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| Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia of Sewing and Fabric Crafts: Basic Techniques for Sewing, Applique, Embroidery, Quilting, Dyeing, and Printing, plus 150 Inspired Projects from A to Z |  | Author: Martha Stewart Living Magazine
Brand: Potter Craft Books
Category: Book
List Price: $35.00
Buy New: $21.46
as of 9/10/2010 01:57 CDT details
You Save: $13.54 (39%)
New (33) Used (7) from $21.46
Seller: pbshopus
Rating:  60 reviews
Sales Rank: 10,503
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 400
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 4.1
Dimensions (in): 10.9 x 8.6 x 1.4
MPN: POT-50586
ISBN: 0307450589
Dewey Decimal Number: 746
EAN: 9780307450586
ASIN: 0307450589
Publication Date: March 30, 2010
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | Dimensions: 9.75 in. h x 8.5 in. w x 0.5 in. d | | • | Weight: 1.1 ounces | | • | Made in US |
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Product Description
Learn basic techniques for sewing, applique, embroidery, quilting, dyeing and printing. Also includes 150 inspired projects from A to Z and a CD featuring print-at-home patterns and templates. Hardcover, 400 pages.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 60
 This Book Makes Me Want to Dust Off My Sewing Machine February 23, 2010
Terri J. Rice (WA United States)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Once upon a time I sewed all sorts of crafty things and then I quit.
When I saw this book I grew excited to actually pull out my sewing machine and give some of these projects a try. The appeal of this book reaches various levels of ability and commitment.
Some of the projects are instant gratification (good for a rusty sewer!) and also great projects to help your child learn to sew and craft. Things like the drawstring pouch, the child's oilcloth apron, and pie weight hand warmer would be great projects to do with children.
There are also more involved projects for the more advanced sewer like the quilted dog jacket, Roman window shades or a state bird embroidery quilt.
I am itching to make the menswear mice, constructed from brightly colored suiting and shirting fabrics. Also very appealing to me are the felt baby shoes and slippers. They would make a perfect baby shower gift.
There are some very clever ideas for reusing a discarded item. For example, the book shows how to turn an adult shirt into a darling girl's dress, or how to make tuxedo shirt into a clever pillow.
AND... I just have to say I have made the rabbits in this craft book out of old cashmere sweaters and they are beyond adorable!!
The book has a lot of extras. It comes with a CD for accessing all the patterns to copy. Amazon did not provide this to reviewers of the pre published copy so I can not attest to how well it works. But you can find some of the templates at marthastewart.
The book has an illustrated tools and materials list so there is no guessing about what is needed for the projects.
An excellent 'how to' section guides you through the crafts: 'how to patch a hole,' 'how to make piping,' 'how to make quilted fabric.'
The book is 400 pages of fun.
There's a reason Martha's such a household name. February 25, 2010
Elizabeth Metz (Crescent, Iowa, United States)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
If you've ever seen another of Martha's encyclopedic works on crafts or cooking, you already know what to expect with this newest volume -- a compendium of art and craft and information that's both complete and accessible, filled with projects ranging from embroidery to quilting, that will keep you busy for a long, long time.
While I got an uncorrected proof (via Amazon Vine, full disclosure), and didn't get to see the full-color photographs, the ones I did see (front and back covers) are amazing, as always, and even the black and white ones inside were clear and enough to illustrate that the techniques are presented very plainly and easy for even visual learners to understand and master.
Informationally, Martha doesn't ever disappoint. If there's a technique, say, fabric dyeing for example, that you want to know more about, just flip to the section and read away -- you'll come away knowing not only how to do it, but a bit of the history of dyeing, to boot.
I'll be picking up a full-color version just as soon as I can put this one down.
Great projects! March 3, 2010
Shala Kerrigan (Anchorage)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Looking for sewing books to help teach my daughter more about sewing, this book is just the quality I'd expect from Martha Stewart.
The first part of the book is tools and techniques which explains the basic tools necessary for sewing and how to do the most essential techniques. This section covers machine sewing, seams, hand sewing and the 3 essential stitches you need to know how to do (running, back stitch and slip stitch), appliqué, fabric dye techniques like batiking and ombre shading, embroidery (including essential embroidery stitches), patchwork, and basic fabric printing using block printing methods.
After you get through that section comes the projects. The projects are mostly very simple projects that teach sewing basics in usable ways. The stuffed animals and hand sewn dolls will be my daughter's favorite. She does a lot of hand sewn dolls now.
The projects including clothing, dolls, pincushions, quilts and a great many other things. The techniques used to create the projects make it easy to customize them to suit your own aesthetics. Instead of a leaf sewing set, you could use an apple for your basic shape to make a sewing set for a favorite teacher.
Unlike a lot of other sewing books, this one has a lot of projects that are easily hand sewn which make perfect take along projects, and many of them use smaller amounts of fabric which means you could use old clothes and vintage remnants for the projects. I love machine sewing, but I'm trying to become a lot neater at hand sewing for it's portability.
