from writing about it until I’m finished.
So I don’t leave you without some suggested reading material, let me recommend Little Bee, which I read some time last year. It is an insanely fast read, but I don’t want to say any more about it because I don’t want to give anything away. I will warn you that it’s quite haunting and upsetting, but it’s definitely worth reading and will definitely get you thinking. And it will leave you crying in your train seat, like one of the books I read last month. I see a theme developing here.
Friday, September 30, 2011
What I've Been Reading: September
Before I started sewing I was a pretty avid reader. Now that sewing and other crafts take up most of my time, I don't plow through nearly as many books as I used to, but I do get around to reading a select few. I thought I’d borrow Valerie’s (from Threads and Thoughts and Things I Love) idea and recap the books that I read at the end of each month in case you're looking for some recommendations.
Here is September’s batch!
I picked this book up when we were visiting Yellowstone during our Great Western Adventure. It’s amazing how many people get WAY too close to the wildlife, geological features, and cliffs, even though you receive a pamphlet at the front gate outlining the dangers of everything in the park. When I saw this in one of the gift shops I knew it was the perfect souvenir!
This book details every death in the park from 1839 to 1994, the year it was published. While we were there, I was overly paranoid about keeping our distance from hot springs and cliff edges—it seemed so easy to trip and fall and die. But most of the deaths that are chronicled in the book happen because the visitor did something really stupid.
The first death that was described in the book was a heartbreaking story about a guy who dove into a hot spring to rescue his friend’s dog, who had jumped in after escaping from their car. The dog ended up dying while the guy was trying to lift it out of the hot spring, and the guy died the next day from severe burns almost all over his body. Having read this on the first page, I didn’t think I’d be able to make it through an entire book of sad stories, but, thankfully for me (not the people), the stories changed in tone. I’d say about 80% of the deaths happened because the visitors were doing something that was unsafe, such as camping or hiking alone, getting way too close to wildlife, or getting drunk and wandering around a hot spring area alone at night.
The point that the author makes is that Yellowstone is not a theme park and that there are real dangers to visitors, and that visitors should respect nature for what it is—wild and unpredictable. Of course when we got to the Grand Canyon and saw a similar book there, we had to pick it up. I thought I’d give myself a breather from all of that death though, so it’s on hold until later!
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
I heard of The Help a few months ago from friends of ours, who suggested that I read it. With all of the craziness of preparing for our vacation, I didn’t get around to going to the library to pick it up, and then I forgot about it.
Then, before we left for vacation, I couldn’t turn on the TV without seeing a preview for the movie adaptation The Help. Knowing what the book was about, I thought it was kind of strange that they were billing the film as a comedy. When we got home from vacation, my parents happened to have just finished reading it, so they lent me their copy of the book.
First of all, I hate reading a book after the movie has come out, because then I can only imagine the characters as who they are in the movie (even if I haven’t seen the movie yet). Second, this book is far from a comedy. Sure, there are funny parts, but overall, it is a heartbreaking look at the history of our society. It’s definitely worth reading and, if you’re like me, it will leave you crying in your train seat.
Heads up: In my attempt to save everyone from reading a book after they see the movie (or even previews for a movie), I'm letting everyone know that the movie adaptation of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is set to release in January. I highly suggest you pick this one up before they start running previews for it! It is definitely a must read. Fair warning though: it will leave you crying in your train seat.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
The Wonderful World of Color Craft Books
Up until now, I think I've kept my addiction to craft books pretty well hidden. It all ends today! Yesterday you got a tour of the craft books of yesteryear. Today, you get to revel in the goodness that is the modern craft book. Or, in the case of Amy Sedaris, the post-modern craft book.
This small selection of my craft library has been acquired over the past few months. I'm happy that craft books have taken a large turn for the better over the past 20 years in that they typically not only include color, but tons and tons of pictures. Who wants a craft book without pictures? I'm fairly certain that the sewing ladies of the 50s, 60s, and 70s did not appreciate having to imagine on their own what certain processes looked like. The books below are packed full of lovely and helpful pictures.
