3.95

3

Jan 27, 2018

Designs range from simple to more elaborate. Some of the flora designs are incredible. Nice alphabet examples.

3

Mar 07, 2016

This review is rated R for content.

This is a decent book for an advanced beginner. There are good, clear photo instructions for some basic stitches. A few standard ideas are pictured in the beginning for what you can embroider. (I swear those are nipple clamps that are lying on the shirt in one of the photos. Maybe it's just the placement or maybe I've been reading too much smut.)

I digress.

The motifs are sweet if mostly ordinary things like flora and fauna, baby stuff, edging and alphabets. I This review is rated R for content.

This is a decent book for an advanced beginner. There are good, clear photo instructions for some basic stitches. A few standard ideas are pictured in the beginning for what you can embroider. (I swear those are nipple clamps that are lying on the shirt in one of the photos. Maybe it's just the placement or maybe I've been reading too much smut.)

I digress.

The motifs are sweet if mostly ordinary things like flora and fauna, baby stuff, edging and alphabets. I do appreciate that there are some needlework related designs such as embroidery bobbins, thread, needles, hoop, and needle threader as well as some other craft-related designs like a sewing machine, yarn, sewing bobbins, knitting needles, and a dressmaker's dummy. Each page spread has the design outlines on one side and a photo of the designs embroidered in the same order on the other side. I like having them side by side like this.

The problem is that the artist hasn't a good good grasp of perspective. This may be intentional, but I don't think it's successfully done if it is. Up to a point, a skewed angle can be jaunty and cute, but these are pretty bad. I think the finished designs look like they were done by a beginner who got the pattern wrong. Fortunately, the majority of the designs don't have a three dimensional look so that's not an issue. Do keep in mind, though, that the skewed, slightly tilted/twisted/shaken look is the basis of most of the motifs. I think this is cute in the animals but not so much in the objects.

The one thing this book did for me is make me realize that I can make most of these things myself. I was an art major for about three seconds in college (I was about 27 different majors at one point or another) and I can draw a representative outline. A portrait is beyond me, but these things I could do and better than these. And that's not being arrogant. I think a lot of people could. What makes a book like this relevant for people like us is that it gives us ideas. Would I think of what kind of different flowers to make? Would it occur to me to make an outline of an embroidery bobbin? Probably not. So in that way, even not so well executed books like this are helpful to me as well.

Overall, if simple and simplistic (yeah, I think those are different in this context) are what you're looking for and like a very homemade look to your designs, or maybe it could be classified as country or shabby chic (I hate that expression) or something like that, this would be a good book of motifs for you. Otherwise, you will probably find the same kind of designs elsewhere and might give this one a miss. ...more

3

Nov 23, 2013

The borders are cute & some of the animals & alphabets, but they look pretty complicated.