Book Review : Cath Kidston’s ‘MAKE’

MAKE. It’s such a lovely word. Conjuring up soothing, felty, fabricky thoughts of getting crafty and sipping tea and feeling clever. Cath’s ‘Make’ is all about that kind of thing. It’s completely CHOCK full of projects (over forty in fact) which will have you appliqueing and embroidering and stitching everything in your house within an inch of your life. But in a crafty Cath kind of tasteful way.

From the get-go, this book is a beginners guide to souping stuff up. It’s all about embellishing, using simple techniques – and in a lovely vintagey way. Favourite motifs like roses and cowboys and stars and scottie dogs feature heavily.

What I like about this book is that a new-to-craft person could flip through it’s magazine style format – and not be too intimidated. It’s not like a big scary technical craft book. It’s familiar format and simple project sheet styling are accessible and friendly. Kind of like a big hug from Cath, all be it a little papery. I think this is a GREAT book for beginning crafters.

Apart from all the cute projects, you’ll learn how to use double-sided interfacing (they call it Bondaweb – we call it Thermoweb or Vliesofix here in Australia), quite a few different applique techniques and a lovely basic embroidery guide.

More experienced crafters will love this book for it’s pretty pages and Cath–ness in general. In fact, it is kind of LOUD for Cath. Not particularly pastel, which was surprising! More like a jar of boiled lollies than a packet of musk sticks, if you know what I mean. There are lots of pages of embroidery outlines and applique templates that you could apply to your own custom projects.

I think the Homewares projects are my favourite. It’s super nice to make something for your house, I think. After all it DOES keep a roof over your head. Plus, you can show off all craftily when you have visitors, right? And they’ll never know you hid the dirty laundry under the bed – because they’ll be too busy looking at your cheery new tablecloth with the little egg cups stitched onto it! Eggcellent!

The book comes with a blank tote and an embroidery pencil tucked into the front cover.

‘Make’ is due out in November in Australia.