Diane Gaudynski's Guide to Machine Quilting has been mentioned on a few of the quilting blogs that I follow as THE go-to source to teach yourself how to machine quilt. I'm super impressed with the work that long arm quilters can do if you send your quilts out to be quilted, but I'd really like to be able to at least do basic free motion quilting well on my own. This book is my key to success.
Gaudynski goes over a bunch of different methods and designs that you can use to quilt. Aren't these awesome? And they're completely free hand.
What I'm most excited for are the quilting exercises that she provides, like the one below. I'm going to start giving myself quilting homework and practice on scraps. I'll keep you updated on how I am progressing!
I can only hope that one day I can quilt as beautifully as this. All of that texture is done with quilting! Amazing!
I believe I've mentioned before about my problem with websites that give you free shipping if you order so many dollars worth of merchandise. The problem comes into play because I always need to order at least that much so shipping is free. I'm talking to you, Amazon and Fabric.com. This book was a major splurge to say the very least.
That being said, it is an invaluable reference book. Being new to sewing, I sometimes don't know what a certain type of fabric is, which is troublesome when trying to figure out what fabric to use for a certain pattern. Now, thanks to Classic and Modern Fabric, I will never be left wondering! It lists, describes, and shows an example of pretty much every type of fabric known to man.
Surprisingly, the styling of the book isn't downright beautiful. Sure, they show pretty fabrics, but the layout is pretty mundane. Don't you agree that it's kind of snooze-y?
Sometimes when I'm in need of a giggle or a good hard laugh, I crack open Simple Times to any random page, and I'm good to go. Since finding I Like You in the Bargain Books section of Barnes & Noble a couple of years ago, I have been a big fan of Amy Sedaris, so much so, that I received not one, but two copies of Simple Times for Christmas. My friends and family know me so well! Simple Times is as equally hilarious and silly as I Like You.
Not a single inch of the pages in this book is wasted, including the back of the dust jacket and inside front cover. If you don't find this hilarious, I suggest you keep on scrolling until you get to the safe land of City Quilts.
And then there's this little surprise etched into the front cover. Man this is good styling!
I think I am beginning to be obsessed with the spaces that artists create in. The Blue Gardenia runs a series called Sewing Spaces, which features different bloggers and their sewing spaces. Whenever I see a new Sewing Spaces pop up in my Google Reader, I get super excited to take a peak into another sewists' creative world. It was no surprise that I spent awhile staring at these pages when I first got the book. I'm also starting to think that everyone has a card catalog in their house but me. If you're looking to give one up, let me know!
No crafter should approach any project without doing the proper stretches first. You don't want to get injured! But if you do, don't worry; Ms. Sedaris provides information on healing your wounds.
For real though, there are actual crafts packed throughout this entire book.
My favorite are these milk carton structures. You could whip these up pretty quickly too! I would be worried that we'd burn the house down though by placing paper over electric candles. I'll have to think up a fire-safe alternative.
Quite on the opposite side of the craft book spectrum is Cherri House's new book, City Quilts.
I picked this up mainly because of the extensive color theory sections and because it deals with using only solids in quilts. There are some gorgeous quilts in this book! Here are a few of my favorites.
Below is City Green. Isn't it amazing how illuminating the white blocks are? They provide a nice balance to the darker greens, browns, and blues.
City Lights was inspired by bright office building windows against the dark of the morning. I think she is spot on with this design. It's so simple yet interesting.
City Lot was inspired by parking lots full of new cars that have just arrived on boats. I totally get it! I love the bright colors she chose.
After viewing my three favorite quilts in the book, I'm sure you can now see how much I love organization. What is better than rows upon perfect rows of blocks of colors?
I stumbled across Stitch magazine sometime last year and was disappointed that they didn't offer a subscription service. When I got the email last month alerting me that they now offer an option to auto-send you each new issue as it becomes available, I was in! Here are the Winter 2010 and Spring 2011 issues.
The bad thing about subscribing to Stitch is that there are now dozens more projects added to my project list. How adorable is the mini mushroom quilt? Do I have a perfect place to put one, say, on a dining room table where we regularly eat? No, but that won't stop me from wanting to make one.
