Annabel Wrigley

We Love to Sew by Annabel Wrigley. Library section 10 E: Youth, Growing Your Skills. For boys and girls in grades 4-8, this full color book presents step-by-step easy-to-follow directions on how to sew 28 beautiful items: T-shirts, pillows, jewelry, headbands, softies, bags, banners and quilts. Projects are presented at 3 skill levels: Easy Peasy, A Teeny Bit More Challenging, and Take Your Time and Ask For Help.
Before beginning a project it discusses how to prepare mentally. Begin a project thinking positive; if you run into difficulties, stop for awhile, dance a bit, grab a cookie. Then come back and try again. Don’t be afraid to be creative. Practice, practice, practice. Successful sewing takes LOTS of practice. You have to get comfortable with sewing first: how to hold a needle, sew seams, use pins, and finally, use a sewing machine.
Sew like a snail, slow but steady; rushing leads to skipped steps, messy work and mistakes. Make the project your own; don’t copy your friend’s project but choose your own fabrics, design, and create something that expresses how you feel about shapes, colors and patterns.
This book lists basic sewing supplies and extras such as embroidery floss, metal embroidery hoop, and notions like beads, buttons, and rick rack. A diagram shows the parts of a sewing machine, how it works, and how to use it. It also covers special skills such as using fusible web to add stiffness to fabric, sewing on buttons, types of fabric, installing a zipper, and reusing old clothes or fabric items to make something new.
Then it presents the projects from simplest to most complex. All of them are presented with step-by-step color photos.
Why learn to sew? It helps you save thousands of dollars, and is a lifelong skill. You can make school clothes that are unique, sew accessories like one-of-a-kind bags and headbands, recycle and reuse old garments to save money. When you get older, you can sew unique clothing for you and your family, and all sorts of items for your home that, if bought ready-made, would cost thousands of dollars: drapes, cornices, curtains, pillows, afghans, bathroom accessories, stove mitts, coasters, place mats, table runners, bed covers, quilts, and much more.
Boys need to learn to sew as well. I taught my son to sew on buttons because in college and beyond, I wasn’t going to be around to do that. Rather than shell out $15 to pay a dry cleaner to do it, he learned to sew on his own buttons. Guys can make a fabric pouch for the arm of the den sofa with slots for the remote controls, placemats, church paraments and banners, a fabric caddy for their car, golf club and tennis racket covers, coffee mug cozies, backpacks, messenger bags and more.
Once a person learns basic sewing, hobbies related to sewings are: embroidery, cross stitchery, tatting, needlepoint, sewing car and boat slipcovers, making church paraments and banners, home decorating, textile design, silk painting, tie-dyeing, batiking fabrics, humikimo, printing fabrics with wood blocks, home furnishings, furniture repair and reupholstery, weaving, dying wool, spinning, soft sculpture, felting garments, animals and toys, creating Waldorf dolls and toys, crocheting, knitting, macrame, and knotting. Wow! There has to be something in that list that appeals to you. Threads and fabric adorn our world in beauty and usefulness, and provide great scope for self-expression. Many of these hobbies like crocheting and knitting are stress relievers too, so they are actually healthy to do! Enjoy!… (altro)

Our girls at our school love DIY books and I can never keep them on the shelves. I was very excited to preview this book. There are lots of excellent crafts for all skill levels and the instructions are very easy to follow.
I really like that they have a skill rating that goes from "easy peasy" to "take your time and ask for help". This is a great way to rate the crafts and much easier for children to understand than a star system.
Every project has clear, precise instructions with pictures of the steps and real girls creating the projects. At the beginning of the book the author has things that every new seamstress should know and photos of materials they would need to complete the projects.
The crafts are super cute and super fun and my students will love this book! Now I just have to wait for my book order to come in!!!

I hope that there are more craft book in the works like this one. It is one of the best out there for children… (altro)

(90) Kids today -- both girls (the focus of this book) and boys -- are discovering anew the fun of sewing objects for oneself. But finding a book with a just-right balance of instructions, support, and cool projects can be a challenge. This title fills the bill with style and a variety of short ""five-minute fancies" and longer-investment projects from clothing to accessories to decor. A friendly, encouraging voice and a cool and contemporary layout welcome the reader into the world of sewing. Practical advice like "sew like a snail" help eager new crafters see that faster isn't always better. The how-to section covers the basics of setting up a workplace, threading a sewing machine, handling newer materials like fusible web, and upcycling and repurposing thrifted or secondhand items. Abundant photos demonstrate good step-by-step technique. Highly recommended. Reviewed from a galley received from the publisher via NetGalley.com.… (altro)