Customer Reviews

Bodymapping: The Step-By-Step Guide to Fitting Real Bodies

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I read this book out of curiousity only. I am a professional patternmaker and designer. I had several problems with the author's approach. She is essentially making custom slopers. You can do this by draping fabric over a live body, but it takes time and skill to know if you are doing it right. Secondly, no one should use gingham as a grid for the body. Gingham rarely has perfectly square squares and the fabric is extremely difficult to get on grain because it usually has a high content of polyester. Finally the author sums up finalizing your custom pattern and what to do with it when you are done in just a few pages. The whole subject is far more complex. If you really want to learn how to drape or make your own custom slopers, there are far better books out there!! Try The Art of Fashion Draping by Connie Amaden-Crawford or Patternmaking for Fashion Design by Armstrong.

I was looking for an up-to-date book that would contain techniques and hints for altering commercial patterns. At the time I purchased BODYMAPPING, there were no customer reviews. I went by the synopsis that stated the book contained streamlined techniques for garment fitting. If you are willing to spend a day working with a friend to create a fabric "map" of your body which you can then use to sew the patterns in the book, you may find value. However, if you just want a book that will help you learn the best ways to alter your commercial paper patterns, this is NOT the book for you. I am giving an "average" rating in the interest of fairness. To me, the book was worth "0" stars, but other readers who found what they were looking for gave it "5" stars.

Although the concept is brilliant, I did not find the process at all easy to follow. There could have been far more information given on how to use the princess line pattersn resulting from the protuding buttocks/stomach adjustments. For example an armhole princess line should be easily converted to a shoulder princess line but there was no information given as to how to do this.

I am a happy born again dressmaker, after having given up and quilted for a long time. Thanks to this book I can decide what I want, use my map to make a pattern, and wear my sewing skills instead of hanging them on the wall. If you follow the book, and you will most likely need a buddy, you will have a working map of your body and the directions to create patterns for the vast majority of basic styles we really wear. This is a customized sloper and introduction to patternmaking and design. There's a ton of valuable information crammed into this book, even if you don't create the bodymap. Bodymapping is not designed to help you alter commercial patterns. It is designed to free a serious sewer, enabling confident creativity.

In my pursuit of trying to sew clothes that fit from commercial patterns, I came across Bodymapping, but I was completely disappointed. It looked like a great idea - to make a master pattern for myself based on which I could alter commercial patterns so that they would fit me. But, let's just say this book is so badly written it is confusing and discouraging.

Here are some suggestions for the next edition: This book needs to edited for conciseness and clarity. More pictures would help, particularly if they illustrated more clearly what the author is trying to show. The endless paragraphs make it difficult to follow the instructions. Basic writing principles should be applied: Write a lead sentence for each paragraph, then explain in more detail. Write a transition to the next paragraph. Write about no more than one idea per paragraph.

If you are trying to find instructions on how to make a "sloper" or master pattern for your body, find another book. This one is endlessly frustrating. I tried to do it together with my friend but even with two people, it was impossible to figure out what we were supposed to do.

I apologize to the author for slamming the book so badly. A book like this is really needed for home sewers. But it needs to be more useful and easier to follow.

i am very pleased with the new concept of fitting to my body. since it has been difficult and impossible to fit a pattern to my assemetrical type body, this approach is the only one that has worked for me. once you understand that this book is intended to fit for each individual and not a book on pattern alterations, it is very easy to understand. one needs to look at this book as a new approach to fitting.

I am an experienced home sewer and needed help fitting my ageing body. Many fitting books try to guide you through general body differences but with Bodymapping you actually end up with a pattern that has been draped on your own body and shows your own angles and curves and the result is a garment that fits.

There are many steps in this process and you will need to spend some serious time doing this but my sewing buddy and I have used this book and found the fit of garments we made to be superior to any of the previous methods of fit.

This book is not intended to show you how to alter commercially available patterns but to create one to precisely fit your own body. I found the instructions for making additional styles from the basic block to be clear. I have made the tanktop, and armhole princess styles with ease.

Bodymapping is an amazing concept that practically revolutionizes the way seamstresses can be assured a perfect fit every time for their clients, or themselves. Kudos to Kathy Illian for not only coming up with this idea, but for explaining it in an interesting, easy to follow way. The book is very well written---it combines step by step instructions,with clear pictures which makes it very easy to visualize and then utilize Illian's Bodymapping technique. This book is definitely worth the money and I'm going to tell all of my fellow sewing friends to rush out and get it!

Kathy Illian addresses several problems that I have not seen in other books -- such as the shape of the armhole. I think the information on averaging the side seam and on the relationship of the sleeve to the armhole alone is worth the price of the book.

There is also some good information on how commercial patterns are designed that I have not read anywhere else.

I think the book is well organized and clearly written. I'm frequently disappointed by fitting books...but not this one. It's a really innovative concept. I don't know why no one thought of it before!

I haven't tried the techniques in the book, or read very far, but I do have to agree that gingham is a poor choice in fabric to use for a grid sloper. I have read the beginning of the book and skimmed through it and it seems very helpful. It's something I've been looking into for some time now. I'd like to make my own patterns and also I'd like to get commercial patterns to fit. This book focuses more on making your own patterns. I see it as I'm getting something out of this book, whether it be one tip or many, and that will add to my sewing knowledge. Plus for the price of about 6 bucks at the local bookstore, there's not much to frown about.