Customer Reviews

The Perfect Fit: The Classic Guide to Altering Patterns

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the most comprehensive and clearly explanatory book on fitting and alteration I have ever seen.
The photos make it easy to see the problems and the drawings make it easy to see the solution. I highly recommend it.

Many fitting books have good hints, but I've often had to look in several to get the fit right. This book gives clear and sound fitting help. The pictures clearly demonstrate what you are doing, and the results are very good. Wish I'd found this book before buying so many others.

This book gives all the examples with photos so you will understand what kind of alteration you need to do. Good book for advanced seamstresses. And a must-have for beginners and intermediates!

This is the Singer Reference Library "The Perfect Fit", with a slightly different cover, new copyright date and differend ISBN. It's a good book, but if you already own the Singer book, as I do, you will be buying a duplicate book, as I just did. Buyer beware!

Wow! This book is amazing. Even if the alteration information was terrible (which it's not), the beginning of the book would be well worth it's price. It begins by teaching you how to select the right pattern first. The authors explain how commercial patterns are built, and the differences between classic, relaxed and dramatic fit. The fitting section begins with a comprehensive figure analysis. Rather than having you squint at yourself in a mirror and decide, "Why yes, I AM a perfect hourglass figure," it explains how to make a full-sized body drawing, label the points and literally connect the dots to reveal your body type.

The book is stuffed with pictures. There are tons of pictures showing "average" body parts, and bodies on both sides of average. It was really easy to look at the pictures and say "Those are my arms. That's what my inner thigh looks like." I also didn't have to try to figure out how to perform each alteration, because there are detailed pictures that show every single line, snip and slide. It covers a wide range of alterations, explaining adjustments for shoulders, arms, waist, hips, thighs, bust, abdomen, and seat. Each adjustment section is then divided into minor adjustments and major adjustments, shows procedures for doing both, and includes the maximum recommended amount of adjustment so you don't distort your pattern. For each variation from average, the book includes a chart the explains the fitting goal, flattering styles and details, unflattering styles and details and common pattern adjustments. It helps you start out by choosing a pattern that is likely to flatter your body without a lot of adjustments. Finally, I felt like the book avoided judgemental labels like skinny/fat, large/flat, which I appreciated.

My only (extremely small) issue with this book is that some of the fashion photos are outdated. This must be a later edition of a previously published book. Although it is copywritten 2005, some of the clothing styles look like mid to late 1980's. This absolutely does not affect the information in the book, since it is talking about alterations, not choosing fashions. However, it came up just a couple times, such as the author's enthusiastic embrace of shoulder pads, and a complete lack of discussing bootcut pants and where they fit on the body-type spectrum. On the whole, it was a very small issue. Just don't look too closely at their fashion plates at the beginning of each chaper!

All in all, this book is fabulous. If you want a coffee table book about current fashions, skip it. If you want a book that will help you make your clothing fit, this is the one! It's the first alteration book that I have purchased, and I can't see needing anything else. It is clear, complete, and so easy to follow.

I'm not sure how this works, but this is exactly the same book as the book of the same title in the Singer Sewing Reference Library, published in 1987! Even the cover is the same: only the color has been changed. In this case, I realized that I owned the book before purchasing it. Once before, I bought a quilting book that was a Joanne's reissue of a book that Better Homes and Gardens had originally put out. In that case, some of the content and illustrations had been changed, but not much. I felt ripped off and returned the book. A nuisance. Sometimes there will be a note on the copyright page stating that it is a reissue, but that was not the case.

That said; this is one of my go-to books for fitting problems. The photos are so helpful and clear. It is a basic text, but very thorough. It's a must-have for most sewing libraries, in my opinion.

I love this book and will cherish it. The photos are clear and precise. I was able to read this book in approximately 15 minutes because it's mostly pictures. The techniques on altering patterns were extremely easy. Will not part with this pratical resource.

Of my many alteration books, this is the one of two that has a no-dart FBA. That's worth five stars by itself. (The other no-dart method uses the pivot and slide technique.)The instructions in this book are very clear. It isn't a comprehensive guide to every alteration, but the ones it does include are covered well. Very clear pictures detail the steps. For each alteration, there are instructions for a minor and major adjustment. What I love most about this book is that it tells you the max amount of length or width you can add for some of the alterations. Seems like few other authors thought this was important. I just realized this is a revised edition of the old Singer Sewing Reference Library books, which explains why it's so easy to understand.

The Analyzing Your Shape section is okay. I don't agree with all of the "fitting goals." For example, if you have a small waist *one hand raised as I type* the fitting goal is, "Unless hips are full and out of proportion to small waist, draw attention to the waist." Puh-lease. I am a very pear-y black woman. I'm required to draw attention to my small waist. My goal is to create a closet full of A-line halter dresses with midriff rouching:-) When will the world become more inclusive when it comes to fashion and figures?

Here's what's covered:

Sloping shoulders
Square shoulders
Narrow shoulders
Broad shoulders
Forward thrust shoulders
Neckline too high
Neckline too low
Neckline too wide
Neckline too narrow
High bust
Full bust
Gaping Armhole
Small bust
Narrow back
Broad back
Rounded back + Extremely high rounded back
Full upper arm
Thin upper arm
Sleeve length adjustments
Small waist
Large waist
Prominent abdomen
Flat abdomen
Swayback (skirts)
Waist & Hip adjustments on gored skirts
Full hips
Small hips
One high hip
Full abdomen (pants)
Swayback (pants)
Full seat (pants)
Flat seat (pants)
Full thighs (pants)
Full inner thighs (pants)
Full outer thighs (pants)
Thin thighs
Pants length adjustments

The last chapter is about fine tuning the fit of pleats, darts, shoulder pads and scooping curved seams.

The pictures are a bit dated, but the info is timeless. I have no regrets about the purchase.

... guide to adjusting commercial patterns. I borrowed this book from my local library and was so impressed I ordered my own copy immediately from Amazon. If you never quite get the right fit using commercial patterns then this book is for you. Simple, clear, concise, easily followed instructions, each accompanied by a clear colour photo. It also covers adjustments for various body shapes and recommends styles that suit or don't accordingly. I have now been able to make a master pattern for a top that perfectly fits my sloping shoulders. Using this book it was so simple. It would suit absolute beginner home sewers to those of an intermediate level. My next project will be perfectly fitting trousers ;-) Very highly recommended.

This book is definitely a good general resource. It explains a lot of the fitting problems one can have- though it doesn't go into a lot of detail about men's styles over womens styles. I could stand to have a bit more on that since some fitting problems men have are not quite the same. It is an excellent general reference book to have around, but it's not quite the unbelievable magic bullet reference guide. I'd recommend this book for people who are just beginning to alter flat patterns. If you already do a fair amount of altering, this is not for you.