Books provide inspiration to higher craft – 3177th Edition

I survived my walk down the runway at the Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts Recycled Runway fashion event last weekend in a dress I made out of more than a dozen issues of this newspaper. I arrived at the event with a pounding headache, suffering from a severe craft hangover, the painful effect of staying up until 5:30 a.m.,…

I survived my walk down the runway at theUrban Institute for Contemporary Arts Recycled Runway fashion eventlast weekend in a dress I made out of more than a dozen issues of this newspaper.

I arrived at the event with a pounding headache, suffering from a severe craft hangover, the painful effect of staying up until 5:30 a.m., finishing my dress. I spent the eve of the show folding squares of newspaper into flower petals I taped, stitched and glued together to form large blooms as accents to the waistline of the dress.

I drew inspiration for my “Headliner” dress from a variety of books, which has prompted me to offer a roundup of reviews.

Paper flowers

“Kanzashi in Bloom: 20 Simple Fold-and-Sew Projects to Wear and Give” by Diane Gilleland (144 pages, $21.95) details the Japanese art of folding fabric squares into three-dimensional flower petals that are assembled into full blooms. Gilleland illustrates three petal-folding techniques to make projects ranging from tiny blossom earrings and rings to hair accessories and clothing and handbag embellishments.

Traditional Kanzashi projects are made with silk, but Gilleland recommends beginners start with cotton.

I skipped fabric completely and moved right to paper, making more than a dozen tedious blooms out of newsprint for my dress.

Now that I can fold these things in my sleep, I will be exploring the fabric-flower possibilities.
If you love to make flowers, you’ll find this book inspiri

By

The Grand Rapids Press