Book Review: Paper Fashions Fantasy

September 7, 2009 by Vikram Goyal

image by Heather Holbrook

I recently took part in a contest put on by Klutz publications for their new book Paper Fashions Fantasy. First let me say I LOVE this book! It’s something I would have picked up and bought for myself. I love making art paper dolls and I also like using templates to add wings, hats, etc to collage and stamped art pieces so this book was right up my alley. It has plastic templates you trace and cut out to make clothing for fairies, princesses, witches, etc, lots of different dresses, shoes, hats, wings, anything you can think of. Plus it comes with a bunch of great papers, ribbons, beads, sequins, tiny hangers and glitter glue. There are also lots of wonderful ideas to copy or to get you going on your own ideas. It’s a wonderful book for kids but also for us adults who love to play with paper too

For my projects I was inspired by my favorite princess, Snow White. It’s the first movie I remember seeing in the movie theater when I was really little. So I wanted to recreate Snow’s outfit as well as the Evil Queen, she’s one of the best dressed Disney villains (next too Cruella Deville ) and I was so happy to find I was easily able to use the templates, papers and embellishments in this book to make my versions of those iconic outfits, I think they turned out so cute and they were so much fun to make. I’ll definitely be using this book for more creations in the future!

Visit the Klutz website for more info on this fun book and many others.

-Heather

image by Klutz

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Knit a Blanket with the Texture of a Ceiling

Knitwear designers can get inspiration from almost anything when it comes to re-creating a color scheme, an image or a texture in stitches. Sometimes the inspiration isn’t always obvious in the finished project, but sometimes it’s more literal.

That’s the way it is with the Tin Ceiling Blanket from Purl Soho. Not just because the inspiration is in the name, but if you’ve ever seen one of these old ceilings you can see that the design of the blanket is quite similar to the pattern of the tin tiles.

This is also a good example of the idea that you don’t have to use fancy stitch patterns or lots of color to make a big impact with your knits. This single-color blanket (designed by Gianna Mueller and inspired by a washcloth and towel set designed by Sandi Rosner) is made completely with knits and purls, other than slipped stitches at the beginning of rows to make neater edges.

The pattern is written out row by row, but there’s also a chart, which means this project is a great opportunity to practice reading a chart where you can check your work against the written pattern if you need to.

It comes in two sizes, a crib blanket and a throw. The yarn used in the sample is an organic cotton sold by the cone, which is a great way to get a large quantity of yarn and have fewer ends to weave in. In fact, you can knit either size of the blanket with just one cone of yarn, which isn’t inexpensive but makes you a great, sturdy, heirloom quality but still washable blanket you’ll use for years to come. (Of course you can use any sport weight yarn you like to make this blanket.)

Check out all the details and grab the free pattern from Purl Soho.

[Photo: Purl Soho]