Sew Kawaii Review

I have mixed feelings about Sew Kawaii by Choly Knight. I received the book from my mother this Christmas and instantly used the patterns within to help me out with a commission. More on that in a little bit.

The projects in the book are cute, simple, and easy enough for beginners. The projects are even ranked for your convenience from Very Easy ("So straightforward you can breeze through them") to Easy ("Good for a third or fourth project") to Experienced Beginner ("...For when you're ready to move... into something with a little more detail") to Intermediate ("...When you already know most sewing techniques and how to work your way around a pattern"). In my opinion, even the Intermediate stage is very easy but if you're wanting to go in order from easiest to hardest, there's a separate index that groups all the projects together by stage rather than by type of craft. 

The guide in the front of the book goes over a pretty good deal of material from the basics on varying fabric types such as knits, woven fabrics and plush fabrics to different, basic tools like your sewing machine, a few different types of thread, fabric markers, etc.rfdc

 A large portion of the guide covers how to applique since that's a large part of this book. There are also invaluable handsewing techniques and a short glossary of techniques terms anyone with an interest in plushie making needs to know.







If you've ever been to an anime convention, there's a 99% chance you've seen most of these plush designs.

They're not very unique which makes them great for "kawaii" lovers looking for this specific type of plushie but not really for much of anyone else. It's a pretty niche group this book is catering towards, in my opinion, with its lacy arm warmers, cute animal scarves, and sweeter-than-sugar hats. After looking at the projects I'm left with a distinct feeling of "I swear I've seen this before."



Is that a bad thing? Not necessarily. I personally like that about this books because it reminds me of a childhood spent with an obsession for anime and "kawaii" things.

It also reminds me of why I got into plushie making in the first place. I just don't think that everyone will benefit from a book that teaches you Japanese terms in the lower left hand corner and would love nothing more than to teach you how to make a cute little riceball plush.


For those of you that would look down on the book as "weebish" however, consider the following

This is the llama plushie from the book. It's an intermediate project and, thus far, the only one I've (sort of) attempted. I personally wasn't too big of a fan of the oversized face and ears and the way its legs are splayed out like it can't walk.

This cute little fluffy pink alpaca is my interpretation of this piece which I actually created for a commission It's pretty obvious that I altered the pattern given quite a bit. Your plushies don't ever have to be a carbon copy of what you see in books or bought patterns.

While embarking on this project though, I did notice several issues with this book. The directions on this project were unclear with steps such as "Sew the [head/neck/feet/etc]" and then an utterly unhelpful picture of some hands under a sewing machine. I didn't even know which parts of the pattern went against what other bit. 

This book also displays a really big pet peeve of mine: "Enlarge pattern by 250%" This is an issue for many people because not everyone has a scanner or copier or the money to go to the nearest copy shop and enlarge 22 patterns by 250% just to be able to use them as intended. Thankfully I needed a small plush but if I'd wanted the full size, I would have been out of luck. 

All in all it was a pretty good book. I'd probably give it a 5.5 or maybe even a full 6 out of ten. It's a helpful resource and a pretty good starting point for most beginning plush artists but there are definitely better books out there