101 One Yard Wonders

There's a new sewing book out there that you might want to take a look at when you have that stray yard of fabric begging to be used.




This is a book that will not teach you how to sew but it does have some great projects. I will admit that some are pretty lame... like how to recover a small ironng board using the old cover as the pattern (duh!) but there are many, many more that will stretch your imagination and give you some great results.

I decided to try out one of the projects this weekend just to test of the instructions. Each of the projects are designed by different internet based sewers but the instructions are all written by the editorial team. The one I chose is a cat bed that looks like a big floppy bowl. I was intrigued by it as the design is based on trapezoid walls that lean out from a small bottom.

Here's how it came out:

Doesn't Kelis look mad to be woken up by the flash?

Those big fluffy walls are just Alex and the Girls love to rest their heads on when they are taking naps....just don't tell them that it was designed for a cat!



The fabirc is a golf themed flannel that I have no idea how I acquired it or why. I stuffed it with tiny bits of cotton scraps that I spent way too long making even tinier while clearing out the TIVO yesterday...I should have just run out and bought some fiberfill as suggested in the instructions!



The instructions were very well written, short, to the point and very accurate. If you follow them, and do not get distracted, you will have success with this book. Please note that it is not written just for quilters with their obsession with 1/4" seam allowances, although there are a lot of projects that need bias binding as an edge finish. Many of the projects are suitable are non-quilting cottons which makes this an extremely versatile set of projects.



Even though I do like this book, I am a little disappointed in the projects offered. Even though there are some darling children's clothing and some other great things I haven't tried, there wasn't a hint of a bog coat or a six square jacket... not even one bias top or a simple bag for a wheel chair.



I guess there is still a lot of material out there that can be included in the next addition.