My favorite project is probably the simplest one in the whole book. Rolled hem handkerchiefs. I can just see my daughter and I making these and hand embroidering them for friends.
There is also a wonderful section on aprons and I love aprons so much.
It will be a resource I know I'll refer to again and again. My mother was a dressmaker and I still feel I got a lot of good ideas from this book. For my daughter, she hates following patterns and the fact so many of the ideas in this book are very adaptable will make it wonderful for her.
Everyone from 'tweens 'n teens to the proficient seamstress will find some WOW projects to do in here! March 21, 2010
D. Fowler (Vermont)
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
Some of us as very young children remember making doll clothes on the old treadle sewing machines, while others cut their teeth on much more sophisticated machines. Passion for sewing, however, didn't differentiate machines and many of us spent hours having a great deal of fun working on an assortment of projects. Martha Stewart's passion for sewing began as a young girl and she, her sisters Kathy and Laura, "would all become proficient seamstresses." Not all of us became proficient, but finding a new "craft" project can be exciting. I was pleased to see this book come out because, as we all know, one or two page patterns can be quite pricey and in comparison the hours you'll get poring over this book will make it into a bargain.
The beginning of the book can serve as a brush up on the basics and for the `tweens and teens it will be a perfect starting point to learn about sewing. In this section you will learn about:
* An assortment of fabrics, their uses, characteristics, and composition (solid cottons, patterned cottons, silks, linens, wools, and specialty fabrics)
* The types of threads: when to uses them, their composition, quality, weight, how to select the proper color, and the advantages of using good-quality thread
* How to set up your sewing area in a "convenient, comfortable," and easy to navigate manner
* Essential sewing accessories (pin cushions, needles, a measuring table, magnetic pin dish, magnetic hanging rack, etc.)
* Basic sewing techniques (sewing supplies, fabric preparation, basic stitches, the parts of your sewing machine, sewing a basic seam, sewing corners and curves, seam-finishing techniques, etc.)
* The basics of appliqué
* The basics of embroidery (supplies, handwork, basic stitches, cross-stitch, the French knot, the running stitch, Japanese sahiko, ribbon-embroidery, machine embroidery)
* Quilting and patchwork (choosing supplies, fabrics, machine quilting, patchwork, how to appliqué and echo quilt, and how to repair a patchwork quilt)
* The basic techniques of dyeing fabric (supplies, how to hand-dye, bow to batik, how to fade and overdye fabric, and how to create an ombré pattern)
* How to print designs on textiles (basic fabric-printing supplies, stamping on fabric, block printing, and stenciling)
Once you have brushed up on techniques or have learned them, there are 150 A to Z projects to choose from. Any that need patterns are on the enclosed CD and include "full sized clothing patterns as well as template that can be easily produced on a home printer." Many of these projects struck my nostalgic fancy because they instruct the reader on things like embroidering handkerchiefs, one of my favorite things to buy at flea markets or antique shops. These can be done "with a few basic embroidery stitches." This was a WOW project for me! Another one, of course, was the basic canvas tote. If you are going green, you'll want to make loads of these to carry your groceries or books in. Then you can dress them up with suggestions in the "four embellished-bag projects" section. Personally, I love this book. There are lots of "rainy day" activities, brush up techniques, and ones I'd like to explore and share with friends. This book, that will satisfy a wide range of people from the beginner to the proficient seamstress, is one you might want to add to your craft wish list!
as Martha would say "It's a good thing" February 27, 2010
Patricia R. Andersen (MD USA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
First off, I have a reviewer's copy that does not have the cd with the patterns, so I won't be able to say whether that makes a huge difference in how the book would be used. The review copy has plenty of photos and diagrams which I presume will be in color for the retail book.
This is really a great book for somebody like me. I have used a sewing machine before, but it's been a very long time ago. I've sewn a few things, embroidered and dyed material but it's always good to have a basic reference book. And "Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia of Sewing and Fabric Crafts" provides this in spades.
It starts off with photos and definitions of various fabrics. So if you have ever wonder if a certain fabric would work well for a particular application, this part helps you make a good choice for your project. There's also a section describing the various parts of a sewing machine, how to sew a basic seam and how to prep your fabric for sewing. I always forget there is some basic prep work to make sure the project comes out correctly and this book lists the steps involved.
But it's not all basic stuff. There's a section on hand embroidery with
some cute projects. That's a good place to start if you are not familiar with hand embroidery. There are dolls to make as well as coats for your puppies. There's even a part about making slipcovers for your dining room chairs.
The book is well written. The instructions are clear and concise, The list of the materials used to complete a project is extensive, You won't be in the middle of something and realize you needed a piece of heat resistant fabric or some wool.
I recommend this book for newbies as well as experienced sewers. I'm sure even experienced sewer needs a refresher course once in a while.
Buy it.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 60
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