Sewing MODKID Style: Modern Threads for the Cool Girl [Hardcover-spiral]

Patty Young (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2012

20 patterns to sew cool threads for the modern girl

Books by fabric designers are hot, sewing with knits is on the rise, and children's clothing and accessories are the most popular projects in the category. Combining all three of these with her fresh, signature style, Patty Young offers up a compelling collection of children's wear for her eager audience of blog followers and fans of her pattern and fabric designs.

In Sewing MODKID Style, you'll get 20 patterns that can be customized to fit toddlers (sizes 2T-5T) or girls (sizes 6-10). Embracing Patty's specialty of designing patterns with knit fabrics—which allow children to run, stretch, and play comfortably—the projects dress your girl with flair and style.

• Extensive sewing and finishing techniques for knit fabrics
• Styling tips are included throughout, such as how to wear leggings on their own or under a skirt and how to sew a dress that can double as a shirt
• Showcasing Patty's colorful and wearable designs, projects are great for moms, gift givers, and knit fabric enthusiasts

If you're a beginning to intermediate sewer with a young girl in your life, you'll love the projects in Sewing MODKID Style.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

20 patterns to sew cool knits for the modern girl

Gone are the days of impeccably dressed little girls with their perfect pigtails and stiff, frilly dresses. These days kids lead active, busy lifestyles—running from gymnastics to soccer practice or from a play date to the grocery store with mom. There isn't much time for dressing to the nines. Today's active girl needs a wardrobe that is not only stylish and exciting to wear, but that moves, runs, jumps, and bends with her life.

Sewing MODKID Style offers all of that. Each project, created by designer and mom Patty Young, features fun and comfortable knit fabrics that easily stretch and move with the busiest little lady. These style-savvy designs can be customized to fit toddlers (sizes 2T–5T) or girls (sizes 6–10). All of the garments are made without zippers, buttons, or snaps and can be pulled on quickly by the tiniest of hands. Plus, all of the designs are interchangeable so kids can mix and match pieces to create a style completely their own. Projects include:

• Rosy headband

• Fingerless gloves

• Leg warmers

• Yoga pants

• Bubble skirt

• Banded tank top

• Not-so-plain tee

• Contrast v-neck sweater

• Bloom dress

• Swimsuit

• And much more

Proving that style and comfort do go hand in hand, Sewing MODKID Style gives you everything you need to create a wardrobe full of whimsy for every girl in your life.

About the Author

Patty Young produces a popular line of textiles through Michael Miller Fabrics and licenses her designs on a variety of products. Patty also publishes her own sewing pattern line under her independent company's label, MODKID LLC. She has been featured in numerous national and international magazines and trade publications. Her company can be found at www.modkidboutique.com and you can also catch the latest updates on all things Patty at www.modkidboutique.blogspot.com.

Product Details

• Hardcover-spiral: 160 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (March 1, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470947683
• ISBN-13: 978-0470947685
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 1.4 x 9.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #306,821 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Patty Young grew up in San Jose, Costa Rica, in an environment where she was encouraged to express her creativity freely. Both of her parents dabbled in the arts so it was only natural that she would inherit their creative genes. They moved to the United States in 1987 and Patty attended The University of Central Florida from '89 to '93 where she received her Bachelors of Fine Arts degree in Photography with a minor concentration in Graphic Design.

Over the next 12 years, Patty honed her graphic design skills at a number of marketing agencies before deciding to leave her corporate job in 2005 to stay home with her children and pursue her own creative endeavors.

Patty is a licensed textile designer for Michael Miller Fabrics and recently released her seventh collection. Her fabrics include quilting cottons and knits. She is currently working on her eighth collection which will debut Spring 2012 along with her debut book, "Sewing Modkid Style", published by Wiley.

Patty along with her husband, Jon, also owns and operates MODKID LLC and serves in the role of Lead Designer. MODKID, LLC specializes in high quality boutique-style sewing patterns which include children's clothes, doll outfits, purses and other assorted accessories and home furnishings.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Everything I expected and More!! March 5, 2012

By Jennifer Liebmann

Format:Hardcover-spiral|Amazon Verified Purchase

I have been anticipating the release of this book since October. I learned to sew with ModKid's Frida pattern. I am huge fan of not only Patty Young's style, but particularly her ability to take something complicated and make it simple and understandable... and turn out beautiful. Even my first sewing attempt with Frida was something I never thought I could do and real confidence builder! I knew if anyone could take knits, break them down in an easy, friendly, results driven way it would be Patty.

This book did NOT disappoint.

