The first book I'd like to talk about is Minxy Vintage: How to Customise and Wear Vintage Clothing* by Kelly Doust. First up can we talk about how beautiful this book is? The cover is gorgeous, the qualitiy, photography and backgrounds are really high standard too, this is definately the kind of book I paw in a book shop and dash home to add to my Amazon wishlist so Mr Thrifty is able to track it down come his mid-December panic in the run up to my birthday.
Minxy Vintage is brought to you by Kelly Doust the woman behind craft meets vintage uber blog Crafty Minx. Kelly has the eye of a magpie when it comes to vintage and shares tips on 'how to mine for vintage gold amongst all the junk' and how to work out which era a piece has come from. She goes on to list must haves for making over and customising vintage items and throws out some ingenious ideas for embellishments.
The book then breaks down into chapters based on garments. Covering dresses, jackets and coats, tops and blouses, skirts, knits, accessories, lingerie plus a chapter dedicated to weddings. Each chapter is full of ideas for spicing up, reworking and customising garments - I love, love how Kelly is able to see so many different possibilites which wouldn't even occur to me. There are also small snippets about different eras and working with finds from those decades - I love the photographs in these sections.
My favourite projects
- Follow the sun dress
- London Calling Denim Jacket
- Hola Boys! Singlet
This book is more of a coffee table book than an instructional guide - there are no patterns or specific measurements and I suppose because the items you would be working with are vintage there's a good reason for that! However it does have lots of good tips and some ideas I'd never come across before.
This book won't teach you how to sew but I like that. It can get a bit boring having a whole chapter dedicated to sewing or craft basics in every book when there are already several squillion books dedicated to sewing basics which can do it so much better. You won't get step-by-step instructions but you will get a big bag full of ideas to run off with. I know some people might want a very exacting book when it comes to making things over so if that is what you'd like in a book then this one may not be for you because Minxy Vintage is a different kettle of ...umm...circle skirt. That all said I'd be thrilled to receive this for a my birthday or Christmas and have since repurchased as a gift for a close friend.
The RRP for this book is £18.99 but Amazon currently have it for £9.50 - bargain!
Have you read Minxy Vintage? Are you tempted by it?
TTFN,
P.S. Kelly Doust has also written A Life in Frocks and The Crafty Kid.
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such a nice book
ReplyDelete3lin
Oo! That looks like an interesting book. I wonder if I could maybe find it at my library.
ReplyDeleteI read her first book Crafty Minx, and to be honest I wasn't that impressed. Too many bags and collages for me, but I guess it's ok if you're fairly new to crafting. I'd debated about this one as the Amazon reviews are mixed. I'll do my usual and put in a request at the library before committing to any purchase.
ReplyDeleteThat books looks fantastic. I love vintage but I'm always worried I'll end up looking old-fashioned. I may have to treat myself to this.
ReplyDeleteLooks a lovely book. I would be more likely to use the methods to give a vintage look to something 2nd hand from Primark or Topshop. As a vintage collector I've been gutted too many times when a 'one off' vintage piece has been spoilt beyond repair by someone not quite as skilled with the needle as they think they are- then flogged on EBay. :( I just don't have the skills to mess with expensive/rare items, but will happily give a £2 'vintage look' Primarni from the Sally Army shop a new lease of life, because it can be chopped up into cute cushions or a blouse with no guilt at spoiling a rarity, if it goes wrong.
ReplyDeleteIt looks really good :) xxx
ReplyDeletehttp://jeminixlife.blogspot.com
That looks like such a cute useful book. I would quite happily attempt to rock the really vintage indie look - purely because this book looks like a fashion bible!! :) http://ellie-rosee.blogspot.co.uk/ x
ReplyDeleteooooh this looks like sucha good find well done you ! its always worth haveing a good root around charity shops i think :) xx
ReplyDeleteLooks like a lovely book, the design on the cover is so pretty!
ReplyDeletewww.littlekjf.blogspot.com
My brother just bought me this book for my birthday! I look forward to having a good old read through it :) x
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