New books

I've never been a crafty person, in fact I used to shun anything crafty because it bored me to tears and I hated doing it. That's why when I first started doing crochet about a year ago I not only shocked myself but utterly and completely shocked my family. Then realising that I absolutely LOVED to crochet has sent the shock factor beyond the nervous giggle stage I have to say.

Then I discovered the wonderful crafty blogworld that's out there with so many talented and inspiring women. The things that everyone does, not to mention some of the fabulous craft rooms and studios is enough to inspire anyone I think.

So I've decided to dust off my sewing machine (which used to be my grandmother's) and give a few projects a go. To help me get inspired I have recently bought two sewing books. The first is 101 ways to sew a metre and the other is a Complete Compendium of Sewing Techniques.

I love my new books so much and the compendium even shows you how to thread a needle!! I'm not that bad I have to say as I have sewn some dresses in the past and even made the curtains for the nursery room when Little Miss R was born. They may not have been perfectly made but they did the job.

These books show you how to make things like bed pockets to hold your goodies in....

...matching bathroom accessories....

...picnic lunch mats with a holder for cutlery...

...desktop organisers....

...paint brush holder rolls (or crochet hooks)...

...laptop covers...

...yoga mat bags...

...and grocery tote bags.

There's lots of wonderful little projects in which you use just one metre of fabric so I thought it would be a great place to start to help with my sewing technique.

The compendium shows you things like all the different kinds of needles and what they're used for..

It talks about the different textures and weight of fabrics.

A whole two pages about button holes!

Lots of info about hemming garments.

There's heaps and heaps and heaps of other fantastic information in the books too so I can't wait to get started although it does mean that I may have to clean up and declutter a bit more so I have somewhere that I can sew.

Wish me luck!!

Susan xxxxx