The decline of the U.S. textile and apparel industries between the 1940s and 1970s helped lay the groundwork for the twenty-first century's potent economic populism in America. James C. Benton looks at how shortsighted trade and economic policy by labor, business, and government undermined an employment sector that once employed millions and supported countless communities. Starting in the 1930s, Benton examines how the New Deal combined promoting trade with weakening worker rights. He then moves to the ineffective attempts to aid textile and apparel workers even as imports surged, the 1974 pivot by policymakers and big business to institute lowered trade barriers, and the deindustrialization and economic devastation that followed. Throughout, Benton provides the often-overlooked views of workers, executives, and federal officials who instituted the United States’ policy framework in the 1930s and guided it through the ensuing decades. Compelling and comprehensive, Fraying Fabric explains what happened to textile and apparel manufacturing and how it played a role in today's politics of anger.

Beautiful home decor items, made with great fabrics, that don't require threading a sewing machine! The chapters go room by room through your home. Tackle redoing just one room at a time, but before you begin browse through the entire book. Ideas in one chapter may suit a room covered in a different chapter.

In 1974, women in a feminist consciousness-raising group in Eugene, Oregon, formed a mock organization called the Ladies Sewing Circle and Terrorist Society. Emblazoning its logo onto t-shirts, the group wryly envisioned female collective textile making as a practice that could upend conventions, threaten state structures, and wreak political havoc. Elaborating on this example as a prehistory to the more recent phenomenon of “craftivism”—the politics and social practices associated with handmaking—Fray explores textiles and their role at the forefront of debates about process, materiality, gender, and race in times of economic upheaval. Closely examining how amateurs and fine artists in the United States and Chile turned to sewing, braiding, knotting, and quilting amid the rise of global manufacturing, Julia Bryan-Wilson argues that textiles unravel the high/low divide and urges us to think flexibly about what the politics of textiles might be. Her case studies from the 1970s through the 1990s—including the improvised costumes of the theater troupe the Cockettes, the braided rag rugs of US artist Harmony Hammond, the thread-based sculptures of Chilean artist Cecilia Vicuña, the small hand-sewn tapestries depicting Pinochet’s torture, and the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt—are often taken as evidence of the inherently progressive nature of handcrafted textiles. Fray, however, shows that such methods are recruited to often ambivalent ends, leaving textiles very much “in the fray” of debates about feminized labor, protest cultures, and queer identities; the malleability of cloth and fiber means that textiles can be activated, or stretched, in many ideological directions. The first contemporary art history book to discuss both fine art and amateur registers of handmaking at such an expansive scale, Fray unveils crucial insights into how textiles inhabit the broad space between artistic and political poles—high and low, untrained and highly skilled, conformist and disobedient, craft and art.

Learn quilting basics from a YouTube sensation and practice your skills with 12 fun projects suitable for all skill levels. Her instructional videos have inspired thousands to start sewing. Now for the first time, sew-lebrity Laura Coia shares written patterns for the most loved video tutorials on her “Sew Very Easy” YouTube channel! Learn the basics of quilt making, from cutting and pressing to borders and finishing. Then practice your skills with a dozen beautiful projects—quilts you’ll come back to time and time again—all suitable for beginners and beyond.

It’s hard to think of anything more useful than glue when it comes to crafts, but sometimes we may take glue for granted. Try to imagine an artistic world without glue! It’s pretty much a necessity. If you’re a craft fanatic you owe it to yourself to gain a full understanding of glue’s properties and uses. This new glue guide helps you do just that. With tips and advice for effectively and creatively using glue, there are special sections devoted to fabric and leather projects, paper crafts, glass projects, jewelry and crystals, fashions in a flash, and home d�cor quickies. Best of all is that several recipes are included so you can make your own glue at home!

Covers information required for students taking the Design and technology : textiles technology GCSE examination. Follows the Edexcel examination specifications.

The award-winning textile artist presents her modern approach to 150 fabric manipulation techniques in this fully illustrated sewing guide. In Fabric Manipulation, Ruth Singer presents the most in-depth and comprehensive guide to sculptural and embellishing effects since Collette Wolff’s The Art of Manipulating Fabric. Divided into three sections—Pleat and Fold, Stitch and Gather, Apply and Layer—Fabric Manipulation teaches sewists of all skill levels 150 creative sewing techniques with clear instruction, photos, and hundreds of full color diagrams. Ruth explains her innovative variations on traditional fabric manipulation techniques such as pleating, folding, gathering, smocking, quilting, trapunto and applique. She also offers inspirational project ideas for accessories and home décor that demonstrate practical uses of fabric manipulation.

Jera Brandvig’s signature quilt-as-you-go method is back with brand new techniques and ideas! Create pretty projects using small, manageable pieces of fabric that can be made into different shapes and sizes from a creative and fresh perspective. The follow up to best-sellers Quilt-as-you-go Made Modern and Quilt-as-you-go Made Vintage, this book introduces how to quilt individual circles, hexagons, and easy 3D quilt blocks. Also, learn to add extra creative flair with embellishments such as lace and ribbon to your quilt. Once you’ve created your treasured masterpiece, enjoy learning Jera’s tips for how to tastefully display quilts as elegant home decor. Create beginner and precut-friendly quilts in multiple styles and sizes Learn various techniques such as making reversible quilts with folded circles or hexagons, making 3-dimensional flower blocks, and embellishing with ribbons and lace Includes special chapter showing Jera’s ideas for using quilts as home decor

This volume presents the papers from the seventh North-European Symposium for Archaeological Textiles (NESAT), held in Edinburgh in 1999. The themes covered demonstrate a variety of scholarship that will encourage anyone working in this important and stimulating area of archaeology. From the golden robes of a Roman burial, to the fashionable Viking in Denmark, through to the early modern period and more technological aspects of textile-research, these twenty-four papers (five of which are in German) provide a wealth of new information on the study of ancient textiles in northern Europe.