Zakka Sewing - 25 Japanese Projects for the Household - Book Review

Today we're going to take a look at 'Zakka Sewing - 25 Japanese Projects for the Household'.  Zakka, as described in the book, means 'household goods' in Japan, specifically hand-sewn tableware, kitchenware, containers etc from natural fabrics such as linen.  There are a lot of Japanese language Zakka books, although this isn't a direct copy of just one of these.  It is a collection of projects from different Japanese designers, that have then been translated into English.

The main reason I got this book was for the project on the cover, I just loved the squirrel tea cosy with it's simple and subtle cute style.  There is a good selection of other projects in the book, various cozies, bags, coasters/placemats, purses and wallets etc, and whilst not all of them are something I would make, I have found that there are a good number that I like.

The book starts with general info on materials, sewing techniques and how to do various hand sewing stitches that are used in some of the projects.  Then you're straight into the projects.  I took some photos whilst I was making one of these, a Bunny Pencil Case.

Each project gets a double page of photos and an interesting fact about Japan and Zakka, followed by a few pages featuring the materials required and instructions.  At the end of these, there will also be any pattern pieces needed.  These aren't full size and need to be scaled up, so if you don't have access to a copier/multi-function printer, then this could be a problem.

There are easy to follow step-by-step instructions, with lots of diagrams to illustrate these.  However, I did manage to make a mistake with this item.  I failed to notice that the stitching line didn't just follow the edge of the fabric all the way around, so when I turned it to the the right way around, my bunny didn't really have a paw.  This was easily fixed by drawing on the bit I missed and re-sewing this small section.

Otherwise, the case came together nicely and I'm pleased with how it turned out.

I've also made a few other items from this book, the first being the squirrel tea cozy.  I found I had to adjust the pattern of this slightly to get it to fit my globe teapot.  The increase in size of 200% was generally okay, I just had to add a little to the width, under the tail, as you can see below.

He's not as smooth as the one in the book, due, I suspect, to the shape and size of my teapot, but still looks cute on our kitchen windowsill.

I have also decorated a ready-made tea-towel with a sashiko embroidery pattern from the book.  It does also include instructions to make the tea-towel from scratch if you don't want to cheat like I did.

And finally, I have modified one of the flower coaster patterns to turn it into a cherry blossom:

So, the projects are generally simple to follow and I think look pretty good once made.  Considering I've already made four things based on projects in this, and can see a few more I'd like to try, I think I can say it's a good book to have in my collection.

If you like the look of this book, it is available on Amazon here:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Zakka-Sewing-Japanese-Projects-Household/dp/1584797207/

Needle felting workshops - Book Review

  

The first book I'd like to review for you is 'Needle Felting Workshops with Jenny Barnett'.  I believe this is a self published book so isn't available at places like Amazon at the moment, but can be bought here:

Needle Felting Workshops with Jenny Barnett

I picked this up from Jenny's stall at the Yarndale show last October in Skipton.  As soon as I saw the book and examples of Jenny's work, I knew I had to buy it, as the sweet style of the animals in it were completely different to any I had seen in a book before.

The book starts by covering the basics of how to needle felt and how to make and work with the basic elements that each of the creations will be made of - bodys, attaching limbs, details such as eyes and whiskers.  It's all done in a pretty, almost scrapbook style, with a combination of text, helpful photos and sketches to illustrate the techniques. There is also an interesting section on posing your animal as one of the things that is different with this book to others I have is that it encourages you to try different poses with each of the animals to give them different characters, rather than just recreating one example exactly.

After these general explanations, there are then 10 workshops, each making a different animal.  I think a key part of reviewing a craft book is to actually try making some items from it and seeing how they come out, so I have made 4 of the animals so far, and I took a few photos whilst I was making the most recent one - a grey seal.

All of the workshops follow pretty much the same format.  First you weigh out your fleece so you know from the start you are using the right amount.  Then you felt each of the separate pieces for the body and the head.  Split in this way, they are quite simple shapes and there's a full scale drawing of each shape you are aiming for, so it's quite easy to get the proportions right.  It gets a little trickier when you come to attach the head as you need decide on the pose you are going to use and then spend a little time attaching it in this pose and building up the neck by eye, which takes a bit of patience - as you can see above it was looking a little skinny to start with!  There are lots of photos of each of the finished animals in all sorts of different poses in the book to give you ideas, so you can pick the one you like the most and copy it.

Next comes creating the limbs and there are more full scale drawings to compare the shape of each of these.  Then you need to decide where these need to be attached to achieve the pose you are after - again there's plenty of example photos to help here.  Within each of the workshops, there aren't step by step photos for putting together each animal, but they do contain clear, descriptive instructions taking you through each stage.  You can also refer back to the start of book were there are step by step photos for attaching the legs and how to add the facial details etc.  This seems fine to me, as there would just be a lot of repetition in each workshop if the steps were included each time since the techniques are the same.

After adding all the details and small tweaks to the shape, I finally had a seal I was happy with:

And here are some photos of the other three animals I've made from this book:

I'm really pleased with this book and with what I've been able to create following the instructions within it.  These were the first pieces of needle felting I'd done that were proper looking animals rather than simplified ball-shaped creatures, yet I was surprised at how easy they were to achieve. I found that they do take a few hours each and I needed to be patient and keep persisting with adjusting the shape of a few things, but I think the results are worth it.

You can get a copy of the book and also kits for the creatures within it from http://www.coriandr.com/shop/jennymade