two great things for the sewing obsessed

It has been a year since my sewing obsession took a real hold on me - I posted my first ever review on Pattern Review on 20 January 2009. So, to mark my first year of serious sewing I treated myself to a couple of things that I have been yearning for.

Firstly, this DVD Rom

This DVD puts the entire Threads magazine archive from 1985 to 2009 on to your very own computer. That’s 146 issues and you can read every page of every issue “faithfully reproduced and in its entirety” (I quote here from the box). It shows you thumbnails of all the covers, which you can click on to open them up and browse through the pages, or you can use the search facility that allows you to quickly find any particular subject or article that you’re interested in. You can then zoom in and read it in detail or you can easily print it out. It costs $149.95 (they ship to the UK), which is quite an investment but I really do LOVE it and so, for me, it’s been money well spent.

My second indulgence was this book

I have to confess that I do already have a lot of sewing reference books (how many would be too many, I wonder?) but this one really is wonderful and has taken over as my ‘go to’ book. It has had some glowing reviews on the U.S. Amazon website (click here if you want to read them) and I can see why.

It’s a very comprehensive guide (560 pages) to sewing the professional way but if you are a home sewist (like me), don’t think it’s not for you. It is written in easy to understand language and has very clear illustrations. I have taken a picture, at random, of a couple of pages to give you a ‘sneak peak’ at what it looks like inside.


I love it because it takes a fresh and modern approach, both in its style and in the advice it gives.

There is, of course, one drawback with my new purchases – too much reading about sewing and not enough actual sewing! Do you have this problem, or is it just me?