Home Decorating With Fabric: More Than 80 Great Projects from Cushions to Comforters [Hardcover]

Carol Parks (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1995

This guide to home decor shows how to add style and comfort to the home using decoration projects ranging from the simple to the complex. Some of the projects require no sewing at all, while others employ more advanced craft techniques. The book shows how to choose and prepare fabrics, sew seams and ruffles, construct cushions, and master the other techniques used in the projects. The furnishing styles shown range from colonial to contemporary, from exotic to eclectic.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Parks's Complete Book of Window Treatments & Curtains (Sterling, 1994) was a practical, easy-to-follo, how-to book on window coverings. Unfortunately, this is an uneven work. The book begins with an excellent presentation on fabrics and equipment. However, the majority of the book is composed of directions for various soft furnishing projects that contain few illustrations, which makes the written instructions hard to follow. Given Parks's previous work, this book is a disappointment.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

Over 80 interior decorating projects involving fabric applications are contained in a title which tells how to transform both rooms and individual pieces. Some projects require no sewing; others involve fabric preparation and advanced sewing projects. Plenty of color photos embellish ideas. -- Midwest Book Review --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 143 pages
• Publisher: Lark Books (September 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0806931582
• ISBN-13: 978-0806931586
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,452,525 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Best if you have some sewing experience, January 26, 2002

By 

Suzanne P. Thomas (Colorado, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Home Decorating with Fabric: More Than 80 Great Projects from Cushions to Comforters (Paperback)

I sewed my first duvet cover last summer and ran into a few problems. The book I was using advised me to make the duvet a bit smaller than the comforter so it would be full and fluffy - not a good idea! Lumpy is a better way to describe the result. So when I picked up Carol's book, I looked first to see what she advised (same size). This gave me faith that her other ideas would work well.
Carol's approach is playful and fun, suggesting that you use different but coordinating fabrics to cover each hard-backed chair in a dining room, or sew panels to hang around your bed. The projects cover a broad range from duvet covers to a variety of pillows to curtains and lamp shades, plus slip covers for futons and even wing chairs.
I didn't give this book a five because some of the pictures felt dated - it's always wonderful to be able to luxuriate in beautiful pictures - plus some of the instructions assume more knowledge than some people may have.
For example, when fitting pieces to the wing chair, she advises the reader to use darts or tucks where appropriate. Oh, really. Nothing more to say on that? I checked the basic sewing guide at the beginning of the book. No mention there of darts or tucks. Nor do these two terms appear in the cursory one page index. I have personally sewn a few darts in my life, so I'm sure I could figure this out assuming I get my hands on a nice affordable wing chair in need of covering, but some readers may need to have a general sewing reference book on hand to help out with the details of technique.
Still, anyone with a minimal amount of sewing experience should get his or her money's worth out of this book, and be pleased with what they create for their home.