My new sewing library

Take a look at all the wonderful books I purchased at the University Women's Book and Treasure Sale. Each book shown was only $1.00 each!!! What a bargain. This is an annual sale and my first time to attend. I had helped out a bit as a volunteer prior to the sale but boy was I shocked when I drove up on the opening sale day. The parking lot was full with people cruising for a parking spot.

The proceeds from the sale benefit scholarships at the local college and university.

Photo #1 from right to left
Simplicity Holiday 2007-a store copy of patterns. Perhaps not the most useful of my purchases, but if you something you had to grab it quick!

Simplicity Sewing Books-an oldie but goodie with lots of sewing information from picking a pattern to lining a coat, selecting fabric, and detail work.

Simplicity Sewing Book-Revised-Tailoring, crochet, embroidery,etc.

Sewing Express by Nancy Zieman-1994, blouses, jackets, skirts, pants, reversibles, accessories.

Palmer/Pletsch Couture: The Art of Fine Sewing by Robert Carr, 1993. Excellent book with great diagrams and photos.

Top center of photo #1 is the Good Housekeeping Complete Book of Needlecraft,1959. Yeah, they are not kidding when they say "Complete". This book has everything in it.



Photo 2
Palmer/Pletsch Dream Sewing Spaces: Designing & Organization for Spaces Large and Small by Lynette Ranney Black, 1996. Again a very good purchase.

Better Homes & Gardens Sewing Book: Sewing How to for home and family, 1961. You might think this is too old to be of any use but I have found it a really great book to own. It covers everything from garment construction to design and home decor.

The Bishop Method of Clothing Construction, 1959. Great photos (black/white) and diagrams are very understandable. Again a great bargain.

Top right of photo #2 are:

Dressmaking with Liberty by Ann Ladbury, Includes 3 patterns for 20 outfits, 1984. Patterns are in the back pouch and never used. Styles are dated so this is not my favorite purchase but Liberty is hot these days so who knows what I will come to think of this book later.

Also at top of photo #2 is: The Liberty Home, Distinctive Sewing Projects from Classic Liberty Fabrics, 1997. Beautiful photos in this full color book!




Photo #3

Singer Sewing Book by Mary Brooks Picken, 1953. Original price of this book was $4.95! My how times have changed. Again, this is a very good book which covers just about everything you need to know. Black/white diagrams. I like it :)

The Art of Sewing/The Classic Techniques, A Time-Life book, 1973. Probably my favorite book of all. The first section is a historic perspective of fashion and the rest are color diagrams on clothing construction. And the pretty pink fuzzy texture of the cover is very nice too.

Easy Elegance from the Ann Person Collection, Lingerie, 1982. Very nice book but it will probably be a while before I feel competent enough to try sewing lingerie. Besides that my little cheapie sewing machine is not up to the task anyway.

The Best of Threads Garmentmaking Tips. This is a small pamphlet probably included with another book or magazine at some time. It contains tips from readers of Thread magazine. Nothing really new or great here.


Finally the last photo.


Sew Somerset, the art of creative sewing with mixed media.2007. Pretty pictures but I don't think I ever actually do anything like they show in this magazine.

Christopher Lowell's You Can Do It! Small Spaces.2003. I love Christopher and I used to watch his television show back in the days when we had cable. This book was brand new and shrink wrapped so it was a surprise to find the small spaces were in two Fleetwood Mobile Homes. Pretty pictures though. Not my best purchase.

Making Mechanical Cards, Shelia Sturrock, 2009. New book, but, ahhh, I am not going to do this. Yeah.

The Craft of Temari, Mary Wood, 2003. Love the photos but doubt I ever try this either. Still worth the buck spent though.



So as you see my best purchases were all the sewing books. I feel very smart about all those purchases! Ok, smug it is then :)