Sewn by Hand Blog tour + Giveaway

Susan Wasinger's new book Sewn by Hand: Two Dozen Projects Stitched with Needle & Thread offers 'two dozen' (or '24' to the rest of us) projects to hand sew. Not just at home but to take along with you and work on wherever and whenever you like. The book is aimed at sewers of all skill levels. There are quite some fairly easy-to-do projects (napkins, bibs, thermal packs) that can be made with little or no experience. And some are more challenging like the Hassock. If you are not familiar with hand stitching you will find lots of information about materials, tools, knots and stitches in the first chapters.

Do you sew by hand? Not counting embroidery, I rarely do. Maybe a tiny bit of hand sewing when I have to close gaps on soft toys and pin cushions. Or the occasional button on a coat... And for any other sewing project I get my sewing machine out. So the idea of sewing bikinis, aprons and hats 'unplugged' was kind of new to me! 

The portability factor is indicated with each project and varies a lot. Obviously most people will be unlikely to tag along some huge curtains to a cafe but the cute thermal packs could be sewn up quite easily when you are on the go.

In previous work Susan Wasinger has been keen to recycle and re purpose stuff so it's no surprise that Sewn by Hand has a couple of  projects where recycled materials are being used.  There is a nice project (see photo above) using old men's shirts (that is not shirts from old men but...oh you know what I mean!) to make an apron. Personally I would be very much inclined to get my iron out to make neat seams and run the panels quickly through my sewing machine. Maybe because I already spend much time on other 'slow crafts' like embroidery and quilting... In other projects,  the hand sewing is part of the charm or decoration of the items made. Many of the projects, and indeed the whole layout of the book, have a nostalgic, timeless feel to it which fits the 'strictly Hand sewn' theme perfectly.

The nice folks at Lark Crafts have been so kind to provide us with some neat goodies to give away. Yay! Not just the book Sewn by Hand by Susan Wasinger but also the fun haberdashery that's pictured on the photo above.  

To have a chance to win, leave a comment on this post and tell us if you get your needle and thread out in public (and if so where!).I will close the comments this Thursday and announce the winner the next day. ed. comments are now closed, winner will be announced later today! If you can't wait to try out some hand sewing yourself you can find a project from the book here.

The Sewn by Hand blog tour will continue on the following blogs!

4/27 Zakka Life
4/29 BurdaStyle blog

Happy Stitching everyone!