bows and bibs: Simple Sewing {book review and giveaway!}

The tagline on the cover “30 fast and easy project for beginners” is right on.  This book is FANTASTIC for those who are wanting quick and satisfying projects.  And if you have a friend who has always said, “I wish I could sew like you.”  Well, do them a favor and refer them to this book!  They will feel a great sense of accomplishment in these projects.  I let my children go through the book and they are excited to choose out some projects that we can work on together.  The book also has very detailed steps for each project, making sure you are confident as you complete your project!

So what did I choose to make?  A bib for Ruby and bows for both my girls.

Let’s chat the bib first.  I loved that a bib pattern (amongst others!) is included in the book.  And of course I had to make one for Ruby! I didn’t have quite enough flannel of either to be long enough, so I pieced my flannel like this:

And I love how it turned out!  I also added a simple pocket for catching food that you can actually flip to either side of the reversible bib.  To do that, I just traced the bottom portion of the bib along a FOLDED piece of flannel.  It looks like this when unfolded:

So here are both sides of the bib.

I love that it is reversible because sometimes one side can be stained and you can always save the cute side for when you are out and don’t want a stained bib on your baby.

And guess what?  Ruby Jane wore this bib for her first taste of solids—rice cereal.  :)  Here’s what she thought:

Since then she’s grown to not love it so much, but at least the first experience went well!

On to the fun bows!   I couldn’t resist some fun spandex knit in the dance fabric at Joann and bought some of the shiny fabric for the bows in Katie’s book.  Again, I love that there are instructions for every single step!  I made a few large bows with the dimensions given in the book, and then I scaled it down to 9” x 3” for the smaller bows, attaching those to an elastic headband.

Bailey was pretty excited that her and Ruby matched.  She chose the gold bow to wear to a birthday party—she was so excited and also had some compliments from others there.  Which any girl loves, right?!

There are three different places you are able to purchase the book for yourself or as gifts for others:
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Books & Things

Again, this is a GREAT Christmas gift idea for someone who is wanting to learn to sew!

Want to enter to win your own copy?  Just enter with the rafflecopter widget below!