Pattern-Free Fashions: 12 Easy Styles to Sew, Serge, Fuse (Star Wear) [Paperback]

Mary Lee Trees Cole (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

If you enjoy inventing your own styles instead of just working off store-bought patterns, you know how rewarding it can be to see your designs realized. But if you've ever tried to sew without a pattern by just making it up as you go along, you also know how frustrating it can be. This book aims to solve that dilemma by explaining 12 simple styles that yield nice-looking tops, skirts, dresses, robes, vests, pants, and wraps, with information on calculating yardage, cutting, ensuring proper fit, and creating variations. --Amy Handy

Review

Elegant caftans, trimmed capes, harem pants -- and can be made in minutes without patterns. Pattern-Free Fashions provides complete instructions for making 12 art-to-wear garments. Each chapter features a simple, stunning garment and is packed with user-friendly information including: tips for planning with inspiring design suggestions; various for men, women and children, sized small to generous; what to buy with measurement and fabric requirement charts; tools and notions to use for serging, sewing, and fusing; how to create garment shapes and cut fabric; step-by-step instructions for making and shaping to individual bodies; and finishing touches and embellishments. Pattern-Free Fashions gives easy-to-follow guidelines for making garments without patterns, illustrates fun techniques for embellishing, and shows how to use and combine fusible tapes and glues with serging and sewing. -- Midwest Book Review

Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Chilton Book Co (March 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801984971
• ISBN-13: 978-0801984976
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.1 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #603,043 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Easy, fast, fun., June 29, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Pattern-Free Fashions: 12 Easy Styles to Sew, Serge, Fuse (Star Wear) (Paperback)

Not only did I enjoy reading this book, but I also actually used it, and I'm glad I did. Blouses and tops are based on folding over fabric, and the fold is the shoulder line. That's fine if you have square shoulders. You can deal with it for sloped shoulders by using a wider neckline and/or shoulder pads. I made the Cocoon Coat by following the directions exactly, even when they didn't make sense, and I love it, even through several body size changes. It's a silk tweed lined with china silk. What a joy to wear. I made a straight skirt of corduroy and love it. It's important to allow enough ease. Comfortable and attractive. I made a blouse with long sleeves, shoulder tucks and a boat neck with a little "V" in the front of checked flannel. It slid around on me until I established the shoulder better with shoulder pads. Comfortable and attractive. I'm planning to make the sarong skirt, nightgown, caftan, and another coat and/or jacket or two. Another cocoon coat or two in exotic fabrics would be lovely. This book is easy to use, interesting, informative.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very good buy, November 9, 1999

By 

Arlene J. Medder "Biblioholic & proud of it" (Durham, NC, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pattern-Free Fashions: 12 Easy Styles to Sew, Serge, Fuse (Star Wear) (Paperback)

Originally I checked this book out at my local library. While it didn't suit my original purpose, it did provide me with an excellent kimono 'pattern' for my next project. I decided that I since I like this book so much I need my own copy.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect for fabric lovers!, October 16, 2009

By 

Kathleen Valentine "So Many Books, So Little ... (Gloucester, MA, United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Pattern-Free Fashions: 12 Easy Styles to Sew, Serge, Fuse (Star Wear) (Paperback)

I absolutely love fabric and often buy fabric that I think is just too beautiful to cut up. But the beauty of the designs in this book is that they are so clean, simple and uncomplicated that they really show off the fabric without requiring a lot of cutting, piecing, etc. I'm particularly partial to the Kimono Coat. It is so elegant and the layout so clean and simple that it would be ideal for silk brocades, velvets, or any fabric that you love but are squeamish about cutting.

The best part is it is a springboard for ideas. I suspect any of these designs could be made a dozen times in different fabrics and be absolutely unique and gorgeous. Thanks for a great book.