The Sweater Chop Shop: Sewing One-Of-A-Kind Creations from Recycled Sweaters

This book is thoroughly engaging! It is the most inspiring craft book at FIRST glance, at initial flip-through I have ever seen. It is a well-considered, delicious craft book, inviting pure play and utter dalliance. You just want to drop everything and sit with this book! Anything you are in the middle of or involved with urges to be dropped in favor of the ideas presented within this book. Graphically speaking, the colors, the organization and hierarchy of information on the page are extremely well-considered, making the book easy to read. Its author, Crispina Ffrench offers the reader an amazingly thoughtful, constructive favor by revealing how to recycle a most common item to all of us.

...and this craft is ffantastic! It's rare to find a craft book that not only explores an interesting craft, but also includes inspiring photos and graphics as well as crystal clear directions. Another positive dimension of this book is that while entry-level crafters will find fun, easy projects, the experts will find their crafty minds spinning and their fingers itching to create their own versions of these items. And Crispina is right about felted sweaters being a joy to work with, especially those made from better types of wool. I felted an old, holey fine-knit merino sweater with a great color, and it came out to be the softest, most luxurious thing I've ever felt; it immediately became the top piece for my new Renaissance dress! While I do find some of the illustrated projects a little naive or primitive in their construction or colorways, Crispina makes the point throughout the book that the idea is to adapt her approaches to one's own creativity and vision, and everything about this book lends itself to that ideal. I'm more interested in the clothing items than the stuffies, but even the material on toys shows techniques and stimulates ideas that translate well into whatever else you're making. What a ffind!

Great way to recruit teens to a new addiction--sewing!! Love the book, techniques are clear and easy to understand, clothing projects have great promise and will trigger your imagination to go rogue. Pretty cool that no machine is required to master the creativity. Only drawback for me was the amount of space dedicated to ragamuffins. A big plus for the recycling fans. I am purchasing two more for Christmas gifts.

This book is fabulous! You will eye your friend's wool sweater longingly, in order to chop it up to create a Crispina design of your own! The photos in this book are wonderful, and the directions are clear. The book is chock full of helpful hints to create such item as sweaters, pillows, baby booties, flowers and wreaths! A unique and delightful guide book for all!

What an amazing book, chock full of great projects and lots of crafty eye-candy. Crispina is a master at her upcycling craft, and it really shines through in the beautiful book.