In Stitches, by Amy Butler

Reported by Nancy Beyer

I love anything Amy Butler. I want to basically dress myself and my house in all her fabrics. She seriously has an almost William Morris like modern day interpretation of fabric that I love. I wish she would have more clothes patterns because if I had time, I would make every single one of them. However, I was a bit disappointed about her latest book, In Stitches. I bought my copy from Amazon for under $20.00 USD but it can also be found at Barnes and Noble and Chronicle Books.

Using this book, I created this kitty tunnel. Simple enough right? It should have taken me about an hour at tops. Instead of faux fur, I used fuzzy wuzzy flannel. See the picture of Mogaley the Cat ( above) modeling the result. It took me four hours due to the directions. At one point, in Step # 5, I really messed up and had to rip out the seams because I was testing to see how well the directions would work without looking at a diagram.

If you read the directions for Step # 5, "with the exterior tunnel wrong side facing out and the fur lining right side facing out....slip the exterior tunnel over the fur lining making ..." you would have not sewed the item correctly. However, if you were to look at the at the mini diagram for Step 5, it doesn't match the written word. The diagram above shows, "wrong side of the exterior and the wrong side of the the fur". This was the critical issue I saw throughout the entire book. Even though the writer would bold the words RIGHT side and WRONG side in an attempt to differentiate between the fabric's "sides", in my viewpoint, those descriptors didn’t make sense at all when reading the instructions. Yes, there is a right and wrong side to every fabric, but again, from a beginner’s standpoint, it would have behooved the author to explain what they really meant. Something as simple as, the "patterned side" of the fabric equates to the "right" side of the fabric, and the "wrong" side of the fabric equates to the "non patterned" side.

I wanted to make sure I was not being to harsh, so I brought it over to my neighbor who is a seasoned sewer. She read the directions about three times and agreed with me that yes, this is difficult - especially if you don't have the terminology ingrained in your head.

I will admit, I was a technical writer - so little picky inconsistencies like this drive me nuts. Will I still finish the rest of the book? Maybe. I am currently eying up an apron and bag pattern. I am sure a good cup of java and a speed dial call to my neighbor will help me through it! Also, I found that Amy Butler's site lists corrections to the book.

Pros -

• Patterns are clear and well drawn.
• The variety of projects is good but I would prefer a rating system on level of difficulty

Cons-

• This is not a beginners sewing book at all, something that shocked me.
• The directions are very hard to follow - in fact - almost hard to comprehend. I found myself rereading the directions, sometimes 4 times. That is what took the longest - reading the directions and than looking at the diagrams to see if they matched.
• Questions for beginners? One had to go to Page 172 to find out information. I prefer to have all information needed on the page that I am reading.
• The diagrams are extremely small and were also hard to follow. They needed to be a bit bigger, especially when one puts five diagrams on one 8 x8 page. For example:

However, if you truly are a newbie at sewing, this is not your book. I would recommend reading like "Bend -the- Rules Sewing" by Amy Karol of Angrychicken fame or "Sew, Sew Everything Workshop" by Dianna Rupp. I love those books and they are extremely helpful.

Tell us what you think! Have you used the book In Stiches?