Description

The practical, pocket-sized dressmaking manual that every sewist needs.

Tips, techniques and trusted advice on everything from threading your machine and selecting your fabric to fitting zips, darts, pockets and vents.

Whether you are making your first garment or your fiftieth, this comprehensive mini guide is a treasure trove of knowledge, perfect for dipping in and out of for quick reference and trusted advice. Inside you’ll find:

Sewing machine anatomy: a tour through a machine’s anatomy along with advice on choosing needles, threads and feet.
An overview of essential tools: everything you need to get going, including cutting tools, marking and measuring aids and pressing tools.
A complete guide to fabric: understand construction, grain and bias, and discover an indispensable photographic library of 30 key dressmaking fabrics, each given with suitable garment use and care instructions.
Patterns demystified: understand pattern language and symbols, how to take key body measurements and learn how to arrange your pattern pieces on fabric most efficiently.
40 key hand and machine sewing techniques: discover 40 essential techniques, each shown clearly step by step. Start with hand-sewing, seams and hems; discover more advanced techniques such as adding bias binding and piping; before moving on to adding details and features such as darts, pleats, pockets and gathers.

Publisher Review

This effective debut primer from stylist Guyet details the sewing skills required to create a dress. Surveying needle types, Guyet recommends ballpoint for knitted fabric and stretch needles for elastics. An overview of marking aids suggests using tailor’s wax on wool, and a breakdown of cutting supplies notes that pinking shears are ideal for clipping seam allowances. Guyet outlines typical uses and care instructions for various fabrics, explaining that taffeta is usually reserved for formal outfits and should be dry-cleaned, while microfiber is commonly used in more casual dresses and should be hand-washed. She also provides meticulous instructions with accompanying photos showing how to thread a bobbin and needle on a sewing machine, as well as how to sew basting stitches, blind hem stitches, catch stitches, and slip stitches by hand. Elsewhere, she shares how to take measurements; create collars, darts, hems, and pleats; and decode sewing pattern symbols. There are no projects, meaning that this serves primarily as a reference guide. The straightforward explanations ensure that this largely succeeds, but true beginners might wish for a bit more detail on some of the more complex techniques, such as attaching zippers and creating piped pockets. Still, this helpful handbook has much to offer budding sewists. * Publishers Weekly *