potholders and legwarmers

and my quest for life as pot holders

girl number twenty has made kids legwarmers

Karren over at Entwinements has been at it again with beautiful shibori tutorials. This time how to resist-dye butterflies in indigo.

Part 1 and part 2.

Very sweet little tutorial for a pincushion sewing kit over at Monkeyroom.

Thinking with Type: A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, & Students (Design Briefs)

Written by Ellen Lupton, Published by Princeton Architectural Press.

As a print magazine designer, this book is of particular interest to me. However I also think that typography is important in areas not traditionally thought to relate to design or that need to worry about type, such as visual journalists, scrap bookers, collage artists, screen printers, fabric designers, zine writers, in fact anyone who incorporates words, text, type in their work, would benefit from this book. As Ellen says ‘thinking with type’ is about using ‘visual and verbal language to develop and deliver ideas’ she says it is ‘the bridge connecting written language to visual art.’

This book is a combination of critical essays and practical information. It is a compact, well organised and beautifully presented compendium filled with history, theory and practical ideas in a neat well designed easy to read and understand format. One thing this book is not however, is a compendium of fonts.

For designers using type frequently, I would think that this is an excellent addition to their (no doubt already large) typographic library collection, and for newbies this is a good beginning to the world of typography. With an interesting overview, extended informative resources and plenty of visual stimulus, it is a good instructional read. All the history and theory is accompanied by visual examples as well as an anatomy of the font - typography dissected if you will. Fascinating and essential reading for students of design and for others who use type as a tool without having formal design training.

Another aspect of this book of great interest to readers is the designing for web areas, how the use of typography can change / help how the website is read, a favourite bit for me were the little side snippets ‘type crimes’ - I am afraid I have committed a few of these…

Jan Andrea’s Baby Crafts is a fantastic source for baby sewing projects: carriers of all kinds including ring slings, pouches, mei tais, ring wraps and all their variations; nursing pillows, sleep sacks, crib sheets, diaper bags, and chair covers. There are also instructions for converting regular sewing patterns into maternity patterns and altering regular bras and T-shirts into nursing wear. Her own patterns are free and shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license. She also provides plenty of links to other people’s patterns around the web.

(both images from Jan Andrea’s Baby Crafts website)

The team at Handmade Detroit are running a contest for the best handmade Mother’s Day gift. The prize is a brand new silver iPod. Deadline to apply is May 14. All the details are here.