Sew Stylish: Easy-Sew Ideas for Customizing Clothes and Home Accessories [Paperback]

Katie Ebben (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 14, 2006

Designer looks. Creative know-how. Use-what-you-have ingenuity.

Thrift meets craft in Sew Stylish, as author Katie Ebben presents easy sewing techniques to help you embellish, reinvent, and recycle everyday clothing and accessories. Whether it’s trimming a plain shirt with a ribbon, lengthening curtains with a false hem, or patching the elbow of a cardigan, each project blends sewing instruction and creative inspiration simply and wonderfully. Chapters focus on trimming, patching, hemming, darning and disguising, customizing, and reinventing, with step-by-step instructions and drawings to ensure polished results on the first try.

Easy-sew ideas for customizing clothes and home accessories.

Make it quick; make it your own. Sew Stylish offers simple makeovers for everything from jeans to sweaters to off-the-rack basics. Author Katie Ebben presents a modern twist on traditional sewing techniques and demonstrates clever ways to embellish, reinvent, and transform items for home and wardrobe.

Eighteen inspiring projects incorporate everything from beading and appliqué to hemming and trimming. The approach is fun and lighthearted, and the clearly illustrated step-by-step instructions provide foolproof formulas to give soft furnishings and clothing a new lease on life.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Katie Ebben trained as a printed textile designer before completing postgraduate studies in art and design history. She was deputy editor of Elle Decoration and editor of Kitchens, Bedrooms & Bathrooms magazine. Katie now works as a freelance interior stylist and writer and is coeditor of Coast magazine. She lives in the United Kingdom.

Chris Tubbs is a lifestyle, interiors, and portrait photographer whose work is regularly featured in magazines such as Elle Decoration and Elle.

Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Potter Craft (February 14, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0307336638
• ISBN-13: 978-0307336637
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 8.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #635,697 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Dissapointed in this book. Not impressed by ideas for customizing clothes & home accessories., March 27, 2006

By 

JosyMaude "josymaude" (Sarasota, FL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sew Stylish: Easy-Sew Ideas for Customizing Clothes and Home Accessories (Paperback)

I received my book today and find it very dissapointing. I find more wonderful sewing ideas in one or two issues of a sewing magazine such as Threads, Australian Stitches, Machine Embroidery (Australian mag), etc. The book's projects were not interesting, the directions weren't too clear and the pictures might win a photo contest for photography creativity but the photos did NOT show the finished products clearly. This format is not a good format for a sewing book. There were not too many projects. I find more projects & better projects on a visit to a sewing machine website. I'm anxious to hear what other people's opinion on this book is. Maybe others find the projects more to their liking. This could be a matter of taste. None of the projects were my cup of tea. So, if you have a chance to look at this book or if you own it, please also review it.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Inspiratiomal, November 28, 2006

By 

book worm (library bookstacks) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sew Stylish: Easy-Sew Ideas for Customizing Clothes and Home Accessories (Paperback)

I actually purchased this book in London this past summer and there it was titled MAKE DO AND MEND, which I think is a more fitting title, but I guess folks in America do very little mending compared to those in the UK.... So you can imagine my surprise when I checked this book out of the library here in the US to find the very same book.

Anyways, I love this book. It addresses the issue of mending clothes which I can appreciate, rather than just tossing out sometimes much loved articles of clothing (I'm thinking of my favorite cashmere cardigan that I loved so much, it has a hole in the elbow and the neckline is coming undone and I really do not want to throw it out because it is irreplacable). Katie Ebben gives many creative ways to extend the life of your wardrobe, as well as the basics. Some of the things I know I will not bother doing, but some of the projects in here are noteworthy. Her instructions are very well written and easy to follow, which is another big plus. Women clothing in the UK is ultra-feminine and perhaps a little more "frilly" than the clothes to be found in the US. i bought this book also because I find it very inspirational when I want to add a little more "fem" to my clothes....

Loved it.

5.0 out of 5 stars cool ideas, October 14, 2009

By 

L. Storey (Utah) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Sew Stylish: Easy-Sew Ideas for Customizing Clothes and Home Accessories (Paperback)

This is a great book. It came in two days and was so very inexpensive. Great sellar