{"id":3679,"date":"2010-05-14T00:34:50","date_gmt":"2010-05-14T04:34:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gloriahansen.com\/weblog\/?p=3679"},"modified":"2010-05-14T00:36:43","modified_gmt":"2010-05-14T04:36:43","slug":"me-my-sewing-machine-fabric-dyers-dictionary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gloriahansen.com\/weblog\/?p=3679","title":{"rendered":"Me & My Sewing Machine & Fabric Dyer’s Dictionary"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have several new books that I think would make a good addition to one\u2019s stash \u2014 especially the beginner.\u00a0\u00a0 Funny enough, the first is from \u201cStash – fabric arts for a handmade lifestyle,\u201d which is a new range of books from C&T Publishing.\u00a0 According to C&T, \u201cStash was formulated to respond to the quickly expanding handmade movement and the desire to get “back to basics” by creating unique and inspired fiber arts.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/a>“Me and my sewing machine, a beginner\u2019s guide<\/em><\/a>\u201d by Kate Haxwell.\u00a0 This book is something I wish was available when I had sewing in school many years ago.\u00a0 It\u2019s written in a no-nonsense, straight to the point manner and is a great introduction to sewing.\u00a0 The book gives chunks of information on one or two page spreads with clear illustrations and photos.\u00a0 Nothing is overwhelming, and a particular type of instruction can be quickly found and understood.<\/p>\n

The main sections of the 128 page softbound book are My Sewing Machine<\/em>, which goes through the parts of a machine \u2014 nothing technical, just what you need to understand \u2014 accessories, tools, and other basics.\u00a0 Seams Simple<\/em> covers a variety of seams, such as mock French, French, open, mock open, and so on.\u00a0 Next is Hemmed In<\/em>.\u00a0 And as you probably guessed, it illustrates a variety of hemming techniques.\u00a0 That is followed by Fasten Up<\/em>, which covers various zippers, closures, and buttonholes.\u00a0 Around the Corner<\/em>, has info on making different types of smooth curves.\u00a0 On the Edge<\/em> offers various edge treatments such as basic bindings and scallops.\u00a0 Fancy That<\/em> includes pleats, ruffles, adding lace, applique, and so on.\u00a0 It finishes with a projects chapter.\u00a0 I like the cute handkerchief-hemmed skirt, it seems perfect for a summery bathing suit cover-up.\u00a0 There is a front and back flap that I found myself using as a place marker.\u00a0 If you\u2019re going to use the book a great deal, consider bringing it\u00a0 to a store, such as Staples or Kinkos, to have a spiral spine inserted into the book.\u00a0 This will help keep it flat when needed.<\/p>\n

While the book touches on patchwork and applique, this is not a quilt book.\u00a0 Rather, this book is exactly what it says it is: a beginner\u2019s guide to sewing\u00a0 It\u2019s clear, concise, and will give someone starting out \u2014 such as a person turned on to sewing as the result of watching Project Runway \u2014 the confidence to venture into the world of sewing.\u00a0 You won\u2019t find things like setting in a sleeve or adding a lining, but you will find a solid foundation on which to grow.\u00a0 It\u2019s also a solid reference for anyone who knows how to sew, and its clean layout makes it attractive to all age groups.\u00a0 I\u2019d like to one day see a companion book.\u00a0 Could a \u201cme and my sewing machine – beyond the basics\u201d be in the future?\u00a0 The book retails for $22.95<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nNext up is Linda Johansen\u2019s Fabric Dyer’s Dictionary: 900+ Colors, Specialty Techiniques, The Only Dyeing Book You’ll Ever Need<\/a>!<\/em> While I don\u2019t think it\u2019s the only<\/em> dyeing book you\u2019ll ever need (as there are other good ones out there), it certainly is an excellent one to start with and a good color reference.<\/p>\n

The meat of this 95-page, softbound book is over 900 color recipes to use for dyeing fabrics.\u00a0 Johansen\u2019s\u00a0 process puts fabric, solution, and dye into a zip lock bag; those bags then sit in a plastic dish washing tub and eventually result in whatever range of colors you\u2019re after.\u00a0 While using zip lock bags for dyeing isn’t new, the information is presented in a straight forward, structured method that is easy enough for anyone to do, even an absolute beginner.\u00a0 The beginning of the book is six pages of the basics, including what color dyes to buy.\u00a0 The recipes are for dyeing 1\/4 or 1 yard pieces, but there\u2019s nothing to stop you from doing some math and putting more dye, solution, and fabric into a jumbo zip lock bag.\u00a0 The meat of the book is the recipes, things like muted yellow, dark to light<\/em> and muted yellow to muted purple complementary cross<\/em>.\u00a0 It concludes with seven pages of specialty dyeing techniques, such as rolling fabric on a rope, painting with thickened dye, and dip dyeing.<\/p>\n

Years ago when my friend Cathy and I were dyeing fabric on a regular basis, we bought a large variety of Procion MX dyes.\u00a0 The color names were luscious \u2014 seafoam, grape, amethyst, wisteria, mist gray \u2014 and the list went on, as did our collections of dyes because it seemed we needed them all.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Paging through Johansen\u2019s book, I can see examples of the very colors we created .\u00a0 Yet all of the colors in her book are made from no more than 11 dyes \u2014 three clear primaries, three muted primaries, three clear secondaries, and two blacks.\u00a0 That is it.\u00a0 From these colors her recipes result in over 900 colors.<\/p>\n

I have friends who have taken extensive dyeing classes to learn how to weigh and mix dyes for exact colors.\u00a0 They come away with a fantastic reference book of swatches and complete confidence in the knowledge they can create any color they\u2019d like.\u00a0 While this book may not be a reference filled with actual swatches, many will find having some 900+ color prints with the noted recipe of how that color was acheived well worth the $24 price.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have several new books that I think would make a good addition to one\u2019s stash \u2014 especially the beginner.\u00a0\u00a0 Funny enough, the first is from \u201cStash – fabric arts for a handmade lifestyle,\u201d which is a new range of books from C&T Publishing.\u00a0 According to C&T, \u201cStash was formulated to respond to the quickly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gloriahansen.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gloriahansen.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gloriahansen.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gloriahansen.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gloriahansen.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3679"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.gloriahansen.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3679\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3686,"href":"https:\/\/www.gloriahansen.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3679\/revisions\/3686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gloriahansen.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gloriahansen.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gloriahansen.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}