Linen, Wool, Cotton (& handmade giveaway!)

Linen, Wool, Cotton
25 simple projects to sew with natural fabrics
by Akiko Mano
112 pages
Craft, Sewing, Simple style
Trumpeter Books
14, April 2009

Akiko Mano's soft and subdued style is simple yet outstanding in quality, approach and design. Linen, Wool, Cotton is a dream for the practical person who enjoys crafts that people will actually use. The simplicity of her patterns is so pretty and speaks though its calmness. Akiko Mano's designs will allow even the insure crafter to create things that many will enjoy. The projects range from wool slippers, aprons, a muffler, lightweight fruit bags, a lingerie case, hot water bottle cover, duvet cover and beyond. Linen, Wool, Cotton is sectioned off into chapters by material choice, beginning with Linen, followed by Wool and finally Cotton. Akiko's patterns are easy to follow and minimalist in their approach, and that is a bonus, since that makes them quick to complete as well, having only an average of 4 steps per pattern.

Linen, Wool, Cotton by Akiko Mano is part of the Japanese Crafts Style books also known as Make Good: Crafts + Life, a group of books believing in the goal to simplify life. This approach makes it its goal to take pleasure in the beautiful things that are so perfect in their minimalistic appeal.

So how did I like this book? I loved it. I enjoy being crafty, but I want the things I make to be used and not just dusted. This is a book for a person like me, and I am thrilled that there are so many patterns in Linen, Wool, Cotton that are calling my name (quite loudly I might add). I have already dived in, and created the lunch bags, they were just too cool to not make. I was worried at first because usually patterns seem to have way too many impractical steps and I have a hard time wanting to follow along. I had no problem with listening to Akiko at all. The lunch bag pattern (p. 96) was just perfect and simple and had fluff, just the real stuff. I know for sure that I am going to make several other patterns, the Sweets Mat (p. 90) looks like the next one I'll try. And the Fruit Bags (p. 37) made out of cheesecloth would be perfect for veggies at the Saturday Farmer's Market as they don't way anything and are completely reusable! Yeah, so anyway I am hooked. I recommend Linen, Wool, Cotton by Akiko Mano with no reservations at all.


The Handmade Giveaway:
I spent part of the day making two Lunch Bags (p. 96) from this book for you! I really hope that my work pays off, and that you are as excited as I am about this! I can't wait!

Description:
Tired of bringing your lunch with you in a paper sack or plastic bag? Oh, well when you see these you will be! And remember really cool lunch bags are not just for kids. "The handles are an extension of the main part of this bag, which you can use to easily tie the bag closed. The bag is also reversible" (Linen, Wool, Cotton, p.96) The solid coloured material is a canvas type thick cotton, and the stripped and polka-dotted fabrics are a thin softer cotton. And yes, both bags are completely reversible!

Here are the two lunch bags I made, you can click on each photo to see the bigger picture.



Details:
This giveaway is being hosted on my on my book review blog as well!! I am giving two bags away between the two blogs. To come visit my review blog click here: B&b ex libris

Details:
I will select 2 winners at midnight (PST) on 30th of April!!
I will most certainly ship internationally!!

To enter each of the following will give you an entry:
*Post a comment on this post
*Tweet about my giveaway with a link to this post
*Post about this on your blog with a link to this post

Each time you do one of the above make sure to let me know in the comments in this post so that I can add you again. If you don't let me know in the comments I won't know or be able to count your entry, so make sure and come back and let me know.

PS. I do not notify winners, so make sure you check back on May 1st to see if you won. Each winner has 4 days to get their shipping info to me after that if I don't hear from you I will select a new winner.

bungaree crafting (any craft is crafty enough)

knitting:
granny washcloth/dishcloth pattern
warm cowl/ neck warmer pattern
fruit hat pattern


embroidery:
jesse tree ornaments

paper snowflakes

I have always thought this would be a hard thing to do, but I was so wrong! It is especially easy with instructions, I just googled paper snowflake patterns and came up with this cool pattern website. It is really fun to cut these out.

Did you cut out snowflakes as a kid? Do you now?

Making Stuff For Kids

Title: Making Stuff For Kids
Author: Victoria Woodcock
Crafts by: Contributors (compiled by black dog publishing)
Publisher: black dog publishing
Pages: 160

The beauty of this craft book lies not just in its recipe for "Sparkle and shine playdough", or its "Pebble Pals", or the " Cute as a button necklace", but it is much deeper. The brilliance of it is where it calls out to parents and children alike: pick me up!!! Be creative!! Get messy! Don't stress! Making Stuff For Kids will bring parents and kids or kids and other kids together in order to create-and with their own hands make something to enjoy.

