Five Things

There are sooo many great DIY books out there and it's hard to choose sometimes! I have a few here that I own and a few that I found recently at Barnes and Noble that would find a warm welcome on my bookshelf. Here are the five I love:

Sew U

I loveeee this book. It's any woman's guide to sewing your own clothing. Any woman. Even if you haven't sewn *anything* before! That's what I really love about it - about half the book is teaching you the basics of sewing - the terms, the skills and how to think about customization. In the last half of the book there are three different pieces - a skirt, a blouse and pants - and each have multiple ways to customize them and make them your own. It also helps you plan your projects with project cards and patterns. It's a great book and highly recommended if you would like to learn to make your own clothes and either are a complete beginner or have been sewing for a while. 

Generation T: Beyond Fashion

I just picked this one up and it's great! I have the first one too but I think they did a reallyyy great job on the second one. It's not just transforming tees into girl's clothing, although there still is a lot of that. It's guy's clothing, pet accessories, car accessories, kid's clothing, home decor, etc, etc. In other words, it's got a lot of ideas and good ones - and they're all made from t-shirts and are very simple!

Printing By Hand

Okay, so I might be partial to this because I'm a textiles students but I love this book. I don't own it but it would be a great one to have even though I have learned a lot of this in school! It teaches you how to print... by hand, obviously, but it gives you different ways you can use the fabric and how you can apply the techniques to actual products. So you're not just making loads of really pretty hand-printed fabric, you're seeing how it can be used as a final piece. Love it. This is definitely on my wish list. 

P.S. I Made This

Erica is a fellow blogger and fabulous at DIYs. I really love how simple her projects are and how she lays out the whole DIY on one page. She finds inspiration from high end fashion or home decor and makes it with very inexpensive materials. {You'll never look at the dollar store the same.} This has been on my wish list ever since I found it in our school store.

Craft Wisdom & Know-How

Most of the DIY books that I like have been a little favoring sewing and fabric {just a little} but this is where the tables turn a bit. This book is full of *so* much stuff that I don't think I can buy it because I would have too many ideas. It is 480 pages of small print explaining sewing, knitting, paper crafts, woodworking, glasswork, jewelry, pottery, candle-making, etc. It's insane how much craft goodness is packed into this thing. There are projects but it explains the basics so you can take those skills anywhere! I love books like this. I have a book by the same publishers {they have a series of these Wisdom and Know-How books} and it's so great. They really tell you everything you need to know.

 What are your favorite DIY books? I'd love to find more for my wish list :) 

♥ Kenzie