Kokoro no Te: Handmade Treasures from the Heart (Paperback)

by Kumiko Sudo (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Provides sophisticated, useful, chic and beautiful tiny projects."  —Antiquequiltdating.com

"Exquisite...proves that handmade and beautiful doesn’t equal difficult and labor-intensive.”  —Sew News

"This beautiful book is Sudo at her best."  —Clotilde’s

"A delightful collection of hand-made treasures."  —Appliqué Quilts 

"These projects are elegant and send a message of love."  —Quilter's World

Product Description

Kokoro no Te, translated into English as "handmade from the heart," is the philosophy behind this enchanting collection of small, high-fashion craft projects that have a distinctive Japanese flair. Featuring purses, pins, sewing accoutrements, and the author's amazing temari balls, the 30 original hand-sewn designs combine surprisingly simple techniques with exquisite colors and fabrics, allowing sewers to create lavish objets d'art easily and inexpensively. A delightful and original array of fashion pins, brooches, purses, and keepsake pouches creatively combine silks, cottons, and soft felts with delicate beading and embroidery. A pattern for a doll-sized kimono is included along with designs for pin cushions, thimbles, and a needle cache. The sensational color photographs and line drawings show multiple points of view for each project and show precisely how each artful, stylish, and charming piece comes together.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Breckling Press; illustrated edition edition (October 28, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1933308044
• ISBN-13: 978-1933308043
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 8.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #67,057 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

110 of 110 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another lovely fabric feast from Sudo, November 5, 2005

By	S. L. Smith (Durham, NH United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Kumiko Sudo repeats her flair with fabric and fabulous books.

This book, like all her others (and I have most of them!), is such a treat to read and gaze at, even if you do not actually make any of the items. Similar in substance to her earlier book "Omiyage", this text offers many diminutive wonders, but adds the new elements of felt, beads, craft beans, and batting to the projects.

Projects include: tiny jewelry caches, an eyeglass or cellphone cozy, accessories to be worn on the wrist, a CD caddy (holds one), Japan-chic fashion pins (to put on hats, sandals, books), several sewing accessories (kits, thimbles, a pin-cushion, and a needle booklet), temari and juggling balls, tiny kimonos and hula dresses, and several caches or pouches in animal shapes (fish, cicada, dragonfly) and flower shapes (camelia, bird of paradise, posy, wisteria).

If you are a cookie-cutter fabricist and like to crank out volumes of strip-pieced projects, this book will definitely convert you to a hand-sewer of one-of-a-kind treasures. There are almost 30 projects here, with Sudo's signature style that includes useful techniques and her etherial commentary on what motivates her as an artist.

However, take note that like all her other books, odd written English errors appear here and there, and her instructions really require you to do some careful extra thinking beyond what she provides. And don't think that "miniature" is synonymous with "fast"; it took me 2 whole days to complete a project from her Omiyage book (the project was the Conpaito bag which when finished is the size of a hand ball). The instructions can be truly cryptic and the illustrations are not always, well, illustrative. For instance, if a project has 6 steps, she provides only 2 or 3 illustrations. I don't know about you, but I could really use an illustration, maybe several, for each of her steps. But please do not let this deter you; her books are a wonder to behold and I am happy to accept all of Sudo's contributions as they are.

Also note, if you do make any of her projects (and trust me, you will want to), she suggests you can use any 100% cotton quilting fabrics with Eastern themes. I discovered, unfortunately, after working on that Conpaito bag for 2 days using cotton from my fabric stash, that the finished bag did not have the same weighty and lustrous appearance as her example. So, I would strongly recommend that you start collecting true Japanese fabrics such as silk and chiremen crepe and use these to make the projects. As good as cotton quilt fabric is these days, it just can't compare to real Asian textiles, and Sudo's projects definitely deserve the very best materials. As she says in Kokoro No Te, you will not need large amounts of fabrics to complete these projects, often using less than an eighth of a yard.

Of the title "Kokoro No Te", Sudo says "when a gift is made by hand, and given with the heart, good wishes and good fortune are extended from one person to another in loving harmony". When I discovered this book on the shelf at the bookstore, my heart literally skipped a beat, and I gladly and quickly accepted Sudo's gift from her heart. I felt the love! And the harmony!! Kumiko Sudo is a master of fabric and text, and this book is one more dialog in what will hopefully be a very long conversation from this rare but accessible artist.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Useful tiny projects with beading and fussy cut fabrics, January 15, 2006

By	Kimberly Wulfert (Ojai, California) - See all my reviews

If you enjoy sewing by hand, or want to learn how, this book provides sophisticated, useful, chic and beautiful tiny projects. Filling the book are excellent close-up photographs. You can easily see beading, edging, pom-poms and other three-dimensional embellishments. Kumiko uses her highly patterned Japanese prints in interesting ways which make it appear that more piecing was done than actually was. They look complicated, but aren't. Although small in size, they make a big impression. There are no quilts in this book. Sewing kits, wearables and pouches of various types make this book fun and useful to a sewing and fabric enthusiast.

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exquisite Small Gifts to Make, January 26, 2006

By	Lisa M. Dunz "Kansas Cyclist & Quilter" (Shawnee, Kansas USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is the second of Kumiko Sudo's books I have purchased and fallen in love with. There is sure to be a special project that will appeal to your senses and compel you to spend the hours creating just that perfect piece! The projects are small, and require patience and careful attention to detail. That said, the hand sewing can be done in front of the television or while riding in the car.

Items evoke a delight when given as gifts and are perfect for those who have everything. These patterns seem a bit more difficult than those in the Omiyage book and require a bit more imagination to fill in the steps not illustrated. If you enjoy challenging projects, you will love this book.

The Temari balls have become an bit of an issue at my house. I make them for my children and our Siamese cat grabs the balls and runs with them from the kids! So if you have cats or want to make a very special gift for a friend with cats, you could make a Temari ball with a bit of catnip inside!