Bring joy, creativity & learning to your sewing with fabulous kid-friendly projects! Meg McElwee puts her signature sewing style into gorgeous children's clothes and creative activity-focused designs. From simple clothing to toys, Growing Up Sew Liberated is packed with innovative, playful sewing patterns. Follow the structure of a child's day with 20 projects including: Getting up and getting dressed: comfortable clothing patterns such as T-shirts, sweatshirts, and pocket pants. Homemaking and cooking: projects for engaging children in helping around the house and for in the kitchen, such as aprons, bibs, and placemats. Playtime: indoor and outdoor activities are celebrated with dolls, a cape, a satchel, and a tent. Bedtime: snuggle in for a night in cozy pj's and a sleep sack. Meg adds in suggestions for projects and adventures for kids and adults to explore together and tasks that children can accomplish on their own. Includes a techniques section, how-to photos, extra tips and tricks, and a bonus full-size pattern section, Growing Up Sew Liberated collects designs, activities, and ideas that are perfect for adding creativity into the daily life of sewists, children, and families.

Resurrecting the art of applique--a technique in which pieces of fabric are sewn onto clothing, bags, quilts, and other creations--this enlightening resource provides today's generation of "sewists" with a technique that can be combined with embroidery, beadwork, buttons, ribbons, and more to imbue works with a creative and personal style. Ideal for those with some sewing experience looking to break away from the restrictions of traditional patterns, this guide offers the details for both hand and machine applique techniques, as well as a history of applique and how it was rediscovered in the fiber arts. Featured are 20 modern, stylish sewing projects ranging from aprons, skirts, pillows, and totes to a duvet cover, wall clock, blouse, baby quilt, and scarf. With step-by-step instructions, color photographs, and comprehensive how-to embroidery instructions, this is an all-in-one resource and guide.

This sewing guide reveals a breakthrough method to simplify learning stitches of all kinds, with more than 100 stitches from the simple to the fanciful. As makers, we tend to learn different stitches over time without thinking much about how they relate to one another. But when Natalie Chanin and her teams at Alabama Chanin and The School of Making began to look at needlework closely, they realized all stitches are based on geometric grid systems. They also discovered that learning new stitches—even elaborate ones—became simple and easy when using grids as guides. In The Geometry of Hand-Sewing Chanin presents their breakthrough method, featuring illustrated instructions (for both right- and left-handed stitchers) for more than 100 stitches—from the basic straight and chain to complex feather and herringbone. Photos of both right and wrong sides are included, as well as guidelines for modifying stitches to increase one’s repertoire further. The book also offers downloads for two stitching cards with the grids on which every stitch in the book is based. These printable cards can be used as stencils for transferring grids to fabric.

For children, potential is limitless, curiosity is an electrical current, and every moment is open to the possibility of the unexpected. Day-to-day life is filled with adventure. Road blocks are invitations to try new routes. And the world is vast and expansive. This book is a celebration of childhood through the crafts and activities that invite wonder and play. The twenty-five projects and activities in this book are meant to speak to the way children engage with the world. These projects are not about what is produced in the end (although that part is fun too) but rather they are stepping-off points—activities that spark curiosity, an adventure, or an investigation. They’re about the process of getting there. They’re about the conversations that happen while making things together. They’re about getting to know the world inch by inch. They’re about exploring imaginary universes and running through real forests. They’re about living in childhood . . . regardless of your actual age. They’re about being a kid.

New York Times Bestseller. With just the right mixture of humor and insight, compassion and incredulity, A Year of Biblical Womanhood is an exercise in scriptural exploration and spiritual contemplation. What does God truly expect of women, and is there really a prescription for biblical womanhood? Come along with Evans as she looks for answers in the rich heritage of biblical heroines, models of grace, and all-around women of valor. What is "biblical womanhood" . . . really? Strong-willed and independent, Rachel Held Evans couldn't sew a button on a blouse before she embarked on a radical life experiment--a year of biblical womanhood. Intrigued by the traditionalist resurgence that led many of her friends to abandon their careers to assume traditional gender roles in the home, Evans decides to try it for herself, vowing to take all of the Bible's instructions for women as literally as possible for a year. Pursuing a different virtue each month, Evans learns the hard way that her quest for biblical womanhood requires more than a "gentle and quiet spirit" (1 Peter 3:4). It means growing out her hair, making her own clothes, covering her head, obeying her husband, rising before dawn, abstaining from gossip, remaining silent in church, and even camping out in the front yard during her period. See what happens when a thoroughly modern woman starts referring to her husband as "master" and "praises him at the city gate" with a homemade sign. Learn the insights she receives from an ongoing correspondence with an Orthodox Jewish woman, and find out what she discovers from her exchanges with a polygamist wife. Join her as she wrestles with difficult passages of scripture that portray misogyny and violence against women.

Drape Drape 2 is the follow-up to the cult Japanese draping book Drape Drape and the latest in the new series from Bunka Fashion College. Includes 14 stylish contemporary designs for tops, dresses, skirts, vests, and jackets, with easy-to-follow step-by-step instructions and diagrams that skilfully guide the reader through the draping process. With two full-scale patterns at the back, this book provides exciting design ideas and highly practical techniques for readers looking to continue exploring the art of draping.

This pattern book features step-by-step instructions on fitting and sewing pants for women of all body types using the twin techniques of tissue fitting and fabric fitting. Important sewing choices are highlighted, including choosing fabrics, selecting appropriate alteration tools, and finding styles that are most flattering. The fit-as-you-sew process of making pants is illustrated with progressive photographs and step-by-step illustrations. A variety of styles are covered, including nonroll, expandable, and contour waistbands; side seam and patched pockets; and easy hems and cuffs. This updated second edition features refinements to the fitting and sewing information and has added instructions on the fitting and sewing of jeans and no-side-seam pants.