Time to Get Your Craft On!

Bandana-Rama by Judith Cressy is a colorful, beautifully illustrated beginning sewing book that is packed with ideas you will want to make. Take out your old bandanas or buy some new ones and create some amazing bandana items. This book includes 21 projects from start to finish with easy to follow pictures and directions. Projects include: a bandana belt, drawstring top, purse, decorative pillow, blouse, skirt and more. There is also a tutorial on techniques: from tying a knot to how to use a sewing machine. It may inspire you to design and create your own ideas from bandanas.

Two great books we used to develop ideas for projects to demonstrate our new sewing machines and sergers at our Maker-Faire were Megan Nicolay’s Generation T books. The T-shirt inspired projects Meghan has created are incredibly easy, inexpensive and anyone can make them. I highly recommend making some of these projects. Meghan Nicolay has a great website that has more T-shirt and craft ideas.  

Generation T: 108 Ways to Transform aT-shirt is Megan Nicolay’s first book and she has transformed the way we think about T-shirts. Her ideas are unique and inspirational. Megan's illustrations are easy to follow and easy to sew and you do not need a sewing machine. She encourages you to be your own designer and provides a template to help you design your own ideas. There are projects in this book for every person: tops, skirts, bags, pillows, hats and even a wedding dress. Think outside the box. T-shirts can be made into anything, literally.

Generation T: Beyond Fashion 120 New Ways to Transform a T-shirt by Megan Nicolay 

Meghan as revolutionized the T-shirt. She has repurposed it, reinterpreted it and reinvented it. Now she explores new ways to slash a tee, scrunch a tee, and sew a tee with Generation T: Beyond Fashion. A collection of 120 projects for every occasion, it takes the humble yet ever-malleable tee in dozens of new directions. The rallying cry is: Don't buy; DIY. The result is hip, imaginative, crafty, and very green. There's a basic primer on techniques: knotting, sewing, braiding and lacing. Projects range from the simplest no-sew to intermediate, and all have easy-to-follow illustrations.

Girl With a Sewing Machine by Jenniffer Taylor

Create your own unique clothes to fit your personality and your shape. This stylish, instructive book from The Great British Sewing Bee’s Jenniffer Taylor shows you how to make and adapt your own clothes in a simple, no-fuss way. Using Jenniffer’s fun and imaginative ideas, this book will teach you how to get started transforming unloved items of clothing into new and exciting outfits; how to customize clothes with doilies, tassels, tie-dyeing and block printing; and finally how to measure yourself, create patterns and make clothes from scratch. The book is packed with all the tricks of the trade that Jenniffer has learned along her sewing journey. 

See Kate Sew by Kate Blocher

Create beautiful crafts for your home and everyone in it--no experience required! Learning how to sew has never been easier! In See Kate Sew, blogger Kate Blocher shows you how to make dozens of beginner-friendly projects with professional polish. From stylish pillows and home decor to adorable soft toys for kids and fashion-forward accessories, there is plenty to make and gift--or keep just for you! Detailed instructions and step-by-step illustrations help ensure your success, while sewing tutorials on everything from creating buttonholes to mitering quilt corners. Best of all, projects can be sewn together in 60 minutes or less. Sew great!

by EM