New Books For November – Craft Gossip

Fox Publishing has just sent us out a sneak peek of some November additions. I love the pipe cleaner book, once you have mastered the techniques you could pop a few pipe cleaners in your handbag and pop them out at the bus stop.

Making Pipe Cleaner Pets – Twist, bend, and shape pipe cleaners into 23 different dog breeds with Making Pipe Cleaner Pets. This book shows readers how to craft a realistic pipe cleaner likeness of their favorite pooch, using only a few colorful chenille stems and some inexpensive craft supplies.

Sew Me! Sewing Home Decor Sew Me! Home Décor is geared towards would-be sewers of all ages, who may never have touched a sewing machine or even threaded a needle before. It’s the perfect book for anyone who wants to create handmade home decor to match a personal taste or lifestyle.

The Beauty Of Zentangle – Zentangle is a creative doodling taken to a whole new level. This book showcases different Zentangle artists from around the world.

Crochet With Beads – Basic Steps and Techniques. Great book to get you started.

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Lately I have been feeling like all of my clothes are looking a little worn or feeling a little tired. I don’t want to buy new clothes, though, so there’s been a lot of mending, altering and adding special touches to things that otherwise might get overlooked or not worn at all.

As an example, not too long ago I added a little bit of embroidery to a T-shirt, which was a lot of fun to do and made me start eyeing all my solid-colored garments and wondering how they might look with some stitching added.

Of course you can cross stitch on garments, too, whether T-shirts or woven tops, skirts, pants and more. But it can be tricky to transfer cross stitch designs to your garment to make stitching easier.

Much like with embroidery, it’s great to use a water soluble stabilizer to keep your fabric in place while you stitch and to transfer your design (or your cross stitch grid at least) while you’re stitching. Then you just wash away the stabilizer when you’re done and it will look like the stitching has always been there.

Ashley General Handmade uses Sulky Stick ‘n Stitch, which is a product I use, too. It’s easy to use and washes away cleanly.

To make it even easier, she designed some printable cross stitch grids at different counts that you can print out to draw your own cross stitch designs, but you can also print the grid right on the Sulky, so you can stitch on top of squares and then remove them when you’re done.

Brilliant, right?

She has pages as big as 8 count and all the way down to 20 (remember: the bigger the number the smaller the stitches will be) that you can download and print to make your own designs and also use to make stitching on clothing easier. I’m definitely going to try this the next time I want to cross stitch on fabric!

You can grab her printables over at Ashley General Handmade.

[Photo: Ashley General Handmade]

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