We do regularly use dish towels, so this set would be a logical addition to my project list.
I'm surprised that I was so taken with this cuff as I don't currently own any bracelets, cuffs, or watches. I think this might not make it to the project list, but it might make a nice gift for someone some day.
I haven't had the chance to give the Spring 2011 issue a thorough reading yet, but at first glance, a few projects caught my eye.
Like this adorable clutch.
And this quilted elephant placemat.
It looks like a project has caught someone else's eye! I'm pretty sure he's saying, "Please make this for me, Mommy! I'm such a good boy!"
We will see, little Flick. We will see.
This small selection of my craft library has been acquired over the past few months. I'm happy that craft books have taken a large turn for the better over the past 20 years in that they typically not only include color, but tons and tons of pictures. Who wants a craft book without pictures? I'm fairly certain that the sewing ladies of the 50s, 60s, and 70s did not appreciate having to imagine on their own what certain processes looked like. The books below are packed full of lovely and helpful pictures.
Diane Gaudynski's Guide to Machine Quilting has been mentioned on a few of the quilting blogs that I follow as THE go-to source to teach yourself how to machine quilt. I'm super impressed with the work that long arm quilters can do if you send your quilts out to be quilted, but I'd really like to be able to at least do basic free motion quilting well on my own. This book is my key to success.
Gaudynski goes over a bunch of different methods and designs that you can use to quilt. Aren't these awesome? And they're completely free hand.
What I'm most excited for are the quilting exercises that she provides, like the one below. I'm going to start giving myself quilting homework and practice on scraps. I'll keep you updated on how I am progressing!
I can only hope that one day I can quilt as beautifully as this. All of that texture is done with quilting! Amazing!
I believe I've mentioned before about my problem with websites that give you free shipping if you order so many dollars worth of merchandise. The problem comes into play because I always need to order at least that much so shipping is free. I'm talking to you, Amazon and Fabric.com. This book was a major splurge to say the very least.
That being said, it is an invaluable reference book. Being new to sewing, I sometimes don't know what a certain type of fabric is, which is troublesome when trying to figure out what fabric to use for a certain pattern. Now, thanks to Classic and Modern Fabric, I will never be left wondering! It lists, describes, and shows an example of pretty much every type of fabric known to man.
Surprisingly, the styling of the book isn't downright beautiful. Sure, they show pretty fabrics, but the layout is pretty mundane. Don't you agree that it's kind of snooze-y?
Sometimes when I'm in need of a giggle or a good hard laugh, I crack open Simple Times to any random page, and I'm good to go. Since finding I Like You in the Bargain Books section of Barnes & Noble a couple of years ago, I have been a big fan of Amy Sedaris, so much so, that I received not one, but two copies of Simple Times for Christmas. My friends and family know me so well! Simple Times is as equally hilarious and silly as I Like You.
Not a single inch of the pages in this book is wasted, including the back of the dust jacket and inside front cover. If you don't find this hilarious, I suggest you keep on scrolling until you get to the safe land of City Quilts.
And then there's this little surprise etched into the front cover. Man this is good styling!
I think I am beginning to be obsessed with the spaces that artists create in. The Blue Gardenia runs a series called Sewing Spaces, which features different bloggers and their sewing spaces. Whenever I see a new Sewing Spaces pop up in my Google Reader, I get super excited to take a peak into another sewists' creative world. It was no surprise that I spent awhile staring at these pages when I first got the book. I'm also starting to think that everyone has a card catalog in their house but me. If you're looking to give one up, let me know!
No crafter should approach any project without doing the proper stretches first. You don't want to get injured! But if you do, don't worry; Ms. Sedaris provides information on healing your wounds.
For real though, there are actual crafts packed throughout this entire book.
My favorite are these milk carton structures. You could whip these up pretty quickly too! I would be worried that we'd burn the house down though by placing paper over electric candles. I'll have to think up a fire-safe alternative.
Quite on the opposite side of the craft book spectrum is Cherri House's new book, City Quilts.
