Today I just want to share a little tidbit with you about my absolute most favorite series of how to books. They are, in all their glorious 80s style, the Reader’s Digest Complete Guides.
Styled on the floor of the woods, because that’s what I have to work with right now.
These books are, hands down, the most useful reference books I have ever come across. I have three of them: The Compete Guide to Sewing, The Complete Guide to Needlework (my favorite!) And the Complete Do-It-Yourself Manual. The last of these actually has an up-to-date version, but I haven’t actually seen it so I can’t speak to its qual-i-tay in comparison to the oldie.
The reason these books are so amazing is the sheer amount of information each one contains. I guarantee that you will not find a needle craft related book published in the last ten years that is this thick and contains half as much information as these puppies. Every page is densely packed with clear concise, and useful information.
And a lot of it (except for pretty much any of the patterns) is surprisingly current. I mean it’s really easy to get caught up in seemingly fancy “new” knitting techniques, because different things recirculate and become more or less popular over time, but for the most part a lot of knitting knowledge has been around for a good deal of time, and a good deal of it can be found in the 30 or so pages dedicated to knitting in just one of the books. How many knitting blogs or modern books do you think you’d need to scavenge to find the same information contained on this single page spread about sleeve construction?
At least a few knitting blogs, that’s how many. I would say that some of the information might not be as detailed as some people might need, but if you’re good at figuring things out or need a go to reference to start your search, these books are just freaking awesome. The do it yourself guide even has full sets of plans for building all kinds of fun things:
I learned quite a bit from that one about using tools and following plans. It has so much great information for anyone who may at some point in time need to fix something around the house. (Which is everyone.) And I’m constantly going back to the sewing guide to look up stuff about different machine and hand stitches, because it takes me way less time to flip through those pages and find what I’m looking for than to try and puzzle out the search query to figure out what kind of stitch it is I’m thinking of and find it on the internet. Some times the internet can be a totally wonderful resource, and sometimes a book with an index and a clear table of contents is really what you need. Also, there is a lot to be said about copy editing. A. Lot. cough
And I mean, really, who doesn’t appreciate some of the gaudy, “what were they thinking?!” projects that can come out of books from the 70s & 80s. I mean was this EVER something that someone would make, let alone wear?!
1686
Yes, that is a full length long sleeve gown with a tatted butterfly chest panel.
Overall, they are fantastic, and I think that the next time you are in a used book store or a thrift store you should scan the shelves for them. I see at least one of them almost every time I’m browsing the “craft” shelves at those stores, and after I got my first one and realized how awesome it was the other two were not hard to find. I paid between $4 and $10 for each one, and you can find them for even cheaper online, but in my mind they are easily worth their weight in pennies. (And I mean these suckers are heavy, so it would probably be a lot of pennies.)