Making Stuff For Kids, is a complete child's craft book, divided into helpful (age appropriate) sections: teeny talents, cunning crafters, super sills, and tough cookies. This way you will know if your child, or even if you are in way over your creative head. The beginning includes a section of how to's: how to knit, how to do appliqué, papier mache, pompoms and sewing- just in case you, as a parent need to learn or refresh your skillz right along side your child.

The book is composed of craft ideas by contributors, I believe causing Making Stuff For Kids to break away from the traditional nerdy-kid-craft-mold(and parents wondering: what do I do with THIS mold) to a more interesting and involved crafting, where kids are really creating stuff that they are interested in! The creativity level is pretty alarming so beware!!!

So far we have only had a chance to do several of the crafts- as my children are a little young, and things can get crazy while crafting (they are ages 2 and 4 and there are already some really fun projects for them in this book!!) We have done (and loved) the Pebble Pals (p.51), the Peg People (p. 52), The Scratch it and see (p. 53) and the potatoes for T! (p. 64). Next on our list (it has actually been the craft my 4 yr. old has been begging for since he looked through the book) Creepy Crawly Wormery (p. 47)!! Our young family will definitely grow into this book, so if you have older kids- there is a lot of things they could do, even some crafts designed for them to do without you! This is one of those books, that we will keep coming back to on those days of- "mom, I'm bored", or "there's nothing to do, mom!". I know it will be one we constantly have handy as our boys get older, I dread the stains it will suffer, but as any well loved book I am already aware of this unstoppable, impending doom- love stains.

I love it, and obviously recommend it %100!!

CRAFT ON!!!

Earth Day!!!!

Earth day is for making tree shirts (one thing among the many other very earthy things you could do)!! I did these with my four year old today, well, he watched. I wanted them to really turn out.

invitations to a party

Yesterday we made invitations and envelopes for Oliver's second birthday. J made the super cute animals on the front of each one. He begged and begged to help, and I kept finding little things to do, but then I thought "he really wants to help, I need to find something for him to feel like he really did help". He loved it!!

As for the envelopes. We did not want to leave the house, and so we came up with a pretty neat envelope idea. You just get a magazine that has tons of pictures and don't mind tearing up. You tear out a page per envelope and fold it as though you were folding a letter (in thirds) you can make it as little as you need to (depending on what you are putting into it) we just had the invites, so I made it that big. I have done this before, when I had a pen pal long ago...but haven't used this for a while. My favourite one is the one with the blue eggs (above). So...if you ever don't have envelopes, and want to reduce, reuse, recycle...remember this.




PS: to our family and friends in the area: I only sent out a few of these, if you want to come...YOU are more than welcome, I just have a hard time guessing who would like to come and who wouldn't...so this is your invite if you want to come.

You are absolutely and most excitedly invited

to Oliver’s 2^nd Birthday Party!!!

It will be on Saturday, the 19^th of April

at 4:30 pm

Please come, it will be fun, we’ll have dinner,

we’ll have fun…and it won’t be the same

without you!

(it will be at our house...call me or comment here to RSVP)

painted pictures

(again, first off I apologize for the poor quality of a camera phone photo...but it is what I will have for a while, and bad pictures are better than no pictures at all, especially for my family that lives very far away!)

The big pictures are two of my latest pictures (I loved using acrylics...it was my first time!!) I have done one since, for the living room. And the ones underneath are jackson and oliver's latest as well!! They love the idea of the "inspiration wire" (from the book The Creative Family by Soule) I only have one complaint: It always fills up way too fast!!! I try to take things down but each time it is so hard for me to do it...but I need room for the new ones. I think I am going to put up more display locations around our house so that it doesn't fill up so fast. I' ll keep you posted!

embroidery

jackson learned to embroider yesterday...it was insanely cute. I have some good pictures of him actually doing it, but here is one in the meantime are the products of his embroidery day:

One is a house, with grass and stairs. The other is a tree with a bird and blue sky.
We used burlap, and a huge blue plastic needle and thick embroidery thread that I bought at goodwill and was marked $1.99 for a bunch of it, and a little embroidery hoop.

I obviously helped him thread the needle, and had to say: go up through the bottom, down through the top most of the time...but he loves this. It is art, and anything that helps him create...is his "favourite". "Let's do this all day and all night" is his phrase for: I want to do this for a long time because I really enjoy it!

I love finding things that he enjoys, and that I enjoy too. I have been learning as well...and we pretty much both began learning at the same time. I love it, I'll show you what I am up to next.

pretty eggs

We did easter eggs today. It was HUGE fun with jackson. I have come to the conclusion that brown eggs make the best colours, check it out!