I picked this up mainly because of the extensive color theory sections and because it deals with using only solids in quilts. There are some gorgeous quilts in this book! Here are a few of my favorites.
Below is City Green. Isn't it amazing how illuminating the white blocks are? They provide a nice balance to the darker greens, browns, and blues.
City Lights was inspired by bright office building windows against the dark of the morning. I think she is spot on with this design. It's so simple yet interesting.
City Lot was inspired by parking lots full of new cars that have just arrived on boats. I totally get it! I love the bright colors she chose.
After viewing my three favorite quilts in the book, I'm sure you can now see how much I love organization. What is better than rows upon perfect rows of blocks of colors?
I stumbled across Stitch magazine sometime last year and was disappointed that they didn't offer a subscription service. When I got the email last month alerting me that they now offer an option to auto-send you each new issue as it becomes available, I was in! Here are the Winter 2010 and Spring 2011 issues.
The bad thing about subscribing to Stitch is that there are now dozens more projects added to my project list. How adorable is the mini mushroom quilt? Do I have a perfect place to put one, say, on a dining room table where we regularly eat? No, but that won't stop me from wanting to make one.
We do regularly use dish towels, so this set would be a logical addition to my project list.
I'm surprised that I was so taken with this cuff as I don't currently own any bracelets, cuffs, or watches. I think this might not make it to the project list, but it might make a nice gift for someone some day.
I haven't had the chance to give the Spring 2011 issue a thorough reading yet, but at first glance, a few projects caught my eye.
Like this adorable clutch.
And this quilted elephant placemat.
It looks like a project has caught someone else's eye! I'm pretty sure he's saying, "Please make this for me, Mommy! I'm such a good boy!"
We will see, little Flick. We will see.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Craft Books by the Box Full
Nick and I ventured over to Princeton on Sunday morning for the final day of the Bryn Mawr Wellesley annual book sale. Every year, we go on the last day for the bag sale, where you pay $5 per paper bag or $10 per box full of books. We have built most of our library this way as their fiction and classic literature sections are pretty well stocked.
In recent years, we've been hitting up the "old books" table, which is comprised of older edition books, and the craft and travel books tables. This year I got some pretty good gems.
First up are a couple of sewing reference books. This Better Homes & Gardens Sewing Book is from 1961.
It includes standard sewing reference material, such as reading patterns and working with different fabrics. Like many of the books that I picked up, this one has fabulous illustrations. Check out this page that lists the different types of fabric that you can get from different animals, especially the little guy in the bottom left-hand corner. At first glance, I thought this was a giraffe but the longer hair on the chest had me puzzled. Upon looking up vicuna, I discovered that this guy is a South America camelid who is related to the llama. You learn new things every day in the most unexpected places!
There is also an extensive guide to properly pressing your garments that I think will prove helpful in the future. And by extensive, I mean there are 3 whole pages dedicated to it, when in modern sewing books it is rarely mentioned.
I was hoping to find an old copy of Reader's Digest Complete Guide to Sewing, but a 1975 copy of The Vogue Sewing Book is a pretty good second place. Apparently it was meant to be for me to find this copy, because the prior owner was the exact same height as me (5'4 1/2" if you must know)! I know this because she wrote it in the margin of the figure analysis section.
There is so much information packed into this 450-pager. They get pretty specific as far as what styles are most flattering on which body types. So much so that they include a few pages of charts to make sure that you don't mistakenly think a cut of a skirt or a neckline is flattering on you. I hope that most owners of this book used these charts as guidelines and not rules. I'd hate for someone of my stature to refuse to wear shorts because this book says that they are "Not Appropriate."
Fortunately, the guys don't get to escape from realizing their true body shapes either. I had a nice laugh at this illustration about issues you might run into when fitting men's garments. I like how a beer gut used to be referred to as a "bay window." HA! Adding the cigar for this silhouette is perfection.
One of the sections at the end of the book details setting up your sewing space. Don't you wish your sewing space looked like this?
These three set-ups contain pieces of my actual sewing space. If only I had more natural light to work with!
