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The Crafty Chica's Guide to Artful Sewing!

comments (20) March 10th, 2009     

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susanstars Susan Beal, contributor
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This charming felt-appliqué Calaca Clutch celebrates the Day of the Dead year-round.
Kathys Chop Top Frock gives a plain mens button-down shirt a fresh and pretty new look!
Kathy Cano-Murillos new book, Crafty Chicas Guide to Artful Sewing, is a fun and vibrant collection of projects!
The Summer Scarf Dress builds a fitted, feminine garment out of a tube top and a flowy skirt made from a few graphic vintage scarves.
These Lush Life Lounge Pillows are made from cloth napkins—easy and eye-catching!
This button-covered sewing machine Kathy embellished is just the thing to celebrate Button It Up month!
This charming felt-appliqué Calaca Clutch celebrates the Day of the Dead year-round.

This charming felt-appliqué Calaca Clutch celebrates the Day of the Dead year-round.

Photo: Susan Beal
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We're so excited to offer up a copy of Kathy Cano-Murillo's Crafty Chica's Guide to Artful Sewing for our second book giveaway this month! Enter to win by 12 am, Tuesday, March 17, and you could win your own copy of Kathy's book!

Maybe you've read Kathy's blog or her weekly syndicated craft column, tried her Crafty Chica line of glittery craft products, or enjoyed one of her other books, like Art De La Soul or La Casa Loca. Now she's brought her signature sparkle to the world of sewing.

Kathy gives a warm and fun introduction to using a machine, choosing fabrics, trying image transfer techniques, and hand-sewing. Then she presents a collection of projects designed to repurpose colorful bits and pieces you probably already have—fun ribbons and trims, bright cloth napkins and scarves, patterned placemats, graphic scarves, or favorite fabric remnants—into eye-catching bags to carry, clothes to wear, or trinkets to decorate your home. Her inspirations and enthusiasm shine through each project—and most of them are stash-friendly and geared towards beginners, so you can thread your machine and leap right in to the how-to!

Kathy also offers tips and tricks she's learned along the way, quotes from fellow crafters, templates to use in the projects, and resources for craft-supply shopping, sewing-machine-choosing, fabric matching, and website browsing. And the Artful Sewing website adds all kinds of great extras. All in all, Kathy's book is a bright-colored whirlwind of Crafty Chica-ness, from the very first page to the last!

I've included snapshots of my favorite projects for a few sneak peeks: the Calaca Clutch brings the iconic Day of the Dead skull to life year-round; the Chop Top Frock revitalizes a boxy and plain button-down shirt into a cute and feminine top; the Summer Scarf Dress is a stylish take on repurposing vintage scarves or other textiles; and the Lush Life Lounge Pillows are a quick transformation to try with a couple of patterned cloth napkins.

Enter to win by 12 am, Tuesday, March 17, and you could win your own copy of Kathy's book!

posted in: giveaway, button, crafty, book, projects, crafty chica, kathy cano murillo, artful sewing
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Comments (20)

Bigpurpledragon writes: How cool! What great projects! I'd love to get my hands on a copy!
Posted: 5:01 am on January 12th
Dawn37 writes: I can't get enough of her Books! They;re great.
Posted: 4:59 pm on March 22nd
MizLit writes: Just what I need for some inspiration!
Posted: 12:05 am on March 16th
Paws2 writes: Kathy Cano-Murillo's book Crafty Chica's Guide to Artful Sewing sounds like the perfect book I need to help with inspiration and practical uses for fabrics and notions from my stash and remnant boxes. It seems like Kathy had a lot of fun putting this book together and I would love to share this with her!
Posted: 10:27 pm on March 15th
Jo_T writes: Looks like a fabulous book, colorful and fun -- just what I need to make it through the end of winter into spring. Thanks!
Posted: 1:11 pm on March 15th
cynnec writes: I would love new ideas to try since this is my fav pasttime.
Posted: 11:45 am on March 14th
handknittemple writes: This is just what I need for my new crafty obsession! thanks.
Posted: 7:28 am on March 12th
PaulaLemos writes: I would love to win this book, please count me in! Thanks!
Posted: 6:55 pm on March 11th
sivyerb writes: looks like a good one. i have been in need of some new inspiration...
Posted: 3:41 pm on March 11th
TFMD writes: Oooh fingers crossed!! This book looks great!
Posted: 1:49 pm on March 11th
sweetspotforgetmenot writes: This book looks like so much fun! I recently purchased my first sewing machine and can't wait to get started with this book! Crossing my fingers!
Thank you for the giveaway.
Posted: 10:05 am on March 11th
Pumpkinbear writes: I actually used to listen to the Crafty Chica podcast, so I've been a fan for a while--I love anything that encourages me to "embellish" (or, as my partner says, "crap up stuff").

Ahem.
Posted: 8:28 am on March 11th
Kreativmonster writes: It seems to be a perfect book for me! I´ve bought a sewing machine two month ago and I need ideas what to sew.
Posted: 4:06 am on March 11th
Tmommy writes: I would love to win this book! I really like to look at new idea's instead of the same old same old. This site gives me so much inspiration as is!
Posted: 11:40 pm on March 10th
Tmommy writes: I would love to win this book! I really like to look at new idea's instead of the same old same old. This site gives me so much inspiration as is!
Posted: 11:40 pm on March 10th
Tmommy writes: I would love to win this book! I really like to look at new idea's instead of the same old same old. This site gives me so much inspiration as is!
Posted: 11:40 pm on March 10th
Tmommy writes: I would love to win this book! I really like to look at new idea's instead of the same old same old. This site gives me so much inspiration as is!
Posted: 11:39 pm on March 10th
stacysews writes: I've been waiting to hear some reviews on this book as I still haven't see it in my local bookstore. It sounds like it has some fun projects inside - I'd love to win this book!
Posted: 11:11 pm on March 10th
Miba writes: Looks like an awesome book with a bunch of neat ideals.
Posted: 7:04 pm on March 10th
OonaBaker writes: I would love to try some of Cathy's awesome projects, my sewing machine has been staring at me longingly.....
Thanks!
Posted: 6:45 pm on March 10th
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