Book Review: Pictures in Patchwork

 Title: Pictures in Patchwork (Le Patchwork)

Author: Marie-Janine Solvit

Translator: Walter A. Simson

Date: 1976 (French), 1977 (English)

Publisher: Dessain et Tolra (French), Sterling (English)

ISBN: 0-8069-5380-2 (Englsih)

Length: 112 pages

Illustrations: many color photos and drawings

Quote: “Patchwork as we know it is basically an American craft.”

On page 7 of Pictures in Patchwork, the quote above is surrounded by three photos of antique quilts from France. However, patchwork and quilting are actually two different techniques. Patchwork is joining patches of fabric into a single flat seamed surface; quilting is stitching two or more layers of fabric with lining between them into a thick, textured, insulated material. Quilting was not new when it appeared in French fashions of the seventeenth century, nor was patchwork new when it became a fad throughout Europe and North America in the eighteenth century.

In France, however, the fashion for patchwork didn’t last. Even in England it was a rather short-lived fad. In the United States, patchwork became a Folk Art Tradition and continued to be practiced after the fashion for patchwork clothing had passed.

Solvit provides some examples of traditional patchwork patterns (examples in French museums are older than those in American museums), but her book is mainly about pictorial patchwork and appliqué, sometimes enhanced with embroidery, as shown on the covers of the book. She also briefly considers knitted and crocheted patchwork.

Pictures in Patchwork is less of an instructional guide than Creative Patchwork, less of a reference work than American Quilts. Published under the auspices of Elle magazine, it’s a perky, whimsical guide to what the author clearly regards as a “creative” fad hobby. For those who want inspiration to patch together their own semi-abstract landscapes, this book should be inspiring. 

Book Review: Better Homes & Gardens Applique

Book Review: Better Homes & Gardens Appliqué

Author: Better Homes & Gardens magazine staff

Date: 1978

Publisher: Meredith Corporation

ISBN: 0-696-00435-6

Length: 96 pages

Illustrations: full-color photos and templates

Quote: “Even a beginner can create the vibrant, attractive floral pillows.”

Appliqué is a quick and easy craft; the challenge is finding the perfect material, not perfecting the skill of cutting it out and tacking it together. These are fun projects for Scouts, for middle school sewing classes, for parents and children. Because the work goes fast and can be done by alert patients in bed, appliqué is also nice for people with disabilities; I suppose this comes to mind because, when my wheelchair-bound grandmother lived with us (I was seven years old), one of the things she and I did was make coordinating appliqué curtains for all the windows in the house.

So, what will this book show you how to make? Pillows, window shades, a “game banner” with pockets for game boards and pieces, quilts, toys, curtains, wall hangings, tablecloths, napkins, gift boxes, sleeping bags, even a “soft headboard,” and if the perfect pattern for what you want to make isn’t in the book, at least reading the book will give you a good idea of how to make the pattern you want.

Better Homes & Gardens Appliqué offers a thrifty way to recycle worn-out, out-of-style clothes without losing any memories that may be attached to them—even polyester, in 1978 when people were discarding masses of polyester—and entertain children, convalescents, and also nurses or baby-sitters.  

Book Review: 10-20-30 Minutes to Sew

A Fair Trade Book

Title: 10-20-30 Minutes to Sew

        
Author: Nancy Zieman

Author's web site: http://www.nancyzieman.com/blog/

        
Date: 1992

        
Publisher: Oxmoor House

        
ISBN: 0848711181

        
Length: 144 pages including graphics; many full-color photos

        
Quote: “Who uses minutes has hours to use; who loses minutes whole years must lose.”

         
Time-saving tips and simple techniques give those who love to sew time to test the truth of this clever saying. Of course, some of the tips involve buying sewing notions, as it might be from Nancy’s Notions, Ltd...then again, those notions might prove useful. Do you need to see things, not hide them in drawers, yet want them contained in a bin where they won’t fall all over the floor as you lift one thing out? Maybe everyone knows that transparent plastic storage bins are available, now, but did everyone know that in 1992?

        
Tips that don’t involve buying things are pretty predictable too—plan and measure first, keep those scissors sharp, cut multiple layers when possible. However, there are some tips in this book that my grandmother didn’t know, like this valuable information on page 17: “ink marks” (from marking pens) “may reappear many years later...Also, the heat of an iron will set the marks.” Have those new air-soluble pens been around for enough years for anyone to know whether their stains may reappear, too, or is this a problem only with regular felt-tips?

