Make Your Summer: Austinist Reviews a Selection of Craft Books

Summer doesn’t officially start for a couple more weeks, but the lazy, hazy days are already upon us. Time to unfurl the beach blankets and unpack the frisbees. But what about the (rare) rainy days? Or the days when even a dip at Barton Springs can’t beat the heat and you don’t dare leave the comfy confines of your air-conditioned home? Those are the days to stay inside and revisit your summer-camp youth with some arts and crafts. A slew of new books aimed at the hip crafter offer heaps of ideas to keep you a happy camper.

Craftster.org is the go-to site for DIY hipsters, and founder Leah Kramer brings the same stylish irreverence to her compilation of retro crafts. The Craftster Guide to Nifty, Thrifty, and Kitschy Crafts collects fifty projects inspired by the fifties and sixties, including cigar box purses, paper lanterns, and crocheted toilet paper cozies. The projects range from the quick and simple (tin foil animals, felt ornaments) to the time and skill intensive (tailored dickies, doll cakes, and convertible aprons). Each project comes with a list of materials and detailed, easy-to-follow instructions, including diagrams and templates; the introduction gives a helpful description of the most common craft supplies, and an appendix lists useful Web sites. Although the grouping of projects by category (Clothing, Home, etc.) makes for fun browsing, a guide to skill level would have been helpful to more quickly navigate the selections. Also, the holiday section skews heavily to one religious orientation (Christmas), a disappointment given the diversity of the online Craftster community. Not all the projects are highly original (the cigar-box purse seems to be in every craft guide), but this book provides fun inspiration and solid instructions to get you started on your crafty endeavors.

Also exploring crafting’s wacky past is Kitschy Crafts: A Celebration of Overlooked 20th-Century Crafts by Jo Packham and Matt Shay. Combining ads from the fifties, sixties, and seventies; brief guides to crafting terms and retro slang; and instructions for making your own projects, Kitschy Crafts is a fun look back at the days of kookie crafts and boss home decor, including latch-hook wall hangings, beaded fruit, sock monkeys, and macrame plant hangers. The instructions, however, are difficult to follow, and many of the projects require prior experience, such as needlework or sewing. But with its fun pictures and blast-from-the-past nostalgia, Kitschy Crafts makes a great addition to your coffee table and may inspire you to dig out that paint-by-numbers kit you never finished as a kid.

Julie Jackson bridges crafting’s past and present with Subversive Cross Stich: 33 Designs for Your Surly Side. This ain’t your mother’s cross-stitch guide. Jackson eschews teddy-bear-and-flag samplers in favor of off-color humor, while incorporating a few of the traditional cross-stitch symbols (hearts, bunnies) as a wink to the past alongside her irreverent sayings, which include “Life Sucks, Then You Die” and “Please Kill Me.” Jackson keeps her designs simple, using only the basic stitch, and provides detailed instructions for the cross-stitch newbie. Most of the projects can be easily made by a beginner in an evening or two. Jackson also includes a complete alphabet pattern so you can stitch your own special phrases if none of hers quite gets your point across, although with phrases from “Kiss Me, You Fool” to “Bite Me,” she hasn’t left much unstitched.

If cross stitch, no matter how irreverent, is not cutting-edge enough for you, Generation T offers 108 ways to cut your way to an edgier, funkier closet. With little more than a pair of scissors and some imagination, Megan Nicolay transforms the humble t-shirt into halters, bandeaus, bikinis, skirts, purses, and more. Generation T includes an excellent introduction to materials and techniques, detailed instructions and diagrams, and a variety of projects at all skill levels so that anyone with a spare tee can dive right in. Nicolay labels each project by skill level, ranging from 1 (easy) to 4 (advanced), but an index by skill level would have been a helpful navigation tool, particularly with so many projects to explore.

For more advanced crafters tired of the same old projects (because how many cigar-box purses do you really need?), Kathy Cano Murillo offers a variety of original crafts inspired by her Latino heritage in Crafty Chica’s Art de la Soul. Despite Murillo’s “anyone can craft” attitude, the majority of these projects require considerable skill and investment in materials. The instructions are often vague and confusing; only a few templates are included and none of the projects are accompanied by much-needed diagrams. Interspersed between sections are cutesy essays that add little to the book, other than some You Go, Girl Power. One highlight of the book is an extensive list of resources, including suppliers and other craft sites, although we were disappointed to see that Murillo included sites on weight loss, which seems to contradict her crafting-as-empowerment theme. Flipping through Art de la Soul may spark some creative ideas, but only experienced and dedicated crafters will find it useful as a project guide.