Customer Reviews

Classic Tailoring Techniques: A Construction Guide for Men's Wear (F.I.T. Collection) (Language of Fashion Series)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have wanted to write a review of this book for months, but forced myself to finish a suit before writing. I made a sport coat and pants for my husband a couple years ago using an advanced Vogue Pattern and skills from a women's tailoring class and was not impressed with the results. I bought this book because I wanted to learn how to do men's tailoring the right way. Yesterday, I finished a suit, sport coat and pants following the directions of Classic Tailoring Techniques. All I can say now is, Wow! I have been sewing for 15 years, took several construction classes in college including a women's tailoring class and this was the most work of any sewing project I have ever done. The jackets are easily over 100 hours each. For every 10 minutes of machine sewing, I spent about 10 hours of hand sewing. In the middle of the project I thought I had lost my mind - I could have gotten a job at Burger King and purchased twice as many suits. But...the end result was absolutely worth it. Actually, I am going to start another suit tonight! Classic Tailoring Techniques has been the best sewing book I have ever purchased. Although my basic pattern was from Vogue, I didn't look at their directions even once during the project. The directions in the book are very different from Vogue or anything else I had ever seen. But the author's directions are very clear and with plenty of illustrations. If you follow the steps exactly (yes, every time he has you hand baste it's for a reason), I promise your results will be beautiful. This book has completely revolutionized how I sew - most notably pockets and collars, which have always been troublesome for me. Since I can now speak with the voice of experience, make sure you spend extra time in the fitting section of the book. Mr. Cabrara has very detailed instructions for correcting a pattern and getting the perfect fit. Making the muslin is worth the time. Also, it is a must to get the right understructure supplies. Good wool canvas interfacing feels very different from the stuff you will find at fabric stores. I called local tailor shops to ask where they buy their supplies. Most companies will send samples and let you order over the phone.

If you buy good fabric, good supplies and follow the directions in the book - your suits will be fantastic. My husband has always been spoiled with expensive suits, usually about $1,000 each. He has decided that the suit and sport coat I made are nicer than his purchased suits and has offered to do more cooking and cleaning if I will make him more suits. That has to be the best endorsement a book could get!

I checked this book out of the library hoping to tell me how to make those welt pockets. I have 10 books in my library that have tailoring instructions, but I was stumped with the pockets until I read this book. He went step by step and assumed you didn't know anything about sewing pockets. This author uses the same common sense layman language throughout the whole book. The pictures are black and white, but helpful. He makes you feel as if he was passing down all his tailoring secrets from generations before along to you. This book is not about speed tailoring with fusible interfacings. He goes into great detail to show you the exact hand stitches to look like a pro did it. I like the way he warns people of the common mistakes and how to avoid them. I am an avid sewer, but I have never made a suit. I am trying to make a tuxedo for my husband, and I am excited about how it will look when it is done. He has given me the confidence and knowledge to be able to accomplish it with just intermediate sewing skills.

I bought this book when I decided to make my 20-year-old son a Prince Charlie jacket to wear for Scottish dancing and piping events. It's the Scottish equivalent of a formal tailcoat with satin lapels, meant to wear with a kilt. I wanted it to fit him perfectly, and I wanted to use all the custom-tailoring techniques with no shortcuts. The sections on fitting were worth the price of the book. The fitting information available for working with women can be adapted, of course, but it was tremendously helpful and reassuring to have a tailor's view of fitting men. From there, the construction steps were clear and easy to follow. The finished product is truly fine. I would have tackled this project anyway, without the book. But I know the jacket is better because of it.

Overview:
This book is a valuable resource for anyone wanting to learn about tailoring a men's suit jacket & pants. It provides detailed instructions on every step of the process, from selecting the threads, materials, and fabrics, to laying out patterns, to sewing in the canvas, etc. It also provides very useful instructions on modifying store bought jacket patterns to fit varying body types (e.g. sloped / broad shoulders, wide /thin body, erect posture, bow legs etc.).

This book completely eliminates the need for the instructions which come with the pattern. And it also gives instructions on how to modify the pattern style (e.g. changing vents, lined or unlined jackets, changing pants pocket styles etc.). As the book states: "all you will use from a pattern envelope are the basic pattern pieces: the jacket front, side panel and back, the sleeve and the undercollar. You will be able to create the rest of the jacket on your own."

A few drawbacks:
The book contains both line drawings and photographs. The luckily, most of the illustrations are the line drawings which are simple and very useful. However, in the paperback version which I purchased brand-new from Amazon (perhaps the only version still in print) the photographs are extremely dark, and hard to see. They look and feel almost as though they were photocopied (poorly) from the original B&W pics in the hardcover book. This was, in my view, the biggest disappointment of this book.

As well, though not necessarily a drawback, it should be noted that the book focuses only on the "Classic" tailoring techniques (i.e. custom / hand stitching method). Those seeking information on the quicker (though inferior) machine and fusible methods of jacket construction will find no help.

Conclusion:
This is perhaps the most in-depth book you will find on men's jacket construction still in print today. It is used (I believe) in college courses on tailoring and fashion, and it is not difficult to see why. The smallest details are covered, and innumerable options are provided for customizing a jacket to your exact style and taste. If it wasn't for the terrible picture quality I would probably have rated it a 5.

As a side note,I found that it was useful to supplement the low resolution photographs in this book with the full colour photographs in Tailoring: The Classic Guide to Sewing the Perfect Jacket(though the latter focuses mainly on women's clothing, many of the techniques overlap). With the two of these books one will be well armed to construct a very nice men's suit.

Although this book wasn't on our book list, most of the class bought and it followed what we were learning. I have since refered back to it everytime I make a suit. I still have the jacket I made in class, and it looks as good as the day I finished it almost 15 years later.
This is as good as it gets in tailoring. It works just as well for women as it does men. Can also be adapted to coats.

This book is not for beginning sewers! It's not an easy book to get through. If you are really ready to make a suit jacket that will be comparable to $1,000 designer jackets, I'd recommend you also have on hand Tailoring: The Classic Guide to Sewing the Perfect Jacket. The pictures in that book are much clearer and easier to follow. And that book shows methods of tailoring with fusible interfacing.

Also, the Zapp Method of Couture Sewing has a great chapter on sewing a tailored jacket. Still, I do believe that a really fine jacket needs to use sew-in hymo hair canvas just as Roberto Cabrera (the author) recommends. It makes a tremendous difference.

If you must use fusibles, then Anna Zapp's method using Fusible Acro is best. I think, however, you will find it eventually separates after many dry cleanings.

You'll most likely need the internet to find these interfacings because places like Jo-Anne's certainly don't carry them!

Mr. Cabrera gives excellent instuction on traditional tailoring techniques complete with photos and diagrams. It is a must have for anyone who is serious about learning the proper way to tailor a Men's coat or jacket.

It is the best book I have seen on tailoring. One can learn a lot from it if one desires to. It is detailed, precise and has a lot of diagrams and pictures to guide you.

This book gives a lot of advice. The only thing that's keeping this book from being rated 5 star is it's picture. It's black and white!!!!

Thank you, Mitchenor! The book I ordered arrived promptly and the condition of the book is better than I expected it would be. I definitely recommend this vendor.