.Make It Perfect - THE BOOK! (and a giveaway at the end!).

Oops!  I know I told my Facebook buddies that I'd reveal more of my big secret on Monday - I don't know where two days went though!  Sorry, I got a little sidetracked getting excited and designing some new patterns.  I'm here now and ready to give you a little more info :)

I have so much I want to share with you...I don't really know where to begin.  

Thankyou SO SO SO much for all of your comments on my previous post.  My smile just kept getting bigger and bigger every time I read of your excitement and encouragement. 

So, a bit of background on how all of this happened and then I'll get onto answering your questions...

YES!  It is a BOOK!  A real life, hard cover book filled with 21 NEW Make It Perfect sewing patterns for easy women's and children's clothes.

It all happened about 18 months ago (yep, I've been keeping this secret for one and a half years!).  It was around 4:45pm on a Thursday evening and Oscar and Lil were in the shower while I was busy cooking stir-fry for dinner.  The phone rang and I answered it, surprised to hear that it was an editor from Penguin Books Australia wanting to speak to me.  I tried to sound as professional as I could with the kids carrying on in the background and making sure that I didn't over-cook the stir-fry (priorities people!).  We had a little chat and she told me that she had recently purchased a couple of my patterns from a local fabric store and was really impressed with them and would I be interested in writing a book.  Well, maybe she didn't say all of that in the one sentence but my head was spinning and it seemed like she did!

My initial thoughts were:

1.  A book - how the heck am I supposed to write a book?  My sisters are the english-university-educated book writers, not me!!

2.  I'm having a baby in 2 months time, there is no way I can write a book with a newborn.

3.  Ugh, my stir-fry is over-cooked.

But, of course I said, "that sounds like a wonderful opportunity.  Thankyou so much for contacting me.  Can I get back to you in a couple of days after I've had time to think more about it and discuss it with my family?"

To cut a long story short...

Turns out it's not everyday you get an offer to write a book with one of the biggest publishing companies in the world and I said yes.

I was super worried about how I was going to do it all with a new baby as well as the other two.  Then we started building our house which meant lots of decision making and planning to do there - lucky for me Jaron knew exactly what he was doing and I was happy to trust his judgment and didn't have to spend a lot of time or energy doing house stuff.  It was a very hectic and busy 8 months and pretty much every scrap of time I had was devoted to designing and writing patterns for the book.  Looking back, I don't know how I did it.  I guess it is true that the busier you are, the more you get done!  I can't see how I could have possibly squeezed everything that I accomplished into 8 months (book writing, general pattern writing, family life) and know that I was very blessed in so many ways to be able to get everything done.

It also helped that I had input and suggestions of some amazing women along the way.  I had 10 wonderful pattern testers who happily tested my designs as I produced them and kept to my tight schedule - thankyou Rachel, Karen, Yvonne, Stephannie, Suzanne, Erin, Bethany, Leisel, Rebecca and Melinda.  I seriously couldn't have done it without you guys!  I also had wonderful support and assistance from Cynthia of Fabric Worm and Elissa of Kelani Fabric - these lovely ladies supplied most of the fabric used for the garments photographed in the book. (And if you stay with me and keep reading until the end, Elissa has a great prize up for grabs!)

Okay, enough rambling...lets give some details about the book and answer your questions...
So, the book is hard cover.  It is really funky actually, kind of like a tri-fold opening, it looks like a big box when it is all closed up - I was over the moon when I first saw it.  When you first open the book, it looks like the photo above, with the book to the left and an envelope full of full-size pattern sheets to the right. 

The book will be released and ready for sale on Monday, 22nd November...so not too long to wait and perfect timing for Christmas!  
As for where you can buy a copy...well that depends on which stores decide to stock it!  The best thing to do for now is to ask your favourite sewing/fabric store to place one on hold for you.  As the book is published with Penguin, it should be avaliable in major bookstores like Borders, Angus & Robertson, etc.  I will have a a few signed copies of the book to sell after release date.  If you are a store owner and know that you will be stocking my book, leave a comment or let me know and I'll put together a list of places who are taking pre-orders.
You can take a look at the Make It Perfect page on the Penguin Website for more information on release date, price, etc.

If you have any more questions, please ask and I'll do my best to answer them!  I'll be sharing some of the projects in the book over the next few weeks and keep an eye on my pattern testers blogs as they may begin to reveal some of their projects also.

To celebrate the (almost) release of the Make It Perfect Book, Elissa from Kelani Fabric has generously offered a $50 gift voucher to her store for one of my lucky readers!  To be in the running, leave a comment on this post and give me some inspiration...if you have any ideas or suggestions for future Make It Perfect pattern designs - let me know and you might be the lucky winner of a $50 Kelani Fabric gift voucher!  The winner will be drawn randomly and the giveaway will close on Sunday evening, 24th October.