Book Review: Handmade Home

Handmade Home: Simple Ways to Repurpose Old Materials into New Family Treasures
By Amanda Blake Soule
Trumpeter Books, 2009 ($21.95)

Handmade Home warms the soul and inspires heartfelt creativity. It’s a collection of 30 sewing projects from the author of The Creative Family, and it’s all about using vintage fabrics and everyday materials. Create practical items like a mouse pad or beautiful heirlooms like a memory tree quilt– it’s all about using your hands and creating some beautiful to enrich the atmosphere of your home for your family.

Crafts are categorized in four sections:

• Nourish: Projects to Inspire Family Feasts
• Nurture: Projects to Inspire Wellness and care
• Play: Projects to Inspire Imagination and Growth
• Seek: Projects to Inspire Adventure and Exploration
• Retreat: Projects to Inspire Calm and peace

Several projects include ways children can lend a hand and all include gorgeous full-color photography. Soule writes several essays about her inspiration for her crafts and a beautiful introduction exploring the importance of making something with your hands, reusing existing materials and contributing to the beauty of your home. And she places a big emphasis on “thrifting,” shopping for reusable fabrics and goods at yard and garage sales, thrift stores and antique barns – and what to look for once you’re there. She also offers tips on how to survive shopping at these with little ones.

As the mother of four, Soule’s art is birthed from her everyday life. Her work harkens back to a simpler time when resources were scarce and generations of women used their creativity to give everything a second life. Nothing was tossed or wasted. Soule crafts with this in mind as a way to link the past to the present and make a powerful impact toward leaving a greener earth for our children.