Customer Reviews

Patterns from Finished Clothes: Re-Creating the Clothes You Love

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Wow! This is a terrific book. The instructions are clear and concise. The photos are great and show you step-by-step what to do. If you have clothes that you absolutely love and want to reproduce, this book is a great aide. You get to recreate clothes that you know are going to fit you well. There is some work involved but the results are worth it (most of us spend time altering patterns anyways, which is also time consuming). Once you have recreated a pattern from a garment that you love, you already know that the end result is going to be an outfit that you love to wear and that fits you well. Buy this book! It's well worth the money!

When you find an article of clothing which fits just right, who wouldn't love to be able to replace it when worn or even duplicate it? This gives you the tools to reproduce those items, generally without requiring that you deconstruct the item first, so that your original remains intact and wearable. I have previously had to take apart an item to make a pattern from it, or "guesstimate" and trace around it, adding on for seam allowances and such. The latter method proved faulty and left me with mismatched seams and other problems. I borrowed this book from the library first to get a feel for it, and decided it would be such a valuable resource in my sewing library that purchased a copy of my own. I look forward to utilizing these methods with future projects. Recommend!

I'm a rooky at the sewing game. Bought a bunch of books before taking lessons, and this one by Tracy Doyle is one the the best I've seen, so far... Buy it!

This book is an easy to follow, step-by-step guide to making patterns. The instructions are accompanied by detailed, helpful photographs and the book is broken down into manageable sections. The best book I have found for this task.

I've used this book a lot and whilst it has shortcomings, I think it's more than earned it's price.
I wanted to make my own clothes and so I did a patternmaking course and bought some pattern making books. However when I actually put together a garment, the amount of changes and variations I had to make was really demotivating - I was thinking it would take years before I got the fit right and could wear anything I made.

So when this book popped up on Amazon, I thought I'd give it try. It has sections for a range of garments, with photos illustrating what's happening and some written instructions (the book appears to be from the 80s given the styles but this doesn't detract from it - the methods are quite applicable to current clothes).

Following the instructions for pants in the book, I created a pattern and made a pair of pants from it, and these turned out quite well - certainly wearable. I made another pair, referring from the notes I'd jotted down in the book from the first time and they were even better.

So now I'm trying out a shirt and a simple summer top. This is where the shortcomings of the book, as I see them, are showing - it doesn't really cover more complicated sewing techniques well, specifically gathers which I have on both my tops. There's a few pictures and instructions but I would have liked them to be more step-by-step as I couldn't quite work it out just from the book.

After some experimentation, I've found that using the grain line to copy these more fiddly bits is the answer - I've taken to running a row of tacking along the grains so it makes it easier to see what has been done to make the gathers. The book mentions grain lines but doesn't emphasise them as much as I think they need to be.

Having said that, I think it's a really good book, not least because it's the only one I've found out there that really covers copying garments even to the level it does. Other books and most of the instructions on the Web seem to focus on copying very simple, flat garments and I'm already past that thanks to this book.

More importantly it's given me a confidence and motivational boost, and given me some basic skills that I feel much more able to build on - I often find myself looking at clothes in shops with an eye to how I'd copy them! I think it suits an amateur, part-time, approach to sewing well - you can make patterns from clothes you already know fit you, and then adjust and customise from there.

Definitely recommended.

This book gives you step by step illustrations of how to reconstruct your favorite fitting garment into paper patterns. It also details all the tools you will need to make a knock off pattern (including what to place the garment on). The reason I gave this book 3 stars, because I was expecting a little more, but for the price $5.95...it was worth it.

I am not a complete novice but it has been many years since the last time I sewed. The information is useful even if you decide to use a premade pattern instead of re-creating one from finished clothing.

I was excited to receive this book after reading all of the positive reviews. The author does provide a lot of good visuals, but I still had trouble understanding her directions, even after re-reading them several times. Maybe this is just because I am new at pattern making. The styles that are copied definitely do not make me miss the 90's! There are other resources that have been more helpful for me in understanding how to make "knock off's". I recommend "Making Patterns from Finished Clothes" by Rusty Bensussen. It covers how to copy a lot more styles than this book does and gives you inspiration for creating endless styles from the basic patterns that you create. Another great resource is the DVD titled "Copy Ready to Wear" by Sandra Betzina. I have borrowed both of these from the library and enjoyed them so much that I will soon be ordering them from Amazon.

The book was in new condition, packaged perfectly, and received quickly! I would gladly buy from this seller again!

this is a very practical book that delivers on its title promise. I would give it 5 stars, but the clothes featured are very outdated (1995). The techniques are still as valid the day it was published.