Good sewing book

[BoBoo]

I'm just getting to grips with my sewing machine and had a look in the library for a sewing book, but all the ones they had seemed to be a bit old fashioned and didn't have any very exciting ideas. Does anyone have any recommendations for an modern sewing book?

how about tracking down Sew Hip magazine?

This is fun

As is this one

This is good for description/technique and has a few ideas

I love "yeah I made it myself" - very carefree and enthusiastic and inspiring not pernickety and overly technical like old library books

And "SEW everything workshop" by diana rupp which comes with free patterns for lots of the projects. Only downside is it's US, so a bit of a pain if you work in metric.

I recommend Sew by Cath Kidston

DK Basic Sewing - a small book with lots of useful information and step by step photos

and Making Children's Clothes by Emma Hardy

I have borrowed quite a few good ones from my local library - they always seem to have at least one sewing book and cheaper than buying.

However, I have been recommended The Readers Digest book of sewing but as it is well out of print it is expensive on ebay & amazon so I have been searching the car boots & charity shops for what seems like forever!

I have also seen a cheap book on The Book People website called something like "How to use your sewing machine"

The Readers Digest book is great, if you can get hold of it.

I have got 'Making Children's Clothes' like Clucky and I really like it. It doesn't use words like 'baste'.

Thanks for all your replies.

I've ordered a copy of the latest Sew Hip and have found one of the books at my library so I'll start off there.

I have no idea what 'baste' is!!

You can get second hand copies of the Readers Digest book of sewing on amazon, have just checked and there are some there for a fiver. As it's out of print there isn't a picture to go with it, but it's there.
There is also an updated version which is slightly more expensive. I have the old version and although it is old fashioned it really teaches you how to sew. I would defo recommed it in conjuction with the DK one Plus something with pretty and hip sewing projects for inspiration.

I too recommend the RD book - it does take ages to track down in charity shops though as it is so popular. Worth the fiver from Amazon.

The Reader's Digest book has been re-released as the New Complete Guide to Sewing, and is available here

I agree with others it is an absolutely fabulous resource, I refer to my copy again and again...

Sorry the link in the last message is duff, try this... this

Fantastic chestnutlady

i got 'making childrens clothes' from the bookpeople. £5. as it has patterns it's a bargain (even at amazon). for first thing i made a top for dd1 and it worked really well so i echo the recommendation of others.

i also bought 'the sewing book'from the bookpeople - really good at explaining all the terms - like basting which i also found baffling amzn.to/9oQBIK.

other good ones simple sewing but admit nice to look at, haven't made anything from that one yet.

and latest two (i like books) you can look inside on amazon there's a couple of things in here i'm keen to make.

and some lovely stuff in here also look inside on amazon.

Basting is tacking - long loosish stitches that hold the material together, but that you can easily pull out afterwards.