Sewing for Boys Book Preview

Today I have an exciting announcement and I'm thrilled and honored that I get to be the bearer of this news: Shelly Figueroa and Karen LePage have written a book about sewing for BOYS with Wiley Publishing and they're here to give us a preview today! And can I say, it's about time? Those of us who sew for boys have been bemoaning the lack of good resources when it comes to sewing for boys for years (in fact, that's what gave Dana the -- may I say-- brilliant idea for Celebrate the Boy in the first place). It's always wonderful and encouraging to see the sewing world bloom in this area and who better to write a book about sewing for boys than two mothers of boys?

I love the story of Shelly and Karen's partnership: two women with small handmade businesses across the country from each other meet on Flickr and decide to team up. The result has been truly amazing. Since they began working together just over a year ago, they've released an impressive collection of print sewing patterns, authored magazine articles, done all kinds of interviews and now, written a book. As a friend I have gotten a glimpse of how much heart and soul (and toil) has gone into this project, and I'm so very proud of these two.

Here's Karen to introduce the book to you:

Shelly and I are so excited to finally have the go-ahead tell you what we've been up to this past year.  It has been so hard to keep under wraps, because it's just exactly what we've *always* wanted to create. You might already know the story of my fondness for creating (not-itchy, comfortable, completely washable) boy clothes for my sweet Peter, and you might also know that Shelly has two rough and tumble sweet guys of her own. 

When we first started talking about what we wanted to do with our professional lives, the main goal was to WRITE A BOOK together focused solely on boys.  We wanted to create a beautifully photographed variety of projects.  We wanted to include nothing but handmade projects in the photos, provide a sample of garments for every season, give a catalog-like view of boys actually playing and living in the clothes we designed, and then provide specific, illustrated instructions on how to make the designs easy to re-create and adapt.  And, thanks to the shared vision of our *amazing* publisher over at Wiley, we have been able to realize our shared dream!

This book is expressly designed with home sewers in mind, who either have a young boy in their lives or who want to create garments or other kid-friendly projects to sell from their home-based business. We hope that mothers, grandmothers, crafters and those making gifts will all find this a pattern collection to turn to, time and again.

The projects span from super-simple to more time-consuming; from zero pattern pieces to many.  We have taken requests for patterns over the years and bundled them up with brand new designs, including full-sized patterns to trace, which makes this book a steal for seamsters.  We believe there is something for everyone who wishes to make stuff for boys in our book.  The actual publish date will be in August, but you can pre-order very, very soon!

These photos are absolutely stunning. Thanks so much Karen and Shelly for giving us such a wonderful preview. I know I can't wait to see the book in person!

Patterns by Figgy's is also having a boys' pattern giveaway over on their blog today, so if you'd like to win some awesome patterns for your boy(s), head on over!

CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE PBF BOOK PREVIEW AND GIVEAWAY POST

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We've got just ONE WEEK left of Celebrate the Boy!

Dana's got the Boy Trifecta over on MADE today with a layered pirate shirt!