Curl up with the best new craft books

Craft books: Self-sufficiency Soap Making

This helpful little book will get you started as a total beginner to making natural soaps in your own home. Handmade soap is frugal, skin-friendly and makes an ideal present, and you don't need a lot of specialist equipment - in fact, the processes and utensils of soap-making are similar to those of cooking. The book gives soap ‘recipes' for making all kinds of pampering soaps from creamy milky ones to fruity bars and exfoliating scrubs, as well as liquid soaps and shampoos. It also runs through some of the best ingredients if you want to concoct your own mixture of essential oils and infusions.

Self-Sufficiency Soap Making, Sarah Ade (New Holland, £7.99), www.amazon.co.uk