It seems like every day of the year there’s a new holiday of sorts to celebrate. It’s fun to celebrate some of the more silly ones too, like National Donut Day, or National Slap an Annoying Co-worker Day. (Of Course…..I’M NOT ADVOCATING THAT YOU SLAP ANYONE!!) Since today is National Book Lovers Day, I thought I’d share a few of my favorite sewing books. I have a pretty extensive library of sewing & crafting books thanks once again to my Wonderful Father. He was a hard core reader & collected sewing books along his travels to add to my collection whenever he found them. I’m so grateful for his thoughtfulness because I love my book collection and enjoy referring to them for inspiration.
Over the years the home sewing industry, just like every other industry in the world, has enjoyed the addition of technology. We have computerized sewing machines that practically sew by themselves and make gorgeous embroidery. With the innovation of new sewing tools and machine accessories, it’s possible to make most sewing operations more quickly and with professional results. There’s even machine’s made for specific sewing tasks like blind hemmers, cover stitch and overlock machines just to name a few. BUT, the great thing about sewing books is that no matter how old they are, sewing has remained the same. Installing a zipper is the same, hemming is the same and so on. Constructing a garment will always have the same steps involved in production. Yes there are different techniques for each operation, but sewing is still sewing. So even though most of my sewing books are older, they’re still as relevant as any newer book and in many cases much more inspirational.
One of my favorite sewing books is The Readers Digest Complete Guide to Sewing. The copyright is from 1976 & was written with technical assistance from The Singer Company. Funny, I never knew that until just now. I’ve referred to it many times over the years and think it’s a great guide to own for any beginner sewist interested in starting a book collection. The illustrations are clear and easy to understand and it seems to touch a little bit on many sewing topics from garment construction to basic sewing for the home.
Many of the books in my collection were purchased from charity shops. Another favorite of mine still has the $1.99 price tag from Goodwill Industries. This book is one in a fantastic series from Better Homes & Gardens and I’m lucky to own the complete series.
This book was a high school sewing text book that was relegated to the DISCARD pile for some reason. Sad to think that any book in good condition would be discarded. I’m happy that it was though, because it’s now part of my sewing book collection! Imagine the secrets this book would tell if it could, being in a high school sewing class……
I enjoy purchasing new books too. There are so many wonderful books on the market now detailing new techniques for crafting and sewing. I will share more of them in upcoming posts. Recently, Sarah Gunn from Goodbye Valentino collaborated with Julie Starr and just announced their new book entitled, The Tunic Bible is out for purchase through Amazon. I’m looking forward to receiving my copy soon and checking it out. If you’re not familiar with Sarah, please head over to her blog at the above link and read all about her. I promise you will LOVE her!
If you’re one of my regular readers, you know that I LOVE Urban Threads Embroidery Designs. Yesterday I saw this Brand NEW Design, “Book of Shadows”, shared on their Facebook page just in time for National Book Lovers Day! It’s a little spooky but with a lovely lacy quality!! Love it!! How great would this design look on the cover of an e-reader?
So if you’re a book lover, I hope you will be on the look out today for a wonderful new book to add to your sewing book collection in celebration of National Book Lovers Day! Enjoy!