Just on the surface, it's an absolute joy. It is very well thought out with the attention to small details that has made ModKid one of my favorite pattern companies. The book is sturdy and is spiral bound so it lays flat, it includes the thick heavy pattern paper that ModKid fans are used to and love, as well the brightly colored whimsical touches that are ModKid's signature throughout entire book. But the real meat is inside. I spent an hour pouring over it... to be honest, I have tons of sewing books and the beginning of most of them with their technical jargon and over-inflated must have lists bores me to pieces. I like to dive right in to the patterns and get the creative juices flowing!! That is why we buy them, right? But I actually read through the entire first section without even realizing I was doing it and I learned stuff! It was easy to understand, interesting, and like having a conservation with Patty. It was down to earth and relevant. It was useful information that was completely pertinent to sewing with knits. No pretentious or boring page filler information. Admittedly I knew some of it already, but having it all in one place in an easily accessible format is really useful. And I have to say, understanding why one ballpoint needle is better than another for certain types of knits is something that I will actually USE in my sewing! I had all those different numbered ballpoint needles but absolutely no idea why, lol. I also greatly appreciate that she didn't dumb down the serger portion. So many books throw in the serger as an afterthought... oh, yeah you could use a serger here if you wanted to and that's it. And explaining how FOE can be used in something other than cloth diapers was a relief!! I had tons of that left over from our cloth diapering days and no idea what to do with it! I have been sewing for 2 years and never heard of the forceps idea either! Just a treasure trove of useful information for today's modern sewist!!

So the patterns... will I actually use them? YOU BET!!! I have 3 girls ages 3, 7 and 11!!! The leggings, swimsuit (modest, but cute!! THANK YOU!!)and yoga shorts are going to be staples in all 3 of the girls wardrobes. The bubble dress is a MUST for my younger two and my older daughter is bugging about the fingerless gloves and headbands already :) :) :) The gored skirt is sweet and the knit quilt is so tempting, I may need to break out of clothing to try it!

I will update after I sew some projects, ASAP, but in my experience with ModKid patterns, they will be be nothing less than quality, cute and easy to put together. So many sewing books are pretty to look at and sit on the shelf looking pretty, but I have a feeling this is going to look like my favorite cookbook after awhile, worn with lots of use!

Completely worth the wait. This has moved to the TOP of my 5 all time favorite sewing books!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars great and useful! April 4, 2012

By noni and looli

Format:Hardcover-spiral|Amazon Verified Purchase

I got the book two weeks ago, and already I have a bunch of items to make from it. I have many sewing books of top designers, and I love them all, but this one is different.
Unlike most of the books I have, it has patterns for ONLY stretch fabric, that you should know.
All the book, in my opinion, is for regular (as in not special occasion) clothes. Even the dresses are pretty, yes, but not special occasion.
For me this is great because I look for simple, comfortable, yet pretty outfits for my girls.
I only had time to make one item so far, the bubble dress. The directions are very clear, the pattern pieces match very nicely, and it looks really lovely on my girl.
I will also make the bubble skirt, another bubble dress, the swimsuits, and the leggings, all that as soon as I can.
In time I'm pretty sure I'll make all items in the book, which is something I rarely say.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Poor Technique leads to Sloppy Results August 22, 2012

By Brenda R. London

Format:Hardcover-spiral|Amazon Verified Purchase

First I must preface this review with a notation that I love Patty Young's fabrics as well as the patterns for girl's dresses. I find them fresh, exciting, and perfect for childens wear. I was excited to see that she had a book out and eagerly ordered it. I am a very experienced seamstress but I was hoping to get a refresher in handling knits as well as learning some new technques. What I found was that the techniques in this book are just plain incorrect and the completed garments reflect that. Taking a look at how she advises readers to attach bands to arms and necks is one example and the result is that the garments have seam ends showing. New sewists, please pick up a good sewing instruction book to get the proper technique(which is actually not difficult) and you will be rewarded with a much nicer result. Also her use of all cotton knit bands lend themselves to stretched out bands, note how baggy the waists look on the tops with bands at the bottoms. Using a fabric with a bit of lycra and applying the bands correctly with some stretch solves that problem. I gave this book a 3 star since I can use the patterns and then apply correct techiques to turn out some cute garments, but I would not advise any new sewist to use the book for instruction, maybe just for inspiration. My daughter who is a novice sewist in her early 20's scanned the pics in the book and declared that she just plain did not like it, however I showed her the possibilities using different fabrics and techniques and she tentively agreed with my open minded approach.