         
Some of the sewing tips are likely to be appreciated by anyone for whom you sew, like a quick trick to curb the tendency of a rounded collar to roll upward. Others may be less appreciated. Don’t bother with that “speedy sport pocket,” and cut those all-in-one side pockets at least twice as deep below the side opening as the diagram suggests, if you want to make a garment for a person who actually uses pockets. (Don’t skip the pockets, either, if you’re sewing for a person like me; I classify anything that doesn’t have good, deep, secure pockets as Pajamas.) Those zippy zipper tricks and wash-out buttonhole patterns, on the other hand, might be perfect shortcuts to garments people can actually enjoy wearing.

        
There’s also a section on making clothing with a serger as “the ultimate time-saver.” Sergers are strange, futuristic machines designed to join fabrics by something more like knitting or crochet than like ordinary straight seams. The results can be decorative; the book shows examples of how lines of contrast-color serging can be used like embroidery. I must confess I’ve never actually seen anyone use a serger, although I’ve seen factory-made garments with serged seams.

        
Special tips are offered for sewing with knitted fabrics and inserting (or replacing) elastic. One super-brilliant trick is to insert one (or more) tucks of elastic into a waistband, so people whose size is subject to change, especially pregnant women, can let in and take out the elastic without your needing to replace it. Another chapter offers special tips that involve extra accessories, special needles and presser-feet that you can snap into the machine for special effects.

        
Information for raw beginners appears, rather awkwardly, after all the tricks for serious hobbyists. How to read a pattern (always save the envelope), how to pin fabric together, how to press seams...it’s true that knowing these things saves a lot of wasted sewing time, but shouldn’t they have been placed at the beginning? Oh, we reviewers always have to find something to gripe about.

        
Since this book is 17 years old, you might wonder about the accuracy of the information that you can order any or all of these gadgets, and/or catalogues of new ones, from Nancy’s Notions at 1-800-833-0690. I did. I dialled. Not only is the store still open, but some poor lady with a flawless U.S. accent was still answering the phone at 8:30 p.m. (I’d been sure I’d get a recording.) When I explained that I’d seen the number in an old book, she quickly offered, “Would you like to order a new book?” The store now exists at Zieman's blog, linked above, as well. Book and store are recommended to all who like to sew.

10-20-30 Minutes to Sew has been out there for a while and is not particularly rare. We can offer it as a Fair Trade Book: $5 for the book + $5 for shipping to salolianigodagewi @ yahoo.com, we will send $1 to Zieman or a charity of her choice. We also recommend browsing her web site; Zieman has indeed written some new books that you can order directly from her to show respect. 

Book Review: A Companion Project Book for Texture with Textiles

Title: A Companion Project Book for Texture with Textiles

        
Author: Linda McGehee

Author's web site: http://www.ghees.com/

        
Date: not shown

        
Publisher: Ghee’s

        
ISBN: 09637160-1-8

        
Length: not numbered

        
Quote: “This project book is designed as an accessory to Texture with Textiles and More Texture with Textiles.”

        
Some of the techniques discussed in this book were explained in those books. Others are explained in other books, such as The Machine Embroidery Handbook. However, you will need special sewing machine accessories to use these technological tricks, whether they’re explained here, or elsewhere, or already familiar to you. (Most of them are familiar to hand embroiderers, which is how it's possible for people to use and resell this book.)

        
Techniques discussed in this book include couching, cording, fringing, pintucking, tape appliqué, ordinary appliqué, cutwork (with buttonhole stitch around the cut-outs), quilt piecing and patching. The book also contains a pattern for an elaborate machine-sewn handbag.

        
Not one of your glamorous full-color craft books, this one is printed in black and white on just one side of each sheet of ordinary printer paper, then spiral-bound at the top. Usually chosen primarily to reduce printing costs, this bookbinding technique does have its uses for craft books; you can make notes and sketches on the back of every page, and photocopying just one or two pages to carry around is easy.

A Companion Project Book to Textures with Textiles is a Fair Trade Book. To buy it here, you send $5 for the book + $5 shipping to salolianigodagewi @ yahoo.com, and we send $1 to Linda McGehee or a charity of her choice. You pay only one shipping charge for as many books as ship in one package, and this is a slim book. 

Book Review: Techniques for Casual Clothes from Threads

Title: Techniques for Casual Clothes from Threads

        
Author: Threads magazine writers

Threads web site: http://www.threadsmagazine.com/

        
Date: 1994

        
Publisher: Taunton Press

        
ISBN: 1-56158-071-6

        
Length: 95 pages including many graphics and index; subscription card sheet

        
Quote: “Comfortable, casual clothes...are what we wear most of the time. There’s no better reason to sew than to make such personalized favorites.”

