It's fun to wear your art. Everyone sees your beautiful work, not just the people who visit your home or come to a quilt show. You get lots of complements. And, best of all, no one has exactly the same thing you do - even if they followed the same pattern!

These books will help you make spectacular clothes for yourself and your family.

  Wonderful Wearables : A Celebration of Creative Clothing
by Virginia Avery
review by L.
If you like quilted clothing, this book should be at the top of your list of gotta-haves. It's a complete discussion of how she dyes, paints, pieces, and designs utterly marvellous designer art quilted clothing. And the book is lavishly illustrated with examples of her creativity. This is a book of instructions but no patterns are given; she gives the line drawings of the pattern pieces and shows their layout on the fabric for a bog coat, and other simple shape garments. She shows how to do fancy stitches and make things like tassels, however. I have used this book as a technique and idea book, but based on purchased patterns (but then I'm kind of hard to fit). It has a section on how to make quilted accessories.
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  Applique : Kwik Sew Way
by Kerstin Martensson
review by L.
Delightful, full-size patterns predominantly for use on clothing. Most of the illustrations show a finished product on clothing. This is an idea book with minimal instruction.
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More Kwik Sew series books

  Applique Martha's Favorites
by Martha Pullen
review by L.
Full size patterns for children's clothing, including jumpers, jumpsuits, aprons and bibs. Delightful child-oriented applique patterns.
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  Fun & Fancy Jackets & Vests : Folk Art Using No-Sew Applique
by Patrick Lose
review by L.
This book contains simple but effective ideas for appliqueing or piecing vests and jackets. All of the patterns are doable by someone only slightly beyond the beginner stage. The book has full-color illustrations and good instructions. The primary drawback to this book is that the garment patterns are given on graph paper and have to be enlarged.
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  Jacket Jazz : Five Great Looks...over 30 Patchwork Techniques/Book, Patterns and Templates
by Judy Murrah
review by L.
Well-illustrated and well-written instruction and pattern book. Contains full size jacket patterns and many patchwork techniques for creating the fabric from which to make the jacket. If you like patchwork clothing, this is an extremely exciting book.
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Really like jackets? There's more "Jacket Jazz" books.

  Wrapped in fabriqube (TM) : the new magic of fabric embellishment, machine embroidery, and applique
by Glenda D. Sparling
review by L.
A how-to book of embellishment, using many techniques, including puckered applique, scrunching, pin tucking, concertina tucking, several kinds of couching, cable stitching, dribbling, making spiral tubes, etc. For people who want to make designer clothing, this is a wonderful resource book. Has a large color section, showing examples of the various techniques made into garments. The technique instructions are clear and easy to follow.
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  Sashiko and Beyond : Techniques and Projects for Quilting in the Japanese Style
by Saikoh Takano
review by L.
Sashiko is a running stitch frequently done in traditional Japanese work with a white or beige thread on an indigo (blue) fabric. This book contains a wealth of full-size sashiko designs and an elaborate section of colored illustrations of quilts and other projects including clothing. The author's final section is an appendix of Japanese decorative knots, which can be used as closures on the clothing.
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