The flippin’ motherlode of cool craft books…

Nutmeg (of Material Mama podcast fame) has completely rocked my world by turning me on to Paperback Swap.com.

First, don’t let the name fool you — Paperback Swap is an online swapping pool for both paperback and hardback books of all kinds. And there are so many great craft books to be had there — free! (Well, for the price of Media Mail shipping, but still darn cheap!)

The process to set up an account is easy — but you do have to put some books into the Paperback Swap system before you can take any out. I’ve gotten so many awesome books already!

Complete Guide to Creative Needlepoint, pictured above, has 200 stitch diagrams and all kinds of cool little tricks. I’ve learned a ton about needlepoint from it already.

Then there’s Singer Sewing for Style, a great reference on basic tailoring. It has rockin’ photo tutorials for things like collars, cuffs, welt pockets, and the like.

And then there are these two Time-Life books from the Art of Sewing series: Exotic Styling and Novel Materials. They’re full of diagram tutorials for tweaking basic garment shapes to make them more fancy. And the Novel Materials one has stuff about sewing with leather and “test-tube textiles.” And it’s hard to see in the photo, but one is covered in fabric, and the other is covered in faux snakeskin.

The site is easy to use, and I haven’t had any problems with my swaps thus far. (Nutmeg says she hasn’t either.) So go set yourself up on Paperback Swap right away, and let’s get swapping!