The more eagle eyed readers will have spotted that I posted this review over the weekend. I'm re-posting it because I'm excited to be able to offer 3 copies of the book to 3 lucky, lucky people. Just leave a comment and on Monday 28th, I'll pick three of you at random to receive your own copies.
I loved this book and think you will too, so I've made sure the giveaway is open to anyone, anywhere but please note that it's not available to buy outside of the UK yet. Which means that if you're oversea's and you win, you'll have a copy before anyone else - cool!!
The kind people at Quadrille Publishing recently sent me a copy of Lisa Stickley's new (and first) book 'Made At Home' to have a look at.
Let me start off by saying that I've been a huge fan of Lisa Stickley's work for a long time.
A graduate of both Central Saint Martins and the Royal College of Art, her designs have long managed to combine both a beautiful vintage feel with a fresh, almost minimalist style.
Like everything else Lisa creates, 'Made at Home' is absolutely stunning from front cover to back. The feel, the type, the illustrations, the photography and the layout are all simple and completely inspiring. And it all so obviously says 'Lisa Stickley'.
The book itself has the feel of an old style school book, with lined heavy matt paper, hand drawn illustrations and pages for notes.
After starting with a number of pages that cover some basic but useful technical info (including a page of fabric definitions as well as how to insert a zip) the book is broken down in to chapters that cover patterns for each room of the home - Kitchen, Living Room, Bed Room and Laundry.
As well as including a number of very basic patterns (napkins, placemats etc) Lisa has managed to come up with a few slightly more unusual ones - my favourites being the 'Pin Tucked Cushion' and the 'Piped Cushion'. But to be honest the majority of the patterns are old favourites that can be found in many sewing books - tea cosy, apron, shoe bag, carrier bag holder, door stop etc. What makes this book different though, is that whilst there are few groundbreaking patterns (it is 'A Guide To Simple Sewing' after all), the way each and every design is presented is just so beautiful that it makes me want to make them all. Because whilst I may already have the ability to make most of the patterns, like everyone else I rarely get around to making for myself or for my own home. 'Made at Home' really does make me want to find the time though.
The only minor critism that I have is that there aren't enough actual photographs of the finished projects. Whilst the illustrations are lovely, I would have preferred it if there had been at least one photo of each design, rather than a few that are just illustrated. It's a pretty small niggle though.
Like the majority of sewing books out there these days, 'Made at Home' is aimed at the novice sewist and if you have more than a passing knowledge of sewing then you'll probably find that most of the patterns don't offer anything particularly new. But that said, the pure sense of style of the book makes it worth having and Lisa's beautiful, modern take on many everyday items really will make you want to finally get around to making yourself a new apron or that door stop that's been on your To Do list forever.
If you have space on your bookshelf, then 'Made at Home' is definitely a worthy addition. And if you haven't got space, you may want to think about making some.
Made at Home by Lisa Stickley published by Quadrille £16.99, out 2nd July. Photography by Ben Anders.
*thanks so much but comments are now closed*
