February book reviews

Home Decorating Book by Simplicity

This book would be ideal for someone looking to give their house a makeover.  It starts off by talking you through decorating theory and fabric choice before providing a useful sewing basics section.  It then tackles projects and techniques for each area of your house including windows, walls and ceilings, bedding, pillows, slipcovers and table linen.

It’s in a useful spiral bound format so you can easily keep open the page you are working from.  Plus the chapter tabs make it easy to go straight to the section you want.  There are clear written instructions accompanied by colourful diagrams to assist you.

This book is published by Anova books and can be purchased from Amazon by clicking here.

Three-Dimensional Textiles by Ruth Lee

This book is aimed at textile artists and teaches techniques involving loops, chains, knotting, netting, twining and coiling.  These techniques require no special machinery and can be used to create stunning effects in a range of materials.

Each chapter covers a new technique and guides you using a combination of written instructions, diagrams, tips and colourful photos.   It talks you through the different variations of the techniques and the stunning photographs show the looks that can be achieved.  This book is not a project book, but rather a guide to techniques that you can incorporate into your own projects.

This book is published by Anova books and can be purchased on their site here.

Figure Poses for Fashion Illustrators by Sha Tahmasebi

This book helps fashion designers to be able to find and draw a suitable model pose for their fashion illustrations.  Drawing a correctly proportioned model, in a suitable pose for the garment can often prove tricky for fashion designers so this book aims to help with that problem.

It breaks clothing down into broad categories including sportswear, business wear, outerwear and menswear.  Each category is then further broken down into further niche categories (ie. Formal evening wear) which get a 2 page spread showing various suitable poses, along with one fully illustrated figure for demonstration purposes.

Later in the book it shows you one pose over a double page spread, with several different outfits on it.  The images in the book can be scanned, traced or copied.  Plus the book comes with a free cd which has over 250 copyright free images for you to use with design software.

I imagine this book would save designers plenty of time with their fashion illustrations, helping them easily choose a model and pose so they can spend more time concentrating on the garment they are designing.

This book is published by Search Press and can purchased from their site here.

400 Chinese Motifs by Graham Leslie McCallum

This book does what it says in the title! It has 400 Chinese motifs which could be incorporated into artwork or textile art, be used for embroideries or merely as inspiration for many crafts.   The motifs are broken down into categories including animals, birds, fish, flowers and border designs.  Each motif is black and white and has a full page.

You could easily scan, trace, or copy the designs to use in your own work.  The hard job would be deciding which motif to use as they are so beautiful and inspiring.  The great thing is you also get a cd with all 400 motifs on too making this book very good value for money.

If you are looking for a Chinese influence on your crafting, or merely looking for new inspiration I would highly recommend this book.

This book is published by Anova and can be purchased on their site here. It is currently on offer for just £6.79 so get there fast!