 Hey guys, how are you today? We are here with another video for my creative year for September 2018 and this video release happens to coincide with the first prompt for September. So this is the book reviewer tip video and the first prompt video will come out also today. The topic for this month is stitches and the prompt for this week is clothing. So we're gonna kind of combine those for our reviewer tip. For those that don't know, I was a seamstress at one point and while I don't do that anymore, and I actually don't enjoy garment making, I do enjoy the occasional sewing project. I love making bags. I do, I should say I have over the years purged quite a bit of my sewing stuff that has to do with garment making and think parts of sewing that I don't enjoy. That being said, I have kept a few things. This stack of three books being three of them. I have a small reference sewing reference library still to this day. I did get rid of a lot of books, but I did keep a few things. This stack of three happened to be my favorite that I thought I would share with you. Now two of these are vintage books and the mixed media artist in all of us looks at them and goes, ooh, those would be cool collage material or that would make a cool mixed media journal, but these are from my reference library. They have unique and interesting information in them. They're good reference books. I want to share them with you. This first one, I had to Google the date because it's written in Roman numerals, and I wasn't sure what the date, what that meant. Not great with Roman numerals. So it's copyright about 1952. It's called Sewing Made Easy by Mary Lynch, and she is a author. I have a few books by and I do enjoy them very much. This is a general sewing reference. Everything from simple sewing and mending to garment making. And the nice thing about this book is she'll go through how to create patterns for things, not only how to sew them. And I mean, aren't the images so cool if you're a mixed media person out there and you're not interested in sewing at all. Go when you go thrifting or you go antiquing, look at your old sewing and crafting books because especially 1940s and 50s. They're going to have images like this in there and they're going to be really great for your work. Anyway, that being said, there's lots of great reference material in here, how to create certain things in garment making, how to create the pattern for them, how to sew them, how to put in zippers, how to create a finished bound buttonhole. She also has remodeling her clothes or refashioning, redoing, remaking your clothes, cutting them down, using the fabric for something else. You know, restyling them. We still do that today, adding lace edge and other trims, how to do that, how to do some basic embroidery stitches. So that's what I find with a lot of these books, especially the older ones, is they're really well rounded as far as needlework in general is concerned. Sewing and mending for the family, how to repair things, how to create things, how to re-weave, you know, a hole. I would, or darn, I don't do that. I mean, to the state age, we don't be, we can't be bothered, but it is fascinating reading anyway. And if I'm not mistaken, when we first bought this house that we're in right now in San Jose, we bought the house and we had no money left and we were on a budget for quite a while. So I had to create the draperies for the most part that were in the house. And this is one of the books I believe that I used as reference for how to do that. And we did have those drapes up for a long time. Um, proper way of hanging a curtain rod and hanging the drapes and what the different drapes part, how to create a slip cover, how to cover a lampshade, like everything is in here. I really, so this is one of my favorite books. I do have another one called the New Encyclopedia of Modern Sewing and this one is by Let's see. Francis Blondin. This is an older book. This is from 1947. And again, I really love this book. They're similar yet different. They have different things in them. And, um, but it is still a really good, um, sewing reference, general sewing and mending reference. And it has, I mean, look at that image. If you don't, again, if you're not interested in sewing, look at that image. How I mean, that would be great on a journal page. She just looks exhausted. But again, it has how to do slip covers and upholstery and sewing, mending, how to cut out, how to lay out the fabric so that you get all your pieces cut out of a limited amount of fabric. But it also has like, here's how to make some slippers, traveling slippers, how to cover your vanity, placemats, aprons. Um, there's also general sewing, um, information. How to sew a straight seam, how to, you know, make bias tape, what bias tape is, how to turn a tube, how to make a collar. So there, and there's some embroidery stitches in the, they all seem to have, the older ones seem to have a few embroidery stitches in the back. And I know from my grandmother, um, that was, embroidery was done on a lot of things. So, and what the basic stitches are and how to do them and some pattern designs. There was also, I just saw a pattern for a teddy bear. So that's cute. So I love, these two particular books are two of my favorites and I had a more modern version of both of these that I got rid of, um, when I was doing the purging. I really prefer these and refer to these a lot, um, not to mention the fact that I love the illustrations in them. This is the only more modern one that I've kept and this is the complete encyclopedia of needlework. Now this is not just sewing, which is why I kept it. Um, as you can see from the cover, it's cruel, applique knitting, tapestry, weaving, lace, tatting, sewing, linen work, and mending. Macrame crochet needlepoint embroidery, like all of it's in here, at least the basics of all of it. So when I want to say do a macrame knot for a mixed media project, I can pull this off the shelf. I can go read it and remind myself, okay, how do I do that again? How to make embroidered lace, tatting, which I don't know how to do, but I find supremely interesting. And again, even this one, it's a more modern copy of a vintage book and it has interesting, um, pictures and embellishments and illustrations in it. I mean, I love things like this. So this one is copyright, so it's a complete encyclopedia of needlework by Teresa D. Delmont, and I'm sure that's not the way you pronounce that because that's a French name and that's Therese in the French word, then that's not how you pronounce that. I know, I'm sorry for butchering the name. This one is copyrighted originally in 1972. This version I have is from 1996. So it's old. The original version is old but not quite as old as disease. And if I'm not mistaken, when I bought this one, that was a long time ago, but when I bought this one, it was because I couldn't find the vintage copy. So I ended up just getting it on Amazon. So I would really recommend the next time you're out shopping and thrifting or antiquing, look at some of those old needlework and sewing books. They make great reference material. Of course, they would make great mixed media and art journaling material too, but they do make great reference material. Maybe look at your moms or grandmoms bookshelf, see what they have, and ask if you can at least borrow something for reference and see what they have. So that's my quick tip for today. I would recommend getting at least one of these for your stash and collection, even if you're just using it to tear the illustrations out because you're going to use it for mixed media. They're really cool. This one here is not the oldest one, but this one is my favorite. So that's it for today. Don't forget to check out the other video for the prompt clothing for this month. Again, the topic this month is stitches and it's going to be a fun one, I think. If you want to join the Group My Creative Year and you aren't a member, the link is in the description below. All of my links are actually, there is a link tree link in the description of all the videos, and if you click on it, you're going to find every single place I am on the internet, including My Creative Year. So join. We would love to have you. It's a great group for teaching and support and community in the art field, and don't we all need that? So that's it for today. Go out, get yourself some reference books, and have a great day. Do something nice for yourself because you deserve it and I'll see you later. Bye, guys.