Tiny Friends

A flock of sheep that fit in the palm of your hand, a tiger smaller than a teacup and a miniature kangaroo and her even tinier baby — all conjured up in a characterful patchwork of yarn scraps. 

Tiny Friends: A Guide to Mosaic Embroidery is a book on making colourful toys using mosaic embroidery, a technique developed by the Japanese artist Tomomi Mimura. In this book, she introduces the reader to 13 animal characters. Through detailed photography, illustrations and step-by-step instructions, Tomomi shows how to stitch and assemble whimsical stuffed toys and finger puppets that bring joy and inspiration to anyone around them. Mosaic embroidery is a technique based on simple darning stitches — all you need to get started is an embroidery hoop and some fabric, yarn, a needle and a pair of scissors! It is perfect for using even the tiniest bits of leftover yarn.  

Tomomi Mimura is a Japanese embroidery artist most renowned for mosaic embroidery, a technique she developed from basic darning stitches. Tomomi lives in the city of Chiba, just outside Tokyo. Besides designing and doing needlework, she runs workshops and writes books. Tomomi has previously published three highly popular books in Japanese, which have sold nearly 100,000 copies in total. Tiny Friends: A Guide to Mosaic Embroidery is her first book to be published in English.