Book Review: Sewing A to Z By Nancy Zieman

When I was a stay at home mom with my two little girls, I would watch “Sewing with Nancy” on PBS. She was very patience and would share so many useful techniques throughout her program. Seeing these techniques used gave me confidence to try them out for myself. I am so happy that she wrote this book and organized all of her sewing techniques in one place. The book is called “Sewing A to Z” and it is extremely easy to use. Even if you have sewn for a very long time, there is ways something new to learn.

ScreenShot2011-08-03at3.42.00PM-2011-08-5-07-00.png

Pros: The book is organized well. If you want to know more about installing a zipper simply turn to “Z” to learn more. The illustrations are clear, there are approximately 3-4 illustrations on each page. The pages in the book are very colorful. Nancy has placed little notes throughout the book to give you great sewing tips. These are like little pieces of gold!

ScreenShot2011-08-03at3.54.35PM-2011-08-5-07-00.png

Cons: This is a great reference book but there are no projects.

Of Course I always want more, some of the topics that I wish she had included in the book are; heirloom sewing, more about equipment (maybe at the beginning of the book), sewing with leather (or different fibers) and shirring. Over all I would highly recommend Sewing A to Z as a reference book for any seamstress. It is a great quick tip guide.

Happy sewing!

ScreenShot2011-08-01at9.33.15PM-2011-08-5-07-00.png

Comments

Sweet Coin Purse Tutorial for Teacher Gifts

This time of year is so special to me because I get to show my gratitude for all of the hard work that goes into teaching my daughters. I love to make handmade gifts and this year is no exception. Since money does not grow on trees around here, I looked at my stash (I keep my scraps in hat boxes ) and tried to see what I had a lot of; small zippers, trims, Peltex strips ( from making iPad cases ), fabric scraps and some hardware for key fobs. So I set to work. Materials: Plastic multipurpose 5" Zipper Fabric Scraps Lightweight interfacing 808 Pellon Trims (We clipped key fobs with 1.5" swivel hooks onto our coin purses . There are tons of tutorials on making key fobs .) Step 1: Print out the Coin Purse Template PDF. Cut 2 main fabric, cut 2 lining and 2 interfacing using the template. Optional: Cut a 2"X2" square of your choice main fabric or lining. This strip of fabric is used to clip a key fob to your coin purse later....

May 2011 Giveaway!

Thank you Sew Mama Sew for making today, May 23, 2011 Giveaway Day! Sew Love Fabrics will be sponsoring this month’s giveaway with eight fat quarters (18”X 22”) of Prince Charming prints in olive green, equaling 2 yards of gorgeous fabrics! If you would like to read more about Ruth, founder of Sew Love Fabrics , read her interview . Thank you so much for sharing your love of fabric with us! These are the fat quarters ready to ship to the lucky winner!! Giveaway Rules! +Our Giveaway will run May 23-27, 2011, with the winner being announced May 28, 2011! +The winner will be selected by Random.org +The package will be shipped to the winner by May 30, 2011. + To enter to win post a comment on this blog post! +Only one comment please per person. +This giveaway is open to everyone. +Leave your EMAIL ADDRESS, you can leave it as: leah(dot)sewspoiled(at)gamil(dot)com +This giveaway ends May 27, 2011 at 8PM Eastern Standard Time Thank you Ruth for sponsoring our May giveaway from Sew Love ...

Veruca Salt Dress

Every year we perform a musical and one of the highlights for me as a theater mom and seamstress is I get to make costumes! I love sewing and when I can sew for a show or for a music reason it is awesome! This year was Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and I was able to recreate Veruca's red dress. The first step is to find a sewing pattern that I can manipulate to look like what the character needs. I wanted to make the dress out of Pont de Roma fabric so it moved with the actress. Then I remembered the Marianne Dress by Christine Haynes , it is perfect because it also had a peter pan collar. The peter pan collar did have some issues. I did not want a t-shirt binding. Also, the back of the collar did not have a collar. I drafted a back collar piece and since the opening was not stretchy, I created a keyhole with a button and loop closure. I lengthened the sleeves and used the cuffs from the pattern for long sleeves. Next, we added the buttons! We al...

Sew Spoiled

Search This Blog