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| Four sewing books released between 2015-2017... |
Back in May, I did a quickie book review of Stitched Sewing Organizers, which featured a project very much like the five pocket, double zippered pouch project that I originally found via a YouTube video.
It was via the comments left under that video that I found out there was a book published last year featuring a similar project.
After some digging, I arrived at the name of the book and found out that the title was actually available at my local library and put a hold on it. Being a relatively new release, it turned out there were several previous holds on it, so I had to wait a few weeks for it to be available.
In the meantime, I took the opportunity to borrow four other relatively recent sewing books (shown above), and will share my opinions of them here.
Hack That Tote! (Mix & Match Elements to Create Your Perfect Bag)
by Mary Abreu, 2016 (103 pages) $24.95 USThis was my favourite volume out of the four, because it goes over and above what normal sewing books do. The book features eleven projects — all based on the simple tote bag (i.e., boxed corner) construction — but you can see just in the photo below how different they all are.
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| sample page from Hack that Tote!... |
If you look back to the photo at the top of this post, you can see the cover picture of a big bag that uses a tubular purse frame. That leads to my one big complaint about this book. In the section that covers how to make that bag, here is the instruction:
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| instruction from Hack that Tote! |
What!?
How often do those purse hardware thingamajigs come with instructions?? (By the way, I have since found out that it's fairly easy to install one of those... a little research goes a long way!)
Anyway, getting back to what I liked about this book, the first few pages cover the anatomy of a tote bag and how to adjust the basic pattern to achieve different looks. Very informative for anyone who likes to change up a pattern.
On the Go Bags (15 Handmade Purses, Totes & Organizers)
by Lindsay Conner and Janelle MacKay, 2015 (143 pages) $26.95 USThis one features an almost equal distribution of easy, intermediate and advanced projects created by various designers (ten of them), including the authors. With regards to the title, be aware that the projects are not all bags in the usual sense, although a case can be made for the fact that they are all meant to carry something.
Oddly enough, a lot of the fabrics featured in the projects just hit me as kind of blah. In book format, materials should first and foremost be chosen to reach out to one's visual sense and in my humble opinion, the fabrics chosen for the projects did not do that for me. (Your mileage may vary; who knows, maybe I just have crappy taste in fabric.)
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| sample page from On The Go Bags... |
Projects include organizers for your purse, camera bag and shopping cart, a blanket that folds up into a bag (that's kinda neat), and an infinity scarf with a pocket (shown above; by the way, I did like this fabric). I'm rather skeptical about the project itself, though... not sure how nicely that scarf would hang around someone's neck if anything substantial were in the pocket, apart from a lip balm or a single key.
Overall, there are a couple of new and different designs in this book. Most, however, are re-imagined takes covering familiar ground.
FYI, this was the only book out of the four to include paper patterns.
Sew4Home Bags and Totes (10 Easy, Fashionable Projects Anyone Can Sew)
by Liz Johnson and Anne Adams, 2016 (127 pages) $22.99 USThis one is nicely photographed and illustrated but there's really nothing here that you can't find on the amazing website that was started by these talented authors (sisters). Strangely again, though, I found I didn't love most of the fabrics.
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| sample page from Sew4Home Bags and Totes... |
There are ten bag projects from clutches to messengers to bucket bags, and none of them are meant to be difficult to do. But like I said, as a regular visitor to Sew4Home, I really didn't see anything here that I hadn't seen before.
This pretty blue bucket bag design in particular, was well covered in a tutorial that I took advantage of a few years back.
Simple, Fun & Quickly Done (18 easy to sew table runners, bags, pillows and more)
by Terry Atkinson, 2017 (96 pages) $35.99 CDNThis one I am totally ambivalent about, because while the title did indicate table runners as the first thing in a comma'd list of items, I felt that there were way too many table runner and hot pad projects here. (There was one for an interesting "citrus slice" hot pad, but you soon realize that unless you have the requisite coordinating shades of fabrics in orange, lime green, etc., the whole point of the design is lost.)
When it came to bags, one of the designs was a drawstring bag of various dimensions. Hey, we all need drawstring bags and they are a wonderful way of using up fabric for gift-giving purposes, but do they need to be featured in a book? I dunno... therefore the ambivalent thing.
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| sample page from Simple, Fun & Quickly Done... |
This project was one that I did find appealing, since it is somewhat of an original take on a wine bottle cozy. Looks almost too nice to be given away. ;-)
Oh, and she had a neat idea for a zipper pull made out of a zipper fragment; it's actually seen in the photo above.
In terms of sewing enthusiasts, there are those who take classes, those who read books, and those who surf online. They may all be inclined to favour one method and be not so much enthused about the others. In that sense, I'm primarily an online surfing kind of person and am confident that I can find what I need that way. Taking a traditional sit-down class is not for me, and buying a book is also not for me.
However, having the option to examine some books from the library is a total bonus... even if I am able to flip through four books in the (less than) ten minutes it takes to get home from the library!
Hubby, sitting in the driver's seat: "You're finished looking at them all??"
Yep.
I think how-to books these days are pretty antiquated with the information you can get online and a lot free. YouTube videos, tutorials and even photos are usually online for free and are better than books. I always question the content in books because a lot of times info is inadequate or missing and is this the decision of the author or the publisher? When a book includes paper patterns and those patterns are printed on BOTH sides, it makes it so user unfriendly to be able to access the pattern. I do not like having to trace the patterns in order to use them when I just paid money for the book. When I try scanning them, you have to scan so many angles and then tape all together and the scanner and printer distort the pattern, so that is a pain too! Most times there is only one pattern in a book I even like, so I would rather buy one pattern that I can print out the pattern, rather than a whole book where most of it I don't like. When it comes to books on knitting, they don't even show the actual thing you are to knit clearly. It seems to be all about capturing a model wearing it in such a weird pose as to not tell how the sweater for instance hangs or fits. If I cannot see the sweater well enough to know if I want to take the time to knit it, then why do they photograph that way in a how-to book? It's not a fashion magazine!
ReplyDeleteI am the same way with looking at books from the library too. Usually not enough content to even keep the book for more than a day. Either been there done that already, or nothing that great to begin with. I think the printed books are just not worth making anymore, for the DIY types, because that info is out there online and easier to find 24/7. The book content is just not exciting anymore. I agree most fabric choices they use tends to be ugly too. They don't ask us for our opinions before they publish a book! LOL!!!