Members wanted! WPL's book clubs offer readers the opportunity to meet and discuss monthly selections from a wide variety of generes.
Looking for something to read, watch, or listen to? Fill out this quick form and receive 5 suggestions based on your personal preferences.
🧵 Leave you in Stitches 🧵
-
Easy Quilt Projects
41 quilt projects from American Patchwork & Quilting
Are you a beginner quilter looking for a place to start learning this time-honored craft? Are you a more advanced quilter looking for quick and gifty projects that you can complete in a snap?
From the editors of American Patchwork & Quilting comes a collection of ideas and inspiration for making beautiful quilt projects. This book is packed with gorgeous photography and easy-to-follow instructions for making everything from throws and bed-sized quilts to bags and pincushions.
- Beautiful full-color photographs of every project
- Full-size patterns for you to tear out and use again and again
- Includes free 1-year subscription to American Patchwork & Quilting magazine
Plus, each project includes a quilt diagram, assembly instructions, and schematic illustrations!
-
Make, Sew and Mend
Whether you are just getting started with sustainable fashion and need to alter your new secondhand finds, or you want an introduction to sewing techniques for making your own clothes, Bernadette Banner’s signature voice will guide you through all the traditional stitches and techniques you need to extend the life of your favorite pieces and take fashion into
your own hands!
From tips and tricks on choosing your materials and preparing your fabric for sewing to more complex techniques like mending small holes, adding pockets to garments, making your own buttons and beyond—this book has everything you need. Complete with step-by-step photos and insight into what alterations each sewing technique is best suited for, Bernadette walks you through every step of your sewing journey. For added inspiration, this book also includes profiles on exciting voices in the historic sewing community and their perspectives on how taking fashion into their own hands has changed their lives for the better. Make, Sew and Mend is the perfect foundation for beginner sewers to start making their fashion their own. -
DIY Thrift Flip
Join the thrifting revolution! DIY Thrift Flip teaches you how to find, upcycle, and customize secondhand clothing for sustainable style with simple sewing instructions.
Expert thrift-flipper April Yang, aka Coolirpa, takes you through every phase of the process, including how to find the best clothes and fabrics and easy ways to alter and tailor shirts, dresses, pants, coats, and more.
- Getting Started. Essential materials and tools, setting up a workspace, organizing supplies, sewing machine basics, and a concise fabric primer.
- How to Shop for Alterable Clothes. Where to shop, what types of clothes to look for, what can and can’t be fixed, and how to gauge size when you can’t try something on.
- Altering Basics. How to use patterns to alter clothes or parts of garments, techniques for altering without using patterns, the basics of garment altering, adding sleeves, hems, and pockets, and how to custom-tailor an altered piece for a great fit.
- Projects. Beginner to intermediate-level projects inspire and guide you along your own thrift flips.
- QR codes give you access to techniques, tutorials, and project details.
Also included are basic sewing techniques, sewing and clothing terminology, clothing silhouettes, how to measure the body, and more.
With DIY Thrift Flip, you’ll learn how to build a wardrobe of original pieces that shows off your unique style and boosts your creativity in the process. -
The Serger's Technique Bible
For fast and professional edging, hemming, seaming, and decorative stitching, you simply can't beat a serging machine. This all-skill-level book is the perfect guide to make sure you get the most out of your new machine (or out of that old serger that you've never got the hang of!). Photographs and step-by-step instructions guide you through the essential techniques, showing you how to set up your machine, how to adjust the settings to get the best results on a range of different fabrics, and how to edge your fabrics quickly with perfect results. Try out different feet for your machine to help with gathering, attaching piping, elastic, and beading. Within the chapters there are troubleshooting tips and quick fixes for skipped stitches, snapped threads, and uneven stitching. The quick construction section will take you through a range of projects to help practice and perfect your skills.
-
How to Sew Clothes
Learn to sew simple, stylish, wear-everywhere garments with How to Sew Clothes. Each chapter is filled with super easy instructions and patterns written for sewists of all skill levels.
"If you can sew a straight line, you can sew anything (and, in this book, we'll teach you how to sew a straight line!). We will help you get started from scratch, with detailed sewing instructions and techniques that will soon become second nature. We'll explain why you're doing things, and when it is important to do things a certain way, and when you can improvise and not worry! We'll tell you everything you need to know to sew your own clothes and bags--and to have fun in the process." -- Amelia Greenhall and Amy Bornman, @AllWellWorkshop
Whether you are just learning how to sew or want to reignite your excitement for sewing, How to Sew Clothes makes sewing feel possible. Greenhall and Bornman's illustrated guidance and conversational how-tos feel just like an inviting, in-person workshop. This book will have you wanting to sew every project (and will give you all the tools to make it happen). It is also a great read, even when you aren't in the mood to sew. How many sewing books can say that?
-
Quilting Illusions
Quilting is a fine art, and this instructive, beautifully designed volume carries that art to new heights. Eye-fooler quilts play with our sight and imagination, creating wonderful illusions in shapes and colors. Though complex to look at, these quilts are surprisingly easy to make when quilters are given sound direction. Here are instructions for more than 40 dazzling designs, the patterns falling into the following major divisions:
* Perspective and 3D effects * Circles * Grids * Interlacing patterns * Counterchange * Transparency effects
Here too are general instructions for making any quilt, with details on necessary tools and equipment, suggested fabrics and colors, the use of grids and templates, methods of sew-ing, instruction on assembling pieces, and techniques for finishing. Readers will also find a helpful list of resources for materials, as well as a bibliography and a glossary. Here's a book that deserves a place in every sewing enthusiast's personal library. More than 250 color illustrations.