Book Review: Sewing Tales to Stitch and Love by Kerry Goulder

*photo from heatherbailey.typepad.com*

About a month ago I got an email from a friend of mine.  It went a little something like this:

"Hey, I have a book coming out and I think your blog is awesome would you consider doing a book review?"

To which I totally replied:

"Dude.  Who me?  YOU think MY blog is awesome?  WHAAAAAT?"

Oh no, wait...that was how I responded in my head.  What I really said was:

"Heck yeah!  Can I make the lobster?"

To which she replied:

*evil cackles of glee in the background*

(also purely imagined, by the way)

"You're brave!  That lobster made me sweat!"

*photo by Kid Giddy*

Well, I happen to LOVE a challenge so this was, of course, music to my ears.

One week later my world slid sideways and I found myself packing up my horde stash of fabric and putting it into storage on the VERY. SAME. DAY. that this super-fabulous box of goodies arrived with HOLY COW ALL SORTS OF AWESOME STUFF!  I couldn't believe it!  Still, I told myself that there was plenty of time, that cleaning out, organizing and packing 12+ years of stuff to move across the country in a three week time span was "NBD" (as the yunguns say).  Well, the days went by, more and more stuff disappeared into boxes, rooms began to empty out, my sewing tables were taken away, my sewing room became a hold-all for everything else and then...then the worst thing happened.  My sewing machine got unplugged and shoved into a corner.  I got a little panicky, I immediately sent out an SOS to my friend who very kindly granted me permission to do a two part review for her lovely little blog hop. 

So, this first part is all about the book.  The second part will be all about Louisa the Lobstah.  She's from Boston and she's pretty dang excited that her Red Sox won the world series.  Louisa decided to celebrate the big win by taking a vacation to Bermuda and visit her cousin Jorge, doesn't that sound like fun?  Anyway, more about Louisa's adventures later.  I hear she's quite the catch (HA!) so I'm sure she'll have lots of wild tales (HA AGAIN!) to tell. So, without further delay, allow me to introduce you to the one and only Kid Giddy, aka Kerry Goulder!

Sewing Tales to Stitch and Love is a book full of cute little softies, each with their own little story.  I love that Kerry has brought these characters to life in a story for us.  It sorta makes you feel like your project will be a continuation of hers, like you're creating a little family to go along with each toy.  This book is warm, inviting and delightful.  I loved reading through it and I am eager to get started on my project.

One of the things I really appreciated about the book was the credits on the photo.  I love having the fabric/notion information listed where I can easily see it.  Often times, I find myself admiring the fabric or wondering about a tool in a pictured project but there is no info for it anywhere.  Or, sometimes it's listed in the back of the book but that's just too much work for me.  I want the information to be easily accessible.  In this book it is.

*photo from heatherbailey.typepad.com*

There are eighteen patterns in this book and they suit a wide range of sewing abilities.  Eighteen might not seem like a lot, but there is quite the variety of projects in the book.  Eighteen is just right.  Eighteen is doable, it's a "Hey!  I can make one of everything in here!" and actually do it kinda number.

The photographs are beautifully done and the instructions are easy to follow.  I like that the patterns are all shrunk to fit in the pages of the book.  There's no annoying pull-out patterns that never fold up right after you use them, causing the cover to stick up and not lay flat anymore.  (Grrr how I hate that.)  Plus, I always make a copy of my book patterns anyway because I don't want to cut up the original.  I also LOVE the fact that she opted for the shrink-to-fit-book size patterns instead of overlapping full size patterns on the pages.  That makes my brain hurt.  I feel like this was a well-thought out part of the book.

I am eager to get to the other side of this move because that means I get to start sewing again.  Miss Louisa is the very first thing that I'm going to make.   You will get a full report on the pattern and how it goes together.  I have lots of lovely new sewing tools to use and demonstrate, thanks to Dritz.
Check out Kerry's book on Amazon and follow along on her blog hop.  There's lots more to see along the way!  There are twenty of us participating in the tour.

Thank you to Heather Bailey, Dritz, F&W Media/KP Craft, and especially Kerry for the fantastic goody box full of absolutely everything a sewist would need to put together one of the delightful toys in the book.  I am especially grateful for it because I had to put all of my stuff in storage, and now I will have new, lovely sewing accoutrements to play with.  Yay!

Kerry Goulder & Heather Bailey

Happy Reading!
-Kristi-

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