Manga Cross-Stitch: Make Your Own Graphic Art Needlework by Helen McCarthy. Andrews McMeel Publishing; Har/Cdr edition (August 1, 2009).

‘Stitchers often get stereotyped as middle-aged ladies in cardigans, anime and manga fans as geeky teenage misfits. Both stereotypes are equally inaccurate – because both groups are just people who love beautiful things and want to create and enjoy beauty in their own way.’ Helen McCarthy

With a compelling voice, Helen McCarthy, reaches out to those with a curiosity for everything Manga and needlework. McCarthy is a well known writer and speaker on Japanese animation and comics and with her other love of historic and fantasy costume and embroidery designs – it wasn’t long before these two loves would meet in the middle.

She has done a fine job with this authentic manga design book – with short engaging passages that contextualize the manga aesthetic, along with instructions on how to use the included CD/DVD – where you can find all the customisable and printable charts – McCarthy also has included instructions on how to make your own cross-stitch charts based on your favourite character – using the included software found on the DVD.

(Needless to say this book is just as thorough in learning how to cross-stitch as how to design – with the basics covered – thread, materials, charts, there are also good close up photos of how to stitch.) But really this books main feature is its dedication to helping you design your own cross-stitch patterns – and the manga – its all about the manga really – who and what are these kawaii characters / cyber beings / heroes + villains / samurai + ronin / monsters … and more fantastic run down on these character types – how to add in text + special effects, change the texture and tone, and how to change the facial features to give different expressions – this is better than many ‘how to draw manga’ books that are so popular with kids these days.

The readership will not be confined to needle-workers or manga fans but to anyone who wishes to be creatively guided and engaged.

Felties: How to Make 18 Cute and Fuzzy Friends by Nelly Pailloux. Andrews McMeel Publishing (October 20, 2009)

Here are some tiny little felt characters sure to win your hearts, with their engaging personalities and almost manga aesthetic, with their big heads and eyes and funny simple style.

Felties is well served by glossy gridded pages, and to-scale illustrations and templates, and the book’s modest scale still allows each character a dedicated page spread with easy to understand instructions. There is a very brief intro/techniques section at the front – but as each project is quite simple I can handle this briefness, although I would have liked a bit more background about the designer/maker as this personalises a book for me – but I know others like to get stuck straight into the projects.

The little guys are cheek-squeezing cute – with oversized heads and eyes and tiny bodies – I love the sun loving rat best, and the retro alien and little bears, puppies and pandas all won our hearts + the projects are so quick that you can easily make up a whole set to make some kids very happy.

Embroidered Effects: Projects and Patterns to Inspire Your Stitching (Sublime Stitching) by Jenny Hart. Chronicle Books; Spi edition (September 9, 2009).

This is not just a book with groovy embroidery designs and lots of transfers to help you re-create the groovy designs, it is in fact an extremely comprehensive book on embroidery for beginners.

Jenny really goes into such incredible detail with her explanations of techniques and tools and materials, it is obvious she loves her craft and has thought deeply about how to explain it those who may be not quite sure how to get started. Along with chapters on the basics (fabrics to use, threads to use, tools to use) there is a fantastic stitch dictionary with excellent clear illustrations and instructions – showing where the needle goes in and comes out, where you are supposed to hold the thread and which direction you should be heading. Often a second technique for doing the one stitch is described – I love that Jenny is not precious about how you get it done and she allows for different styles of stitching in her instructions.

There is a whole section on the different patterns/designs – with transfers in the back to help you get just the right look – the designs are shown stitched onto outfits, aprons, shirts or as framed pieces, pillows, tablecloths, even shower curtains, but alas no doilies.

With Jenny’s usual fun and slightly subversive designs you will find tattoo embroidery for you sleeve shirt, colourful day of the dead skulls for your summer skirt, cute little bluebirds for the fronts of your jeans, adorable framed child’s art, embroidered text and more.

For more of a taster – check out these free online tutes from the book

Mahjong embroidery tablecloth
Floss blending tutorial

totally save your books from folded over corners – love this neat and super cool idea – with tute from kootoyoo

Twinkle Sews: 25 Handmade Fashions from the Runway to Your Wardrobe by Wenlan Chia. Potter Craft (September 29, 2009).

Unique fashionable clothing for you to make at home, with designs ranging from a-line style pleated skirts (one with yoke – very flattering), to jazzy woolen skirts (with ruffle), and one extraordinary full length snug fitted skirt cut on the bias. There are some very cute sweaters and shirts, sweatshirts, lacy beach overshirts, and an origami inspired tunic.

Each pattern has very good instructions with the pattern piece illustrations shown laid out on the fabric and there are occasional illustrations of how the pieces fit together. I do think there could be more illustrations and diagrams – I have a weakness for needing pictures to help explain [and I am sure I am not the only one]. However the written steps are very clear. The patterns (in a range of sizes) are all provided on a CD with instructions on how to print them out and join them together.

The designs incorporate some lovely detailing such as pintucks, asymmetry, folded fabric, gathers and wide necklines. Along with sewing basics at the front, there are some unique and innovative designs, ranging from simple to more advanced. With the lack of illustrations throughout, I think you need some sewing experience to get any value from this book.

