#BookReview ‘Luna Lapin:Making New Friends’ by Sarah Peel

About the book…

Learn to make Luna Lapin’s friends and their exquisite wardrobes. This collection of sewing patterns features five of Luna’s best friends (as well as Luna herself) along with their clothes including Hugh the Hound, Daisy the Sheep, Ramsey the Ram, Rowan the Squirrel and Hedgehog.

Author, Sarah Peel, takes classic garments and recreates them on a miniature scale and with exquisite fabrics including Liberty cottons, wool tweed and French lace. Full sized patterns and step-by-step instructions are included – as well as a collection of charming stories about the characters and their adventures

Here is the third book in the series which is still going strong, ‘Luna Lapin:Making New Friends’ is out now from David and Charles and I couldn’t be happier to have it on my bookshelf!
In this one, as well as the central Luna pattern, you have 5 new friends to make.

All the clothes are easily customisable for for the different characters, and what I love is that it will not use much fabric to make so the whole book is great for busting your stash of fabrics.

These are beautiful, heirloom toys accompanied by stories, so it’s not just a craft book, it’s a making experience. The production value is high as I have come to expect from David and Charles books, they know what crafters like-and that is not having to spend the cover cost of a book, again, on printing out the patterns.

All patterns are incuded and sized, so that all you need to do is copy them out and start sewing. I recommend baking paper as a)it’s cheap b)pencil marks well on it and c)it is more robust and stands folding/reusing more than once.

Here is my Luna, with her ears in the wrong way around, but I love her anyway! She has a cardie on due to it being a little cloudy today and red velvet feet/ear inners from a dress which makes a lovely contrast to the feel of the felt.

I cannot wait to get my scissors and threads out and start making some companions for Luna (you can see pics of the one that I made on my Instagram @arbycrafts, my crafting account if you are interested)

About the author…

Sarah Peel has stitched half of her life away. Her interest in sewing can be pinpointed back to being read ‘The Little Girl and the tiny Doll’ by Edward Ardizzone, as a child. In the book, a doll has been dropped into a supermarket freezer and the little girl who finds her, makes tiny clothes At home, Sarah would make fairy dolls from petals in the garden and always had access to a sewing machine. A teenager obsessed with fashion, Sarah was able to make her own style and that talent developed into a career as a pattern cutter for Next, and then after time in a top tailoring factory in Belgium, Sarah was promoted into Womenswear buying at Next. Sarah moved up to the Lakes in 1990, to work for Lakeland and this role took her all over the world, sourcing, designing and buying.
Having a family of three children – two who are grown up, Sarah established Cool Crafting in 2011, sensing a movement back to handmade and wanting to inspire people on their own crafting journey. The idea of Luna Lapin came about in 2013, as a way of helping people with their sewing through kits with generous, quality materials, and clear, achievable instruction.
Luna has been made and loved by many, many people around the world, especially in the UK. We don’t regard her as a toy, she is more of an heirloom piece, or an indulgence for all of us who are still children at heart.