I also found a few quilting books. I like traditional quilting with contemporary fabrics. Much like the Modern Log Cabin Quilting book that Susan Beal just released. I get major anxiety when I see blocks in a quilt that don't match up. When I saw this Amish Patchwork book I immediately snatched it up. Once I got home and actually looked at it, I was very excited at what I found.
One of my favorite things about modern sewing and quilting books is all of the great photographs. This book is quite the opposite in that it doesn't contain any photographs besides the one on the front cover. In fact, there is no color at all. Almost the entire book consists of line drawings of patchwork patterns.
Despite it lacking color photos and formatting (the entire text of the short chapters at the beginning and end are in CAPS if you can believe it), I love this book. The simple line drawings of the patchwork makes it much easier for me to see the designs (obviously) and decide whether or not I like the design without pretty fabric distracting me. Genius!
I also picked up Better Homes & Gardens American Patchwork & Quilting from 1985. There are some 80s gems in here, my friends!
The book contains spotlights of some quilters and a bunch of different styles of quilts. Like Amish Patchwork, most of the designs stick to traditional quilting patterns. Here are a few of my favs.
I love the 80s styling in this picture.
I like to think that this quilt belonged to Laura Ingalls.
Check out this amazing quilting space! In 1985 it belonged to a Ms. Donna Barnett, a Pennsylvania College of Art graduate. Ms. Barnett, I am highly jealous of your wood floors, tons of sunlight, and what looks like a card catalog on your wall.
The rest of the books that I got are general craft books. Honestly, I picked these up because of their covers and the awesome illustrations inside.
These books contain information on just about every craft imaginable. Here we learn how to make puppets for a puppet theatre. Mr. Squirrel and Mrs. Pig and their Properties! Love!
The Woodstock Craftsman's Manual doesn't disappoint on illustrations either.
My favorite is this diagram of a tape deck in the section about home recording. I am very tempted to recreate this as some sort of print for our house. Stay tuned.
This McCalls magazine from 1964 was pretty fun to look through, even if I doubt I will ever make anything from it. Most of the projects are knitting and are way above my skill level. Isn't the front cover hilarious? Look how happy those two are to be winding that yarn together! There are details in the magazine to make all of the decorations in their living room too. How convenient!
I loved looking at all of the old advertisements. I'm not big into Mad Men, but I did enjoy looking at the clothes in the few episodes I've seen. These ads are definitely a lot more classy than ads these days.
And yet some of the projects are downright horrifying. On this page, you see a bunch of paper crafts. What were they thinking?? I'm so thankful that artists have progressed from this over the past 50 years.
I did like this apple, even if I didn't like the bag that it is appliqued onto. Perhaps it will make its way into a future project of mine.
We threw this last book in the box just because we liked the cover. I'm thinking about making something out of it, but I'm not sure what yet. Any suggestions?
I'm excited for all of the great reference books that I found. In addition to those, we also picked up about 15 other books, all for $10!
As a bonus, I also found America From the Road, which is getting me pumped for our Great Western Adventure this August.
Here's hoping I run into some prairie dogs along the way!
In recent years, we've been hitting up the "old books" table, which is comprised of older edition books, and the craft and travel books tables. This year I got some pretty good gems.
First up are a couple of sewing reference books. This Better Homes & Gardens Sewing Book is from 1961.
It includes standard sewing reference material, such as reading patterns and working with different fabrics. Like many of the books that I picked up, this one has fabulous illustrations. Check out this page that lists the different types of fabric that you can get from different animals, especially the little guy in the bottom left-hand corner. At first glance, I thought this was a giraffe but the longer hair on the chest had me puzzled. Upon looking up vicuna, I discovered that this guy is a South America camelid who is related to the llama. You learn new things every day in the most unexpected places!
There is also an extensive guide to properly pressing your garments that I think will prove helpful in the future. And by extensive, I mean there are 3 whole pages dedicated to it, when in modern sewing books it is rarely mentioned.
I was hoping to find an old copy of Reader's Digest Complete Guide to Sewing, but a 1975 copy of The Vogue Sewing Book is a pretty good second place. Apparently it was meant to be for me to find this copy, because the prior owner was the exact same height as me (5'4 1/2" if you must know)! I know this because she wrote it in the margin of the figure analysis section.