        
For serious crafters, this book needed an announcement more than a review. Threads is a magazine that’s always packed with informative articles about all the textile crafts. Each article explains a technique and gives a few examples of how to use that technique. Usually the magazine avoids full-sized pattern pages or stitch-by-stitch instructions; writers assume that you’re familiar with the basic techniques of the craft and can figure out how to copy the example piece, or make something different with the same technique, with just a thumbnail sketch of a shape to fold and stitch, an embroidery stitch method or knitting or crocheting stitch pattern.

        
This book is a collection of articles reprinted from Threads in the 1980s and 1990s. The articles reprinted are “Straight Line Design,” “Marvelous Melton,” “Making Great Strides: how to put a perfect pleat into a straight skirt,” “Buttoning Up,” “Making a Kilt,” “Hand-Felted Jackets for Kids,” “Sophisticated Stenciling:a simple way to print on fabric and clothing,” “The Embellished Vest,” “Clothes to Live In...in one flat-fell swoop,” “Sew Yourself a Sweater: sewing machine solutions for handling textured knit yardage,” “Who Needs Calvin Klein: how to draft and construct a pair of authentic jeans,” “Sewing Workout: fabrics and techniques for constructing stretchy activewear,” “Tips for the perfect Shirt,” “Embroidery with Texture,” “Two Jackets in One: reversibility,” “A Surprising Turn of the Pleat,” and “Sewing the All-Weather Raincoat.”

        

If you’re not a regular reader of Threads, you may be wondering, “Yes, but can I use these articles?” Some of them, like “Straight Line Design,” in which you tack squares and rectangles together to make drapey shirts, unfitted jackets, and baggy britches, should be easy enough for anyone who can hem a skirt and sew on a button. Sewing a raincoat will be more of a challenge. The explanations will help. If you have not done much sewing you'll probably need help to use the articles.

Collections from magazine archives, like this one, don't qualify as Fair Trade Books. However, Techniques for Casual Clothes is slim enough to fit into the same package with a Fair Trade Book, with no extra shipping charge. To buy it here, send $5 for the book + $5 for shipping to salolianigodagewi @ yahoo.com. 

Book Review: Dye Painting

A Fair Trade Book

Title: Dye Painting

        
Author: Ann Johnston

Author's web site: http://www.annjohnston.net/

        
Date: 1992

        
Publisher: American Quilters Society

        
ISBN: 0-89145-803-4

        
Length: 88 pages including full-page, full-color photos

        
Quote: “I am a dyer because I am a quiltmaker.”

        
Or: if you can’t find the color and pattern you need for a quilt, simply dye the fabric. This book gives tips, encouragement, and examples.

        
Dyestuffs, even some favorite “natural” plant-based ones, can be toxic if ingested. Ann Johnston recommends the Procion chemical dyes, which are relatively easy to get, colorfast, and nontoxic. That’s relatively nontoxic. She recommends using a face mask to avoid inhaling dye powders or recommended additives. You already knew that any dyestuffs other than food should be used outside the kitchen, with separate containers, and kept away from children and animals. While by-products of dyeing with some materials need special treatment as hazardous wastes, by-products of dyeing with the formulas Johnston provides can be treated like ordinary garbage: flush liquids, wrap solids, wash hands thoroughly.

        
Different dyestuffs react differently to temperature. Some natural dyes have to be boiled; Procion dyes “react at temperatures between 70 and 105” degrees Fahrenheit. Fabric will need to be preshrunk, and Permanent Press treatments will need to be scoured out, before dyeing.  Detailed instructions are given for preparing and dyeing different natural materials.

        
Some examples in this book are made with a fibre called viscose (U.K.) or rayon (U.S.). Made from wood that has been processed to look like cotton or silk, this material takes dyes beautifully. It’s often used in designer knock-offs and found hanging forlornly in secondhand stores, in the very latest styles and colors, worn once and doomed never to be worn with pleasure again. Although it’s also known as “artificial silk” or “art silk,” rayon reacts to water in ways more like paper than like silk; it can be cleaned, after a fashion, with chemicals, but the chemicals will smell worse and be more harmful than dirt. I don’t wear or work with rayon and don’t recommend that you do either. Any other thing that might happen to a dead tree is better for the environment than being made into rayon.

        
Good materials used in this book include natural plant fibres like cotton and linen, the fabrics Greens love. For years the petrochemical fibre industry has argued that our crowded planet could not be adequate;y clothed with cotton, linen, and animal hair materials alone. Greens are counter-punching by experimenting with plant fibres that have historically been less popular. This book does not contain tips on dyeing bamboo, milkweed, hemp, and other alternative fabrics.

        
Dye can be applied to fabric in any of the ways paint is applied to paper or canvas. This book gives plenty of examples of dye-painting with brushes, sprayers, sponges, stampers, silk screens. The fabric surface can be made uneven to vary the finished effect; fabric can be folded, tied, or spread over textures like chicken wire.

