Reader’s Digest Complete Guide to Needlework

Overview

Rating	📚📚📚📚📚
Year Purchased	2008
Years of Service	14
Can I buy it?	No

I love a good library book sale—a huge cache of donated books priced just right. If you’re trying to collect the pulp of your youth: The Babysitters Club, Nancy Drew, Goosebumps, you’ll be sure to load up. Just want to kickback with a cheesy romance? They’ve got you. Want something unique, like a novelization of Degrassi Jr High? Better keep digging! But, the ultimate used book treasure I have uncovered is the Reader’s Digest Complete Guide to Needlework.

This book has everything: sewing techniques for quilting, applique, and embroidery, yarn textile making with knitting, crochet, and lace, plus macrame and rug braiding. It goes through the basics for each of the needle crafts: teaches the foundations, how to read a pattern, different stitch types, some common motifs, how to design your own pattern, followed by a pattern or two for each. Before this book, I didn’t know how to crochet. I didn’t know how to braid a rug! I never made anything with applique.

At the point in my life that I got a hold of this book, YouTube was well-established and going strong. There were plenty of video lessons for these crafts out there. But I can’t learn from a video. Give me a hand-drawn diagram any day.

I still pull this out as a reference when I need to doublecheck how to do a stitch, or I’m looking for inspiration to make up a new pattern with a fun motif, or when I’m ready to try something new. If you’re looking to learn how to crochet, let me know and I’ll send my clean scan of the crochet basics section. Looking for another section? Catch me on a good day and maybe I’ll setup the scanner.

Here’s a brief selection of creations I designed and produced based on the techniques in the book: my first sweater pattern and my first applique art.

My 1st sweater pattern design! Based on the pattern design guide in the book.

3 techniques from one book! Pattern design, intarsia, and swiss darn!

My first applique art: Portrait of Ramble

Close up of the applique to show off embroidered cats, Berlioz in a window and Gretchen on the roof.

I know you’re wondering, can I buy this? Well, it was published in 1979… so, no, it’s not still in print. But keep your fingers crossed at the used book sales or head over to ebay! I lucked out that the library mispriced this at $0.25 like it was a pulp paperback, but they’re listed for as low as $5 on ebay which is still a steal.