ok i have to tell you i’m a total fan of jenny ryan. number one, she’s the brains and brawn behind felt club. number two, she’s super duper nice. these are two huge things in my book, so you better believe that when i found out she wrote a sewing book i preordered that crap post haste!

and look how cute the cover is!

hearts and laserbeams book report: sew darn cute by jenny ryan

ok i aint gonna lie to you, this book is chock full of super cute fun projects; all of which would be great gifts for friends or family and cover a multitude of occasions! housewarming? check out the embellished kitchen towels or recycled coasters! baby shower? check out the spumoni quilt and squarebears!

these patterns aren’t written to be followed strictly as is and i love that – there’s pattern pieces to be sure, but there’s plenty of encouragement to branch out and make your own remixes. everything’s written in a very welcoming friendly style, like you’re sittin and chattin with jenny ryan over a cup of coffee. if you’re familiar in your sewing skin, you can skip the intro pages and get right to the nitty gritty but if you’re a beginner there are LOTS of awesome helpful sewing tips to get you started!

i decided that since this isn’t really a reading type book, more of a how-to book, i’d do one of the how-tos as part of my book report – i chose the reversible headband, mostly because i didn’t feel like searching through my oodles of supplies to find the interfacing or stuffing that’s needed for a bunch of the other projects!

i decided on this totally sweet multicolored bird fabric i got at michael levine months ago, and a clean off-white fabric for the reverse side.

i also decided my dog jimmy the greek should join me in my crafting endeavors!

got all my pieces cut out, and did some sketches on cute embellishment ideas!

started stitchin some outlines of stars onto the birds side while watching the bachelor (my secret guilty tv pleasure!) check it out, someday i’ll teach you how to airbrush a supremely shiny forehead in a photo… you totally can’t even tell i had one!

check out my flying fingers of fury!!

i ended up with a bunch of stitchy stars on the birds side, and some fun felt flower appliques on the reverse side! i had so much fun just messin around the other day i just kept adding more and more little tiny stars and french knots to this thing and i love how it looks! i’m a big fan of retro-y stardust effects!

sewing the pieces all together! lookit my face, this takes serious concentration!

and voila! the finished product! i love how it turned out, but if i could do it over i would’ve taken a liiiiitle more time attaching the ties to the main piece… they didn’t quite match up just right… but on the upside the way i normally wear headbands that part’ll be hidden by my hair.

modellin one side,

and the other!

basically this book is just as awesome as its author, and you should get your copy immediately!

ratings
5 hearts: love love love all of the projects and the book design! jenny gets extra points for calling me “craplips” in her autograph to me from the book signing the other night, too. FTW!!!

0 farts: nuff said!