Buckles & Bobbins

Learn to Sew! From plugging in the sewing machine to sewing pajamas, Buckles and Bobbins, our boys sewing book, guides the novice tailor with clear, step-by-step instructions. Sixteen projects, complete with sewing patterns, are useful items you will be proud to use, wear, or give. Pillowcases, potholders, duffle bags, blankets, vests: each sewing project focuses on mastering specific sewing techniques, and builds upon skills learned. An extra life skills section covers how to sew on a button, and how to iron a shirt. Special techniques beyond the basics ensure that the final creation will be as professionally constructed as it was fun to make. Guys agree, learning to sew and design your own outdoor gear is cool. Book Review for Buckles and Bobbins: A quick history lesson: knitting did not used to be the province of little old ladies in rocking chairs. Shepherds - many of whom were tough, muscular, men - knitted and crocheted to fill in the many hours of watching sheep chew. The lesson? Real men knit, crochet, and sew. Yes, real men sew, which means that real boys sew, which means that Buckles and Bobbins: A Beginning Sewing Book for Boys is the resource of choice for 9 to 15 year old males who want to develop a skill beyond replacing a button on a favorite jacket. Authors JoAnn Gagnon and Corrie Gagnon, vetern sewers with 50 years of stitching, ripping, restitching, designing, altering and tailoring between them, have put together 16 sewing projects that even Tom Sawyer would be proud to admit that he had made. Arranged according to difficulty, the sewing lessons begin with pillowcases, laundry bags, book covers, and strip quilting a blanket; progress to a bound fleece blanket and roll-up wrench case; and culminate with sewing a backpack, cargo pants and multi-pocketed, reversible zipped sports vests that can be customized for fishing, hunting, hiking, or just walking around and looking like a man. Step by step instructions, copious line drawings, and full-size sewing patterns ensure that the journey from novice to tailor is a smooth one, and one that can be accomplished whether or not the boy's parents can sew. Because each project builds upon skills learned in the one before it, sewers pick up new sewing techniques while perfecting old ones. By the end of the book, a boy is not only sleeping in pajamas of his own making, but also knows how to install a zipper, line a vest, put in a facing, understitch a seam, craft an elastic waist band, bias tape a raw edge - in short, he is far beyond the replacing-a-fallen-off-button stage. Sewing requires precision, accuracy, craftmanship, imagination, and time - essentially the same attributes necessary to build a house or repair a car. Buckles and Bobbins enables today's male to construct wearable clothing and repair what's hanging in his closet (or lying on the floor), developing a skill that increases self-sufficiency and enhances the independent spirit. Now what could be