There is so much information packed into this 450-pager. They get pretty specific as far as what styles are most flattering on which body types. So much so that they include a few pages of charts to make sure that you don't mistakenly think a cut of a skirt or a neckline is flattering on you. I hope that most owners of this book used these charts as guidelines and not rules. I'd hate for someone of my stature to refuse to wear shorts because this book says that they are "Not Appropriate."
Fortunately, the guys don't get to escape from realizing their true body shapes either. I had a nice laugh at this illustration about issues you might run into when fitting men's garments. I like how a beer gut used to be referred to as a "bay window." HA! Adding the cigar for this silhouette is perfection.
One of the sections at the end of the book details setting up your sewing space. Don't you wish your sewing space looked like this?
These three set-ups contain pieces of my actual sewing space. If only I had more natural light to work with!
I also found a few quilting books. I like traditional quilting with contemporary fabrics. Much like the Modern Log Cabin Quilting book that Susan Beal just released. I get major anxiety when I see blocks in a quilt that don't match up. When I saw this Amish Patchwork book I immediately snatched it up. Once I got home and actually looked at it, I was very excited at what I found.
One of my favorite things about modern sewing and quilting books is all of the great photographs. This book is quite the opposite in that it doesn't contain any photographs besides the one on the front cover. In fact, there is no color at all. Almost the entire book consists of line drawings of patchwork patterns.
Despite it lacking color photos and formatting (the entire text of the short chapters at the beginning and end are in CAPS if you can believe it), I love this book. The simple line drawings of the patchwork makes it much easier for me to see the designs (obviously) and decide whether or not I like the design without pretty fabric distracting me. Genius!
I also picked up Better Homes & Gardens American Patchwork & Quilting from 1985. There are some 80s gems in here, my friends!
The book contains spotlights of some quilters and a bunch of different styles of quilts. Like Amish Patchwork, most of the designs stick to traditional quilting patterns. Here are a few of my favs.
I love the 80s styling in this picture.
I like to think that this quilt belonged to Laura Ingalls.
Check out this amazing quilting space! In 1985 it belonged to a Ms. Donna Barnett, a Pennsylvania College of Art graduate. Ms. Barnett, I am highly jealous of your wood floors, tons of sunlight, and what looks like a card catalog on your wall.
The rest of the books that I got are general craft books. Honestly, I picked these up because of their covers and the awesome illustrations inside.
These books contain information on just about every craft imaginable. Here we learn how to make puppets for a puppet theatre. Mr. Squirrel and Mrs. Pig and their Properties! Love!
The Woodstock Craftsman's Manual doesn't disappoint on illustrations either.
My favorite is this diagram of a tape deck in the section about home recording. I am very tempted to recreate this as some sort of print for our house. Stay tuned.
This McCalls magazine from 1964 was pretty fun to look through, even if I doubt I will ever make anything from it. Most of the projects are knitting and are way above my skill level. Isn't the front cover hilarious? Look how happy those two are to be winding that yarn together! There are details in the magazine to make all of the decorations in their living room too. How convenient!
I loved looking at all of the old advertisements. I'm not big into Mad Men, but I did enjoy looking at the clothes in the few episodes I've seen. These ads are definitely a lot more classy than ads these days.
And yet some of the projects are downright horrifying. On this page, you see a bunch of paper crafts. What were they thinking?? I'm so thankful that artists have progressed from this over the past 50 years.
I did like this apple, even if I didn't like the bag that it is appliqued onto. Perhaps it will make its way into a future project of mine.
We threw this last book in the box just because we liked the cover. I'm thinking about making something out of it, but I'm not sure what yet. Any suggestions?
I'm excited for all of the great reference books that I found. In addition to those, we also picked up about 15 other books, all for $10!
As a bonus, I also found America From the Road, which is getting me pumped for our Great Western Adventure this August.
Here's hoping I run into some prairie dogs along the way!
Check back tomorrow to see some of the new craft books I've acquired over the past couple of months!
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