Sew & Stow: 31 Fun Sewing Projects to Carry, Hold, and Organize Your Stuff, Your Home, and Yourself!
Everyone needs to put things in something. The brighter and more practical the container the better. Better still if you can make this to suit your purpose. Enter Sew and Stow; 31 projects suitable for the beginner to master stitcher. Retro in its style, but contemporary in its projects, this book opens with lovely full page photos of the projects within. Unfortunately this is the only time the photos get a look in and through the rest of the book the crafter is presented a cerise monocolour and illustrations.
More and more craft books seem to be leaning towards educating and teaching the skills necessary to create. Sew and Stow is not simply a pattern book, it offers the crafter an opportunity to learn techniques necessary to develop their own projects.
The book does have a great section on techniques and tools. Betty invites the crafter to learn the skills behind pattern construction and design as much as showing a step by step approach. Design issues and practical considerations are questions asked, which made me stop and think about the functionality of my project and from the techniques section I was able to tailor my project to suit my needs – the shoe hideaway needed bigger pockets to accommodate my elephant sized shoes, and I also included some eyelet holes to act as breathing vents.
The creative freedom that this book offers is fantastic, and although there is a lack of photos of projects throughout – this perhaps is intentional in that the reader is forced to use their imagination and creativity a little more.
About the reviewer: Heather is a freelance designer, film maker and generally crafty gal. She loves to have a craft jam / craft-a-noon with friends and recently completed a crochet bouquet to take down the isle.
