Improv Sewing: A Freeform Approach to Creative Techniques; 101 Fast, Fun, and Fearless Projects: Dresses, Tunics, Scarves, Skirts, Accessories, Pillows, Curtains, and More

by Nicole Blum, Debra Immergut

Overview

Add charm and personal style to your crafting. Nicole Blum and Debra Immergut offer 101 fun project ideas that will have you incorporating decorative touches and texturally interesting patterns into your sewing repertoire. Each project is designed to take less than a day, meaning that before you know it you’ll be whipping out dozens of dazzlingly high-style creations that showcase techniques like pattern-making, appliqué, doodle-stitching, and more. Get inspired and turn old T-shirts into fashion statements and forgotten pillowcases into works of art.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781603427401
Publisher:	Storey Books
Publication date:	05/08/2012
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	543,538
Product dimensions:	7.98(w) x 8.32(h) x 0.73(d)

About the Author

Nicole Blum is a coauthor of Ciderhouse Cookbook, Stitch Camp, and Improv Sewing. She runs Carr’s Ciderhouse in Hadley, Massachusetts, with her husband, Jonathan Carr. Blum is an artist and crafter whose work has been featured in FamilyFun and Parents magazines. 
 

Debra Immergut is co-author of Improv Sewing with Nicole Blum. She has been a senior editor at both Parents and FamilyFun magazines, and currently is a contributing writer to the Wall Street Journal and the Boston Globe. She lives with her family in Western Massachusetts. 

Table of Contents

Introduction
1 Getting Started
2 Finding Your Fit
3 Five Basic Designs
4 Ruffles, Pleats, and Trims
5 Lines
6 Doodling, Sketching, and Writing
7 Applique
8 Stenciling
9 Beyond Fabric
10 Upcycling
11 Instant Gifts, Instant Gratification
Templates
Our Favorite Sources for Fabric and Specialty Supplies
Acknowledgments
Index

Editorial Reviews

This large volume, packed with full-color photographs, is a must-add for sewers who want to work outside the parameters of paper patterns and precise measurements. “It’s about enjoying the journey as your thread travels across the fabric,” Blum and Immergut write, “...and in the end, you’ll have made something lovely and wonderful.” This soothing, empowering style of teaching sewing is a nice contrast to the more rigid directions promoted in other recent sewing books (e.g., 1-2-3 Sew and Sewing in a Straight Line). Blum and Immergut show how to use measurements to draft five basic designs—a two-panel dress, a four-panel dress, a two-panel skirt, a wrap skirt, and a stretch panel skirt (all in Chapter 3)— which then become the basis for dozens of variations in the rest of the book. A concise, basic overview of sewing techniques and how to measure accurately round out the initial help. From there, readers will learn techniques such as bias-binding, ruffles, and ruching to add details to their clothes. As their subtitle promises, there are more than 100 patterns here, making this a deeper resource than many beginning sewing books. One caution: the vast majority of these patterns employ knit fabric. The authors provide a good overview of working with knits, in their typical calm, empowering style, but those who hate working with knit will be disappointed by its prominence. This book is well worth the price; there’s lots to daydream about and run across the needles. (May)

Publishers Weekly