December Reviews

Christmas Crafting in No Time - 50 step by step projects and inspirational ideas to make by Clare Youngs

As it says on the tin "Clare Youngs takes the stress out of the Festive Season with 50 unique time-saving projects that have maximum impact but take very little time to make.''

Christmas crafting in no time includes designs for tree decorations, handmade gifts, Christmas cards, giftwrap ideas and festive food.  The book covers lots of techniques from Paper cutting and papier mache to embroidery and sugar crafting.  It takes many of its ideas and influences from other cultures and traditions.  There is a very strong Scandinavian feel to the book, particularly apparent in the sewn projects. The fur lined baby boots with their simple red star motif and red edging are one such project as are the Christmas stockings adorning the front cover.

There is a very cute owl tree decoration and I adore the mixing of Middle Eastern minarets with Scandinavian Gingerbread to create Gingerbread Spires.  This book is lovely but my one criticism is that I think you will be hard pressed to make many of the items shown, with speed. Having said that, if you want to do a home made Christmas this year, then this is the book for you.

This book is published by Cico books and can be purchased here.   This book was reviwed by Juliet Bawden of Creative Salvage.

Scandinavian Designs in Red and White by Nadja Knab-Leers, Heike Roland & Stefanie Thomas.

From the authors of Sew Scandinavian this book gives you 55 projects for the home in the striking and timeless colour combination of red and white.  The projects are spilt into 4 chapters: In the garden, kitchen comforts, beautiful things for the home and gifts from the heart.  There's also an additional chapter at the end with tehcniques, and templates plus there is a large pattern sheet in a pocket at the back of the book.

The projects range from the more complex and  time consuming patchwork table cloth, to quick & simple projects like teatowels and fabric hanging birds. There are projects for all abilities.  Although most the projects are fabric based there are some other crafts too such as paper crafting, wood crafts and painting on to ceramics, wood & metal.

There are lovely large photos of each project in the book and written instructions (no diagrams or step by step photos).  For some of the projects the instructions seem a little brief (a paragraph or 2), but on the more complex projects you do get a page or so of instructions.  Personally I would have preferred a few diagrams too, but then there wouldn't be so many projects in the book so I guess that is the trade off.

You do get a lot of very striking projects which would help you bring a Scandinavian feel to your home.  You can look inside this book here.

This book is published by Search Press and can be purchased here.  

Super-cute Felt by Laura Howard

I have to admit it.I am not a great lover of things super-cute, but I do like felt as a material. I love that it is easy to work with and doesn't fray when cut. It is great that you don't need a sewing machine to use it, and it comes in a vast range of fabulous colours. The author of this book has her own on line store called www.lupinhandmade.com where she sells her felt designs in the form of brooches animal masks, flower headbands etc. Some of these items are in this book.

The projects that I like are not so cute but are more designed.  I love the sewing brooch with its other elements of ricrac, buttons and top stitching. I love the gingerbread cookie garland as it is very simple in design, uses only two colours with a seed bead embellishment and quite stylish.

The tea cosy with its muted Batten burg cake colours and cake design is very good and unusual.  I love the mug warmer.  Again this has muted, this time Wedgwood, colours and looks stylish.  My one criticism is that felt can't be easily washed, and so what happens to these lovely objects if you spill tea or coffee onto them?

Super-cute Felt 35 step by step projects to make and give is published by Cico books and can be purchased here.  This book was reviwed by Juliet Bawden of Creative Salvage.

Linen and Thread by Monique Lyonnet.

Part of the Made in France sewing series from Murdoch Books, this book contains 40 homeware projects embellished with embroidery and ribbon.   My one criticism of the previous books in this series was that the images were at the front of the book and the instructions & diagrams at the back, it's quite annoying flicking beteen the two.  They have taken that on board and in this book the photos are with the project instructions.

In this book you still get the trademark stunning photography but also several pages of instructions, daigrams and needlework charts (where applicable).  Most linen fabrics tend to be subtle and unassuming, however these designs use needlework to bring colour and personality to the projects.

Projects include cushions, bags, table mats, a footstall, baby comforter, an apron, a table cloth etc. There are projects for different rooms of the house, living room, kitchen, bathroom and some adorable projects for a baby's nursery.  Although these projects are made up with linen you could use other fabrics to make them too so don't be put off if you don't have much linen in your stash.

This book is published by Murdoch Books and can be purchased here.