At Home with Modern June: 27 Sewing Projects for Your Handmade Lifestyle

McCants’s first book covered sewing with oilcloth (and was titled just that), and this follow-up will be welcomed by her readers eager for more of her bright, cheerful, and often-oilcloth-centered designs, many of which she developed for her own Virginia home after a hurricane damaged it extensively. The selection of patterns focuses on the home, with simple but well-finished instructions for basic needs, such as lined baskets, curtains for the shower and windows, and a bed skirt. Crafters looking to outfit their sewing room will especially like the ironing table, sewing machine cover, and Giant Mood Board, a bulletin-type board for design ideas. The ironing table and the mood board, like the chalkboard-fabric Easy Eyelet Place Mats, are no-sew projects, a few of which are scattered throughout the book. Instructions, suggestions, and tips throughout will help the beginning sewist accomplish these mostly intermediate-level patterns, while commendably complete instructions on sewing with oilcloth will be of great help to most readers. The wonderful full-color photos are motivating; both they and the text make it clear that careful finishing will lead to an attractive, useful, and cheerful result. (Mar.)