Dressmaking: The Easy Guide

Awarding-winning Welsh fashion designer, sewist, and instructor Rhiannon (Sew Perfect Pets) has presented a wonderful, thorough guide to clothing construction. The book begins with the basics, such as buying a sewing machine and other tools, and advances to designing customized patterns to fit all body sizes and shapes. Although beginners could certainly benefit from this book, perhaps its best audience members are readers who have made enough garments to realize how much more there is to learn. This title gives an excellent discussion of different types of fabrics, their weights, and their appropriateness for various pieces. The book goes into great detail about measuring the body, adjusting a printed pattern, modifying elements of the design, and eventually creating patterns of one’s own. The author has created her own sizing method—sometimes using metric measurements—that mostly do not resemble traditional American or European sizes. For example, her sizing chart bust measurements range from 31 to 75 inches.