Dressmaking: The Easy Guide: Mix and match skirts, sleeves and necklines for over 80 stylish variations

Product Information

Dressmaking as a hobby is growing in popularity around the world, especially in the UK, for a number of reasons. Sewing patterns can be a little daunting to look at for beginners, but most come with explanations of every step. The key to this book lies in discarding conventional high street sizing and taking measurements of YOUR body. Many beginners don't realise that it is possible to preserve a sewing pattern by tracing out the size you need and keeping the original.

As you become a more experienced sewer, you can try trickier sewing techniques and learn to adjust your own clothes to get a perfect fit. Thread that is weaker or poorly spun can break and tangle easily – which isn’t what you need when your concentrating on getting the perfect stitch!How to insert an invisible zip – give your outfits a professional finish by inserting an invisible zip. There is something magical about having the skill to construct your own clothes in the 21st Century.

The author has created her own sizing method—sometimes using metric measurements—that mostly do not resemble traditional American or European sizes. The pattern will advise you which fabrics to use and how much you need as in the example above where lightweight woven fabrics like crepe, faille and satin are recommended.Trace off your pattern pieces, then create a sample (toile) in calico which you can then adapt to create the dress of your dreams, in your own choice of fabulous fabric.

A rotary cutter – this tool which looks a bit like a pizza cutter makes it easy to cut out your pattern pieces. The patterns are only for sewing dresses and adapting the techniques to sew tops and skirts but you could use similar techniques for sewing other garments such as trousers, once you understand the adjustments that can be made. A basic sewing kit will often include a needle threader and they're very handy if you find threading a needle difficult to do.

Use a sharp needle with an eye large enough so the thread goes through easily, but not too big so it slips out while you’re stitching. The language of sewing and dressmaking is demystified at the beginning of the book, as well as the equipment you need to get started. Your machine might have varying overlock stitches as the basic principle is a stitch that overlaps the edge of the fabric.