Book Review: 1,000 Clever Sewing Shortcuts & Tips

As a last bit of holiday spending, I obtained 2 new books with a Barnes&Noble gift card this past week.  A big kiss to Mr. Skooks' grandparents for that one.  :)  I'm going to tackle my reviews of them in separate posts.

The first one I chose (which I have had my eye on for quite some time now), was 1,000 Clever Sewing Shortcuts & Tips by Deepika Prakash (of PatternReview fame).  Remember back when I tackled the organization of my interfacings?  Well, I gleaned that nugget of organizational awesomeness from an excerpt of the book that I read online . . . the sample chapter I saw put it on the short list of sewing books I wanted to get.

Now that I have it in hand, I'd like to share a few things about it for those who might be interested.  This book is LOADED.  Just tons and tons of info.  I'm going to come straight out and say that I'm glad I own this book.  I can see that it will be a nice reference to have in the sewing years ahead.

With that being said, I'd like to point out that it heavily focuses on tips and tricks for garment sewing, which is not something that I am hugely into at the moment.  My experience with garment sewing is pretty small . . . probably 4 or 5 dresses for Little Miss over the last 4 years . . . and fairly simple ones at that.  This is not to say I have no interest in garment sewing, but it's just not something that tends to get me terribly jazzed up these days.  (I blame the CPSIA, without which I would probably have sewn LOTS of kid clothes to date.)

This is not to say that there is nothing in there for us non-garment sewers.  Actually, there is quite a lot in there which is worth reading and noting.  If you're on the fence, see if you can find it in the library or in-store and breeze through it ahead of time so you can make a more informed decision as to its usefulness in your sewing journey.

Like I said, if you're a garment sewer, I'm pretty sure you'll love it.  If you're all over the place like me, I still think you'll find good stuff in it (and it may even give you the confidence to tackle garment projects if you've been scared off from trying) . . . though you may find yourself skimming over several sections.