REVIEW: The Shirt Off His Back by Juliet Bawden

 

Waste Bin

 

When I had the opportunity to review the book, I was actually chomping at the bit… free stuff and also thrifty! The Womble inside me couldn’t wait to get the book and try it out. The only thing was I didn’t actually possess any men's shirts. Not a problem, however, because the many charity shops nearby do have shirts… cheap shirts that I can pick in any colour I want.

 

Boxes

 

The first thing that struck me about this book was the cover; it’s not great but don’t be put off! They seem to have used the least inspired of the projects on the cover for some reason, but if you delve inside, the rest of the book is brilliant!. The cover was pretty much my only criticism of the book because the rest of it is great!

 

Beach Bag

 

I like the idea of using what you have around the house to make other things and the author, Juliet Bawden, further encourages it by categorising the projects by the type of shirt that you should use for each project. It does make you think outside of the box - if you work in the city then you probably think of pinstripe shirts, luckily there is a section on these. But for those who are less sartorially challenged, there are also creative men’s shirts, outdoors, sporty mens shirts etc. 

 

Duvet Teds

 

Alas, I possessed none of these shirts so off to the charity shop I went! I opted to make the "deep heat piggy". The instructions for this were really clear, with photographs illustrating every step accompanied by well written instructions making the book a joy to use. I whipped the pig up (as you can probably tell) in about 45 minutes from start to finish. It isn’t quite finished because I still need to get some wheat to fill it, but for the purpose of the picture, I stuffed it with left over fabric. It does look more like a cow than a pig, but once it has its eye added I’m sure I’m going to love it! On a side note, I completely disregarded Juliet's recommendation to use a thick sporty shirt and used a thinner material - so it’s my fault it looks like a cow rat!

 

 

You don’t have to be an adept seamstress to use this book, nor possess men's shirts! There are some good projects in here  that I will definitely be tackling and the patterns and instructions are clear enough that you could use whatever fabric you have lying around. The photographs are all gorgeous which makes the projects enticing and there is a good mix, it's not just your usual cushion fayre; the mini me baby booties are next on my list - I just need to find someone with a baby for them!

 

Jewellery Roll