My First Sewing Book by Cico Kidz Publishing is a child’s first sewing book geared to kids 5 years old and up. At 128 pages for $14.95, it’s a pricey book for what’s inside.
4 out of 10 stars. I had several issues with this book. No author is listed which means the editors took other people’s sewing crafts and stole them without attributing them to the original creators. That bothers me. The book also says there are 35 projects but most of them are very handmade and not in a cute way. Only two projects were worth doing (which I describe below). I learned sewing as a child on real sewing projects–clothes, bags, draperies. This book gives no real world projects like that.
Wise Old Owl Project
The cutest project in this book is the Wise Old Owl which looks very similar to Melly and Me’s Owl handbag for kids sewing pattern. Little girls love owls. I even know many old woman who love owls, so this is a project that would be a nice gift for a grandmother as a throw pillow. Unfortunately the project starts with making a photocopy of the image in the book and enlarging it to 200%. We had more than a little bit of trouble finding a photocopy machine that could do that. A glance at the other projects showed that most of them required enlarged photocopying. Granted, you only have to do it once, but what a pain. Most of the projects in the book are made of felt; this one is made of fabric.
Patchwork Pincushion Project
The second cutest project in the book, a perfect gift for Grandma or Auntie, was the Patchwork Pincushion. It starts with another trip to the photocopy machine to scan and print the templates. The rest of the instructions are pretty straightforward but will require some manual dexterity. This is a nice use of old fabric scraps and if you’re short on polyester fiberfill, you can use cotton balls in a pinch. Rice works well too for pincushions, a trick my grandmother taught me.
4 out of 10 stars. There is a reference section, but it’s only six pages and should have appeared in the front of the book instead of at the end. My copy was brand new from Amazon and smelled awful, most likely from the ink because it was printed in China. Had I chosen to keep the copy (I sent it back) I would have purchased a used copy because the new one is just too toxic. With all the warnings from ink in China I wouldn’t take a chance.
Reviewed by Erin.
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