This revised edition of one of the most successful volumes in the Magic series offers the most up-to-date and practical information needed to decora te stylishly without a decorator. The practical techniques presented here, traditional and innovative, are easy to carry out and offer various ways of putting your personal stamp on everything. Color photos.

The best-selling guide to decorating with fabric, revised and updated with new photographs and techniques, including:

Transforming fabrics by layering, joining, pleating, stitching, adding edgings, and inserting borders.

Coloring fabrics by painting, patting, daubing, spattering, stenciling, tie-dye, and wax-resist.

Making roller, Roman, Austrian, and inverted-pleat shades.

Making lined and interlined curtains using pencil pleat, French pleat, box pleat, gathered, bunch, slot, scalloped, and goblet headings.

Draping and dressing sheers and curtains with swags and tails, tie-bands, cornices, and valances.

Making bed linen for a wide range of bed styles -- duvets, pillowcases, dust ruffles, and bedspreads.

Covering screens.

Making box, throw, and "hamburger" cushions.

Making table cloths.

Basic sewing techniques, from mitering corners to inserting zippers. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Fabric, declares the author, is "the most exciting element" in decorating a room. Leaf through her attractive book and you'll see why. A wide range of styles is embodied here, from the opulence of a Renaissance-style hallway adorned in red silk to the lushness of creamy cotton drapes puddled on the floor to the contemporary lines of smartly striped Roman blinds to the rustic charm of gingham curtains. Melanie Paine explains how to choose, combine, manipulate, and paint on fabrics, as well as how to choose a style for window dressing, beds and bedding, and fabric coverings for walls and furnishings and ceilings. Although step-by-step directions are provided throughout for many of the items (such as various types of blinds, curtains, and bed covers), this is not a basic instructional how-to book. The New Fabric Magic is most successful and appealing as an idea book, filled with wonderful ways to use fabric to make rooms come alive. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

* Super-simple sewing plus great fabrics mean designer results
* Ideal for beginners--complete illustrated how-tos
* Bonus shower curtain project

Everyone who’s ever been horrified by department-store prices on curtains and duvet covers needs this book! It’s packed with easy ways to get those designer looks using favorite fabrics and beginning sewing skills. Six duvet covers, twin through king, plus two dust ruffles and six curtain projects make it easy to coordinate a room or a whole house. Complete, illustrated instructions show how to work with ties, buttons, zippers, linings, header treatments, and more.

Krause Publications is the premier publisher of machine embroidery books, with seven titles generating more than $1.6 million in combined sales

Great value - covers a variety of projects within the book, with designs included in an accompanying CD-ROM

This book inspires readers to tackle a small-scale home make over, one room at a time. Eight rooms, each with a theme and three design groupings for each theme, are featured in this machine embroidery guide and enclosed CD-ROM. The versatility of the designs, give sewers countless options for revitalizing any room. This book includes: *Projects for sewers to add new character to the family room, dining room, patio, sunroom, kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom *More than 30 projects embroiderers of all skill levels can use to achieve a new look in any room *Detailed illustrations and more than 75 color photos inspire sewers to make the most of their embroidery machine investment

Great changes start from small improvements, and this book is packed with small improvements any machine embroidery enthusiast can do.

Knitters of all levels looking for new ideas need look no further than Suss Cousins’s luxurious, original designs for the home. The unique SoHo-meets-Sweden style that makes her one of the country’s most sought-after knitters and designers is visible in every pattern.

A thoroughly modern designer who has become a leader in the current knitting renaissance, Suss Cousins’s approach is fresh and inspiring. With her one-of-a-kind knack for mixing colors and textures, it’s no surprise Suss has developed a following among hip knitters everywhere. Some of Hollywood’s hottest stars are among her fans, and thousands of knitters know her work through her stores and classes in New York and Los Angeles, her website, and her new yarn line. Now Suss turns her talents to a whole new area (and a subject that’s close to her own heart): knits for the home.

As much a home design book as a knitting guide, Home Knits includes patterns for 30 projects—from pillows and throws to bedspreads and wall hangings. There’s something for everyone here—from the knitting novice to the seasoned expert—and each project is presented as part of an overall design approach, with ideas and inspiration for using handknits to create a warm, inviting space in every room of the house.

Fill your rooms with the luxury, warmth, and style of handknits. Indulge your knitting passion and make your home a soothing haven for family and friends: Suss Cousins’s handknit designs for the home help you create a living space that is personal, original, and luxurious. Keep the mood easy and uncomplicated with soft seat covers, supple mohair throws, and an array of knitted textures in polished cotton, handpainted wool, and even Ultrasuede. From pillows and placemats to rugs, lamp covers, hand towels, and bed canopies, the projects range from clever accessories you can complete in a few hours to unexpected and original pieces to cherish for years to come.

Everyone, including the redoubtable Martha Stewart, is into junk. Whether it is stripping or touching up old varnish, decorators in the U.S. and Britain advise crafters to haunt all types of shops and garage sales for sturdy, nonvaluable merchandise to transform. And, of all the counselors, BBC-TV's Barker provides the best kind of do-it-yourself advice, beginning with lines and styles to look for and concluding with 20 start-to-finish projects. For each, she includes lists of materials and equipment, before and after illustrations, and step-by-step color photographs of various techniques, such as mosaics, tinwork, faux etching, applique, and decorative painting. A tired hassock becomes a saucy harlequin pouffe for feet, while a nondescript armoire is elevated to a gingham-colored kid's storage unit. Proof that "junque" is the same in any language, but design talent is not. Barbara Jacobs

This book contains projects for transforming cast-off, damaged furniture into beautiful, decorative pieces using wood cutwork, d?coupage, or detailed painting. Each project shows a before and an after photograph of the piece and contains clear, well-illustrated instructions. Although similar to the projects found in Sheila McGraw's Painting & Decorating Furniture (LJ 1/98), Barker's projects are a bit simpler, which will make this book particularly appealing to beginners. A good purchase for public libraries.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Linda Barker is a wealth of knowledge and know-how. She's got endless ideas that an average gal like myself can do without a second thought. This book allows that dusty junk in the basement to become a great new piece in your home. She's got so many creative and cheap ideas in this book. The amount of creativity is never-ending. Her work is so easy and natural. Great for Everyone!

Jack Lenor Larsen's name should be widely known and respected throughout the textile arts community. He was originally a hand weaver trained at the Cranbrook Academy of Art. He saw the commercial and aesthetic potential of ethic handwoven fabrics from India, Africa, etc. He designed exquisitely beautiful and original fabrics, some of which were based on traditional folk weaves, hired others to produce them by hand and marketed them to the architecture and design community. That was the start of the Larsen empire. His fabrics today are still uniquely original--he produces fabrics from wire, plastics, synthetics and natural fibers, and the construction of the fabric is always a surprise. Because of his originality and the depth of his understanding of textiles, he is especially well suited to creating a book of this type. There is nothing about textiles that Larsen doesn't know! I have used this book as a text in a Textiles class (in an Interior Design department). It is better organized and more clearly presented than any other textile book I know. It's easy for students to understand the construction of different weaves; the text is clear and the illustrations (both photo and line drawings) are excellent. Larsen has also targeted just the right information (including a chapter on professional practices) and just the right AMOUNT of information, for students of design, architecture and textiles. This is not a book for handweavers to learn from--it is intended for the interior design student--but even long-time weavers will have a better understanding of their craft after reading this book. I recommend it without hesitation.