New hand sewing book from Louisa Owen Sonstroem
Louisa Owen Sonstroem’s first book Hand Sewing Clothing is a self-published little gem that explores Louisa’s discovery and development of her hand sewing journey. It has been a best seller here at Beyond Measure since we started to stock it in 2021.
We are now delighted to offer Louisa’s second book, The Handsewn Wardrobe, for pre-order in our shop. We decided to catch up with Louisa and find out a bit more about her new book
Hi Louisa, can you tell us a bit more about how the second book came about?
The idea for The Handsewn Wardrobe emerged within a few months of releasing my first book, Hand Sewing Clothing: A Guide. That first book is a true reference book, with no project instructions to show people how to apply the stitches and other techniques. So I felt that it would be important to also create a book giving concrete examples of how to use hand sewing to construct modern garments. For one thing, I think it can be helpful for a lot of people to have that step-by-step guidance through a project. But also, I felt strongly that there should be a book out there offering full-color, photographic proof that you really can construct attractive, sturdy modern clothing entirely by hand. And I'm proud to say that we've achieved that in The Handsewn Wardrobe -- it includes gorgeous photos of 17 physical garments that were all hand-sewn. So -- proof! It can be done! And you can do it, too.
How does it differ from your self-published title, Hand Sewing Clothing?
My first book is a small, short book and is purely for reference/inspiration -- there are no real project instructions. It also focuses exclusively on hand sewing. My new book, by contrast, is a big book (344 pages, 8x10", full colour, garment photography, instructional diagram illustrations, etc.) structured around nine modern garment projects.
For each of those nine chapters, instructions for both patternmaking AND hand sewing are given -- so it's really two books in one!
Readers can choose to draft and hand stitch their own garments, or they can pick and choose (patternmaking but then using a machine, or buying a similar pattern and then hand sewing). There's a robust basics section at the beginning of the book walking the reader through the foundational skills of patternmaking and then hand sewing.
So it still has a reference component, but not identical to the first book by any means. This new book also integrates the techniques and ideas I've developed in the years since my first book came out. Oh! And the new book also includes little features on nine other modern hand sewists and their work.
All of which is to say, they're definitely two different books with some basic skill overlap. I will say that the first one was more homey and sweet, while this one is more professional and thorough. Both books feel like they were written by me, but the new one had a lot of other experts working behind the scenes.
Do you think you will continue to self publish the first book?
I'm not sure. My life is pretty complicated these days with work and caretaking, so my schedule doesn't allow me to be very good at order fulfilment these days. My hope is that the new book will mostly eclipse the old one.
However, I know that a lot of people (including me) have a special appreciation for the old one, so I'll probably try to continue offering it as a digital download, and maybe very occasionally do physical copy releases. Especially for the international audience, though, I think the new book will be a more affordable and accessible option.
Any other news on the horizon regarding your hand sewing adventures?
At the moment, I'm enjoying hand sewing clothes for my toddler. I love stitching full-size adult clothing, but my goodness, it certainly is satisfying to sew these tiny clothes! And then I love to dress my little one in them. In terms of other plans, I'm hoping to do a bit more teaching again. And although I'm trying to give myself a bit of a break from writing, there is another book idea that I've been dreaming about. We'll see!
You can order both of Louisa's books from us here:
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