Altered Shoes: A Step-By-Step Guide To Making Your Footwear Fabulous by Marty Stevens-Heebner. Krause Publications (March 4, 2009)

I have always thought that altering shoes to be a crazy idea and this book has not changed my mind. While there are some fun and cool projects in here – many of the projects sort of look a bit bodgy/dodgy to me and I am not sure the shoes were really improved much along the way. However some of the ideas are intriguing – such as decoupaged shoes – I have seen this done really well with stamps and the shoes in this book have been decoupaged with pages from an old passport and old maps – quite interesting and successful. Not sure about crazy quilted boots or glitter beaded shoes, but maybe for a special occasion?

Pretty Little Felts: Mixed-Media Crafts To Tickle Your Fancy by Julie Collings. North Light Books (October 3, 2008)

This book has a country vintage appeal and is not only sweet and lovely but incredibly useful – with some great tips and ideas and techniques explained carefully and thoroughly.

Beginning with deconstructing wool clothing for felting later, dyeing wool and getting a lovely range of shades, making wet felted beads for use in a range of projects and a lovely clear stitch guide with some basic embroidery stitches.

Not all the projects were to my taste, but even so they have some real charm and the ideas can be adapted to your own personal tastes very easily. I enjoyed the simple crochet edged felt flower brooch, I also really liked the idea of the ‘quiet book’ made from a cut metal screen and filled with felt pages with collaged and stitched memories, text and imagery. Sweet felt zipper purse with embroidery and some darling pincushions, mini art satchel and a funny stuffed cat, however what made this book so special for me were the detailed felt beads and baubles with such tiny attention to detail.

Bend the Rules with Fabric: Fun Sewing Projects with Stencils, Stamps, Dye, Photo Transfers, Silk Screening, and More By Amy Karol. Potter Craft (August 25, 2009).

Amy’s second book – continuing along the ‘Bend-the-Rules Sewing‘ theme – I love it. Testing the boundaries of traditional crafts – making use of all the very cool tools and products that are available now. Not just a sewing book – it also includes fabric printing, collage and mixed media. How to alter and design your own fabric and mix it up with heaps of cool ideas.

I love the techniques section which includes a section on color and design theory, a heap of tools and materials and products with really good explanations of what they all do. Amy has used photographs in this book rather than illustrations and it works.

The projects section starts off with ainting on fabric, which includes instructions on fabric stamping and carving your own stamps, drawing with paint and freezer paper stencils, projects in this section include a cute stamped fabric belt and a painted framed toile. Technology and transferring images by way of a printer and computer have their own section, with explanation on how to iron on transfers, ink jet print fabric and screen print (specific products are required for some of these techniques). Make your own stuffed fabric dolls and printed lunch bag (see project link).

The dyeing fabric section explains all sorts of different design ideas including painting with dye and using bleach pens, I love Amy’s whole cloth dye painted quilt. This book would not be complete without embellishing with fibers, such as drawing with thread and applique – projects include a stitched drawing book cover (using a cute kids drawing as inspiration) and custom baby patches.

The back section includes a whole bunch of templates and patterns to help you make the projects in this book. Congratulations Amy on a lovely second book. [ps check the lunch bag project from this book offered on the storque]

Clay So Cute!: 21 Polymer Clay Projects for Cool Charms, Itty-Bitty Animals, and Tiny Treasures by sherri Haab. Watson-Guptill (July 21, 2009).

I don’t see many polymer clay books around – so was delighted to find this one so friendly. With a really good tools and techniques section for beginners, and taking you through the basics with projects ranging from super sweet and simple to more complex fiddly projects.

Sweet projects include candy cane inspired bracelets, cookie cutter pendants and rings, making your own buttons for jewelry, pressing shells for faux shell pendant jewelry and making your own wishing stones. Then there is whole miniature faux food jewelry thing which is so totally fun – tiny mini cupcakes and licorice allsorts charms, and the little robotic dolls are cute too.

I found the instructions and directions to be very clear and concise – I would have liked more miniature food charm projects – but maybe that is for a more advanced book. Lots of fun – perfect for teenage girls.

The Handy Book of Artistic Printing: Collection of Letterpress Examples with Specimens of Type, Ornament, Corner Fills, Borders, Twisters, Wrinklers, and other Freaks of Fancy by Doug Clouse and Angela Voulangas. Princeton Architectural Press; 1 edition (May 20, 2009). More gorgeous sneak previews at the website.

A beautiful reference book of the history of ‘artistic’ printing. Artistic printing was an ornate, decorate style popular in the late nineteenth century and used by printers and engravers for posters, books, etc. This book celebrates this style with more than 150 examples of ephemera from this era.

Examples of beautifully ornate and decorative typefaces, posters, pamphlets, tickets, invitation and business cards … a wonderful collection and amazing source of inspiration. These ephemera are accompanied by in depth essays and historical background on the history of this style, why it became so popular and then fell out of favour so thoroughly. Interesting and inspiring for those interested in design.