Helen Brown-Campbell (AKA Helen the Doodler) has been drawing and sketching all her life. Sew Colourful combines her fondness of stitching and applique with a new found love for adult colouring. All of Helen's work is hand-drawn with imperfect, wobbly lines that add to the charming and endearing quality of the illustrations. Within the pages of this book you will find 26 sewing-themed designs; from felt hearts, patchwork umbrellas and tartan ribbon to cute buttons, quaint teacups and pretty bunting. There's also stitched bunny rabbits and fabric dolls to maximise the cute factor! Here are a few images from the book. The book is Amazon CreateSpace published so the paper is average weight and quality, but each illustration is one-sided so bleed through should not be an issue as long as you place some scrap paper between the pages. With there only being 26 pages the book is on the thin and flimsy side, but has a flexible card cover with a matte soft-touch finish. There is nothing I would describe as too intricate or fiddly in these illustrations, so it is suitable for most colourists. Helen's art is really lovely and for the most part I adore this book, but there are a few gripes I have with the positioning of the drawings. Some of the 'full page' designs do not sit square in the centre and have not been sized correctly to fill the page. Also, there are a couple of very small illustrations (see the hearts on ribbon in the slideshow above) that seem lost on the white expanse of the page. I feel these smaller illustrations would be better suited to a page full of these types of item to make better use of the space. Overall, Sew Colourful is an adorable book that sewing fans are sure to love. Here's my finished page. This book was given to me in exchange for an honest review. You can find it on Amazon here:
Sew Colourful by Helen the Doodler
5 Comments
26/9/2016 03:10:10 pm
Wow! Thank you Claire for such a lovely review! I have tears!! I'm so proud of this book (my first one) and I appreciate the little gripes and will learn from them when producing more books and pages for our colourists to use.
Reply
Claire
26/9/2016 03:44:05 pm
Hi Helen, so glad you like the review. It's a lovely book! Can't wait to see what you produce in the future :D xx
Reply
Miss B
26/9/2016 06:12:03 pm
Your work is really great and I would love to see a postcard version. Your art in the mailbox would make someone's day!
Reply
26/9/2016 06:59:02 pm
That's a great idea. I will look into that. Thank you for your comments. x
Reply
16/12/2016 07:35:45 am
I have just re-branded as Stinkie Designs and now have an apparel shop which feature my illustrations. Some from Sew Colourful are there and I have many new ones yet to be produced. Helen xx
Reply
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |