What Kinds of DIY Projects Are Featured in Make it Yourself?

Updated

Make it Yourself is a digital book that gathers over 1000 useful DIY projects from creative people around the world, covering "high quality things of all kinds" and linking each entry directly to its original project website. If you want a single starting point for finding real, buildable DIY projects across many categories, this collection is designed for exactly that. The one thing to know up front: the book is a curated index, not a set of instructions — the actual how-to material lives on the linked project sites.

What the collection actually contains

According to the book's own description, the scope is deliberately broad rather than niche:

  • Over 1000 projects — a large enough set that it functions more like a catalog than a single-topic guide.
  • "High quality things of all kinds" — the stated aim is quality across categories, not depth in one.
  • Made by creative people worldwide — projects originate from makers around the globe.
  • Shared freely — the framing is that makers are sharing their work openly with everyone.

Because the description emphasizes range over a fixed category list, the practical takeaway is that you should expect variety: the value is in browsing and discovering, not in a predictable table of contents.

How each project is presented

Every featured item links directly to its original project website. That structure matters for how you use the book:

Element What it gives you
Project entry in the book A pointer to a project worth considering
Link to original site The full build information — materials, steps, files
The book as a whole A browsable index of possibilities

So the book answers "what could I make?" while the linked sites answer "how do I make it?"

Who it's for

This fits you if you:

  • Want inspiration for a next project and don't yet know what you want to build.
  • Prefer real projects with existing documentation over abstract idea lists.
  • Like the idea of supporting and visiting original maker sites rather than a closed platform.

It fits less well if you need a single step-by-step tutorial on one specific skill — in that case, go straight to the linked project site for the item that interests you.

How to use it

  1. Open the book and browse the project entries.
  2. Pick an item that matches your interests or available materials.
  3. Follow the link to the original project website.
  4. Use the material there — plans, instructions, files — to actually build it.

The main thing to plan for: since content lives on external sites, availability and completeness depend on each original maker's page, not on the book itself.