        
Uses for dye-painted cloth are not, of course, limited to quilts. This book shows examples of dye-painted clothing, bookcovers, linens, furniture, and wall hangings.

        

Although art doesn't go out of style, this book is more than twenty years old, and even the other American Quilters Society books listed on the last page may no longer be easy to find in stores and libraries. Craft guilds and people who  work in craft supply store industries will help compensate for whatever has gone out of date by the time you read Dye Painting. 

This is a Fair Trade Book. Other secondhand book dealers sell it cheaper, but this site sends 10% of the price of a secondhand book to the author (if we can find the author), or a charity of his or her choice. Ann Johnston has made herself easy to find--her web site is advertising classes and a new book--so if you send $5 for the book + $5 for shipping to salolianigodagewi @ yahoo.com, we will send $1 to Ann Johnston. If you want three copies, that'll cost you $15 for the books + $5 for shipping, and we'll send $3 to Ann Johnston. 

Book Review: Setting Up Your Sewing Space

A Fair Trade Book

Title: Setting Up Your Sewing Space

        
Author: Myrna Giesbrecht

Author's web site: http://blog.myrnagiesbrecht.com/

        
Date: 1994

        
Publisher: Sterling Publishing Company

        
ISBN: 0-8069-0495-X

        
Length: 160 pages including graphics, charts,and index

        
Quote: “I live, eat, and breathe fabric.”

        
And yes, this is a book primarily about how to avoid breathing fabric if you prefer not to breathe fabric...how to organize your supplies so that you have time for actual sewing rather than trying to remember where you put things. If you have trouble keeping your “creative clutter” in a genuinely creative, organic order rather than letting it turn into a hopeless mess, this book just might help you.

        
For some of us, I suspect, using this book with good intentions will be just another excuse to play with our toys (and possibly be inspired by them). I don’t sew, myself, but I’m like this about knitting. I collect yarn. Very early in my knitting life, there was one day when, inspired by Kaffe Fassett’s approach in Glorious Knitting, I just threw a lot of balls of yarn around the bland, beige, mostly empty sitting room just to notice what looked good next to what else. When the sitting room was fairly well wall-to-wall unravelling balls of mixed yarns, someone came to the door. The “don’t want to know what goes on in this flat” vibration was overwhelming. Not immediately, but before my flatmate came in, I sorted all those yarns by weight and color and repacked them all into wooden storage cubes...

        
Actually, if you’re interested in a book like Setting Up Your Sewing Space, you probably do want to know about my cubes. They used to be sold at Hechinger’s, which used to be a local hardware, furniture, home improvement store chain in Washington. They looked just like these, once you'd put them together, and cost about one-quarter to one-third as much. A Google search turns up lots of sources for 15" particle-board cubes, foreign and domestic, preassembled or not, and even a video showing how to put them together.

        
Anyway, organizing and reorganizing our craft supplies is one of the sensuous pleasures of doing handcrafts. Setting Up Your Sewing Space will tempt you. Maybe, after using these nifty organizing ideas, you could move in more fabric, a different sewing machine for different projects, a quilting frame...and you know authors of craft books, most of whom get their ideas by working in craft shops, aren’t going to tell you not to buy more supplies and plan more projects. (After all, there might be a yarn, fabric, wood, etc. shortage some day, and we all know that crafters don't survive their last project.) Or, if we plan projects to use up everything in the local craft store, and then realize that we’d have to pursue our crafts every day for 200 years to finish all those projects, the current owner of the local store can move to St Croix and we can keep the store ourselves...

        
Just kidding! If you’re determined to use this book sensibly, organize space, and have a place for everything and everything in its place even while you’re working on a maximum of three projects at one time, you can be that rare and exceptional member of our tribe, the constant crafter who never bites off more than s/he can chew or allows the craft supplies to spill out past the doorway of the workroom. Such people exist. If you’re determined to be one of them, this book will show you how.

        

If you’d rather be like most of us and leave 300 unfinished projects to your favorite charity, and why not, charity stores collect lots of money for good causes that way, this book can inspire you to have more fun fiddling with your supply collection. And even branch out...part of this book contains tips on sewing and quilting techniques you may not have tried yet.

Other online booksellers may offer a lower price but, so far as I know, this is the only site that will send Myrna Giesbrecht 10% of the total price of her book ($5) plus shipping ($5). You pay only one $5 shipping charge for as many items as can be shipped in one package, and Giesbrecht or a charity of her choice still gets $1 for each book you buy here. E-mail salolianigodagewi @ yahoo.com.