An illustrated how-to reference There are five key areas of the home where soft furnishings can make a big difference: bath, bedroom, kitchen, dining and living room Best of all, soft furnishings can be easily created by anyone with a sewing machine -- even beginners Simple Soft Furnishings covers the core sewing items needed to transform any home into a fashionable and welcome environment With an irresistible collection of projects, ranging from simple cushions to elegant curtains and sumptuous bedding, these designs are a mix of timeless classics and current trends with appeal for all ages Each project will bring style to any room at an affordable cost The focus is on quick and easy ideas that can be readily made in a weekend This beautifully presented book features: Fifty original soft furnishing designs for the home - Projects for cushions, curtains and blinds, seating, bedding and table linens - Simplified techniques for the beginner sewer - Illustrated step-by-step instructions - Advice for alternative fabrics, fastenings, trimming, patterns and color schemes - List of resources and suppliers - Tips for adding special touches to customize each project Simple Soft Furnishings is an inspiring and practical guide to creating fashionable home furnishings Plenty of projects There are step-by-step instructions for each project and each step is illustrated -- Carolyn Leitch ― Globe and Mail You can sew these objects yourself Apparel for the home doesn't have to be expensive, hard to make or bought from a specialty shop -- Joanne Hatherly ― CanWest News Service Published On: 2005-03-26 "How to" instructions in clear straight-forward prose that lets even a beginner feel confident -- Linda Turk ― Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal Published On: 2005-01-16 Its designs are beautifully simple, almost Zen-like in their austerity They are illustrated with crisp Scandinavian style fabrics and photographed in clean sun-filled settings -- Deborah Rouse ― Salisbury Post Published On: 2005-08-24 Quick-and-easy designs that can be made in a weekend simplified techniques for the beginning sewer and illustrated step-by-step instructions ― Miami Herald Published On: 2005-01-02 Refreshingly unique 50 projects, 100 color photos and loads of color illustrations make every step easy ― Sew-Whats-New com Published On: 2005-01-05 An irresistible collection of projects, ranging from simple cushions to elegant curtains and sumptuous bedding, these designs are a mix of timeless classics and current trends with appeal for all ages Simple Soft Furnishings is an inspiring and practical guide to creating fashionable home furnishings ― SewingKitBiz com Published On: 2005-06-08 Katrin Cargill is a stylist and former editor of World of Interiors She is the author of the The Soft Furnishings Book and The Curtain Bible Introduction The busier our lives and the less secure the outside world becomes, the more we want to cocoon ourselves in our homes And the more conscious we are of our home environment As a result, the home furnishings industry -- from furniture superstores to fancy fabric houses -- has boomed over the last few decades With the plethora of interiors books and magazines, it's hard not to want our houses to resemble the glossy images that bombard us But creating the individual style we are most comfortable with, be it farmhouse county or city chic, doesn't comes easily to most of us Either we try to put together a "look" ourselves, or we have to use an interior designer -- at considerable expense So, it is a good idea to gather as much information and knowledge as possible Cut out photos from magazines to create a file of favorite looks, collect paint and fabric samples that you like and, before you know it, you will have honed down your personal style -- something unique to you I grew up as a rather nomadic child, living everywhere from Tunisia to America, via Scandinavia and England, so my immediate home surroundings have always been very important to me Getting nested in a new home meant fixing up my bedroom as a matter of urgency Usually it took a coat of paint in one of the colors of the moment (during my teenage years it was a groovy luminous orange) and, if I was lucky, I got a new pair of curtains, a bedspread and some pillows Gradually I developed a color palette of my own and, as I travel and see new color combinations and styles, so my look develops and changes The next step is to implement these ideas in your home You can transform a room dramatically with a few new soft furnishings Because the projects in this book are easy to make, you won't be stuck with them forever; when styles and colors change, so can your home with a few quick and easy sewing ideas Simple Soft Furnishings is divided into five sections: pillows, with everything from a basic bed bolster to a gathered round plump pillow; drapes and blinds, ranging from a simple no-sew drape to a more sophisticated contrast-li