It must be ten years ago that I decided I wanted a sewing machine for Christmas. It was at the time another one of my whims, though as it happened it was a whim that stuck, one that now requires dedicated cupboards and drawers, and one little room of our house. I imagine that this Christmas there’ll be a fair few sewing machines under the tree for some lucky people just starting their fabric journey, but once you’ve unwrapped a shiny new machine what do you do? You want to try it out of course, and so race through the house looking for scraps of fabric and old clothes to practice on- I speak from experience here, you understand.
Alternatively you could also unwrap Cath Kidston’s Sew!, which your uber-savvy present giver will have also bought, and find you have your first project all cut out and ready for you, complete with buttons, so that you can have yourself a new shoulder bag in a few hours. (Though you might still want to practice on some old clothes first…Additional note to the sewing machine purchaser: get a spool or two of thread too or there’ll be frustrations on Christmas morning.)
I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about this book, but when the nice people at Quadrille sent me a copy to look at I was very pleasantly surprised. As with lots of sewing books aimed at the beginner there are sections on necessary equipment and how to get on with a sewing machine…
…together with pages on essential techniques. There’s just enough information so that a beginner could feel stretched, and learn something useful, and not so much that you’d feel frustrated with terminology and wonder when you get to the fun part.
The projects themselves are ranked from one to three thimbles in difficulty, so it’s easy to pick one out to suit your level (or push yourself a little). As suits a new sewist starting out the projects are homewares and bags for the main part – they use relatively small amounts of fabric, & can be finished quickly so that you get to the warm glow of ‘I made it’ satisfaction sooner rather than later.
Lots of ideas to keep you busy, and all of it in Cath’s unmistakable style. This would be a great gift if you do know someone who’ll be getting their first sewing machine at Christmas, not least for the ready to go project tucked into the cover, and if that someone is you then it’s well worth thinking about as your first sewing book. (There will be more, have no fear of that.)
One last thing – don’t forget to enter Lisa’s competition to win a lovely shiny new Janome sewing machine. I already own a super spanking Janome so I’m refraining from entering – it’s only fair :). So go – take your extreme sewing pictures and put yourself in the running!
