Why Are Crafting Books On Sewing Looking So Bad?

I look at the Barnes & Noble Bookstore and there's tons of crochet and knitting books with small projects, but in the sewing part......not much at all.  And the ones I DO see are all so lame!  Patterns from the 1960's.  Crappy stuff nobody would toss to their dog to tear apart. Argh!

 

Yeah, a few nice ones came out of Japan with the felt/fleece/sock making stuff, but where's the rest?

 

Maybe I SHOULD do up a book on making small toys, or cat toys.  They're not hard to do.  Most can even be 100% hand sewn, no sewing machine required.  But I wouldn't want to self publish, this kind of book needs an actual publisher to get out to the overall larger audience.  Do we even have publishers anymore who are looking for something not knitted?  I'll have to check the Writers Market 2017.

 

I've got over 40 different cat toy patterns, heck I could take 25 of those and do them up as a how to book.

Witch Hats -- Different Versions (Wizard, Sorting.....)

My batch of black witch hats with blue ribbon around the base of the hat turned out really nice this week, so I started doing Sorting Hats from Harry Potter (in a ruddy brown with a black ribbon) and non-bent ones as basic Wizard Hats.

 

I'm looking for a nice pale gray felt to do Gandalf the Grey's version of the Wizard Hat too.

 

What's odd is that while I offered each version to someone selling my stuff in California, she didn't think enough people would know a Wizard Hat, and had to actually look up what a Sorting Hat was..........OMG, she has to be one of the 200 people left in the USA who has not seen or read any Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings.  Is this at all possible?

 

The pattern is so simple, but takes time to do start to finish.  I use felt, black for the witch hats, brown/gray for the others.  The brim is two circles that are 3 1/4" across, you sew them together around the edge by machine and trim nicely. The pointy part is a pie shaped piece. You cut a 7" circle, slice it in half, then in half the other way to get 4 pieces (that makes 4 hats).  Cut a strip of felt 1/3" wide and long enough to sew around the lower edge of the pie piece as the hat's 'ribbon', stitch it down with your sewing machine.  I have the ribbon be up from the bottom edge by maybe 1/3" so there's room to fold the ends under when assembling.  Fold the pie piece in half the long way and sew down the long edge to make the pointy hat. Turn, poke the end out nicely with the end of a pencil or such, and stuff it.  Set this on top the brim circle, tuck the ends under, and tack it down in place.   I did 44 of them in an evening.

 

Viola!  A Witch/Wizard Hat.  Bend the top down a bit and stitch the folded side with a few tacking stitches to keep it bent, that's the Sorting Hat.

Smaller Gift 'Sets'

Bolters had a small amount of the small take out containers today, I was looking for something that wasn't meal size and did find a pack of 50. Black bottom and clear tops, large enough to hold a dessert or small sandwich size, and only $12 for the whole batch.  It's for a 3-pack. I've been sewing angular shaped cat toys in a tan/ruddy orange color for 'Crispy Duck Wings' and wanted to package them as a unit of 3.  Maybe with a garnish of some sort as well, to give a dash of green in with the wings.

 

I don't know, what goes with duck wings?  Mashed potatoes?  I had seen a textured white napped fabric that would work ok but it has grooved lines in it so didn't buy any last time I was at JoAnn Fabrics.  I was thinking maybe a blob of polar fleece with brown 'gravy' appliqued on top?  But that doesn't go with oriental food so maybe I'll just stick with a fake parsley garnish or something.

 

Anyway, I now have a stack of 50 containers all the same size and am on my way to making Feline Cuisine for next year's Pennsic War.  It beats having to buy 250 units!