[Review] Zakka Style

When I was sitting in the Miami airport waiting for my flight back home earlier, I got an email letting me know that I won a giveaway for a book! It's called Zakka Style and it's available on Amazon.

The book and the pincushion I made from it!

Zakka Style is a collection of 24 projects compiled by Rashida Coleman-Hale of I Heart Linen. I love the look of linen and projects with linen, which is why I was already following her blog! (For reference, Pink Penguin is another good linen friendly blog.)


There are so many projects that I love in this book. I tried to take pictures...but ran out of space on my memory card. But here's a sampling.

Pin cushion

Magnets, could also be push pins with the right hardware

Quilt

Organizer

Laptop sleeve/pouch

See! Lots of cuteness. Forgive me if I don't quite have the right caption/picture as the book is upstairs and I'm too lazy to go up there. 

My camera is having issues with rotation. But you can clearly see it.

It has lots of pictures of the steps and the steps are pretty well spelled out. The only trouble I ever had was due to my own over zealousness causing me to not pay attention to the directions. I kept getting confused with the "fabric needs" and then the sizes of the cuts. Late night sewing. 

Tea time!

I didn't use a fabric covered button, as I didn't have any on hand. I would have preferred it tufted, like it's supposed to be, but I just couldn't get it done as the thread kept pulling through the linen back. And putting the "patch" a little lower would have looked better. So if I was to suggest an improvement: a bit better instruction on the tufting (thread weight?) and a diagram for the patch. But that's it!  I think both problems probably had resolutions I could find if not in such a hurry.

Zakka's Japanese. Ichi must know. 

I don't recall where I got the blue fabric from but the tea stamp is from Waltzing Mouse. Now, go buy the book. When I last checked, it was only $10 on Amazon. WORTH IT!

(Also, picked up a new skill: using stamps to decorate fabric and setting the heat with an iron. GO ME.)