Sewing 911: Practical and Creative Rescues for Sewing Emergencies [Hardcover]

Barbara Deckert (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2001

Everyone who sews has had at least one sewing emergency and most have had more than they care to mention. Sewing 911 to the rescue! In her many years as a professional seamstress, author Barbara Deckert has experienced countless glitches -- and lived to tell about them. With good humor and a practical approach to improving sewing skills, Deckert shares her secrets for salvaging projects, even when things have gone terribly wrong.
-- Offers common-sense solutions the professionals use.
-- Includes step-by-step instructions and more than 200 color photos.
-- Enclosed spiral binding allows it to lie flat on the sewing table.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Even sewing experts occasionally run into sewing emergencies, and for many of us they can happen all too often. If you're tired of coping with accidental snips, fabric shortages, bungled buttonholes, lopsided hems, gapping necklines, and any number of other mishaps, check out Barbara Deckert's Sewing 911. Loaded with practical advice and laced with humor, this terrific guide offers at-a-glance troubleshooting for more than 65 common sewing calamities. So the next time an ill-timed phone call causes an ironing accident or that pair of pants you worked so hard on winds up too short or too tight, instead of panicking or cursing (or both!), turn to Sewing 911 to rescue your garment with confidence. --Amy Handy

From Library Journal

You say you've just discovered a tear in your daughter's new prom dress? Or maybe you realize that the form-fitting miniskirt you just finished sewing is more form fitting than you intended. What to do? Deckert, a regular contributor to Threads magazine and the author of Sewing for Plus Sizes, has anticipated most of the problems faced by home sewers, and here she offers a variety of practical solutions. Illustrations and step-by-step procedures are excellent, as is the section on sewing-machine troubleshooting and on burn testing to ascertain the fiber content of mystery fabrics. A good choice for public libraries.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 154 pages
• Publisher: Taunton Press (October 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1561584444
• ISBN-13: 978-1561584444
• Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 7.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #146,589 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sewing 911, November 2, 2001

By 

Clydia Pappenfus (Shoreline, Washington United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sewing 911: Practical and Creative Rescues for Sewing Emergencies (Hardcover)

This is an excellent book for "disaster contros" for the inexperienced or experienced sewer (I hesitate to say "seamstress--probably not politically correct). She has a wealth of very practical advice for fixing or disguising problems ranging from scorched places from errant iron placement to creative solutions when suddenly you discover that there isn't enough fabric. She has an extensive section on stain removal, which is extremely useful. She knows what to do when that garment that one just lengthened still bears the tell-tale line where the hem was. She knows what to do when that buttonhole on the front of your garment looks bad or is too big or too small. She not only tells and has illustrations showing how to mend spots where there is a hole or the seam is trimmed too close or cut clear through; she also has very creative suggestions to disguise such things when mending them isn't practical. She knows how to fix it if the right and left sides of the front of a double breasted garment are not the same length, or if the underneath layer sags. This is a really useful book for anyone who sews. It opens up to lie flat so that as one works on a problem, using the book as a guide, one doesn't have to fight the book to make it stay open. The book, itself, does not present yet another problem. I highly recommend this book as an ideal gift for anyone who sews, including one's self.

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sewing 911 Came to My Rescue!, October 22, 2001

By 

P. Stewart (Grand Rapids, MI) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sewing 911: Practical and Creative Rescues for Sewing Emergencies (Hardcover)

Don't feel like the Lone Ranger if you make an occasional sewing boo-boo. We all do, and author Barbara Deckert encourages us, through her imaginative examples, to find fashionable fixes for those annoying errors.

Pesky puckers on a lapel? Neckline gaping immodestly? Bungled buttonhole? Now there's no need to toss that garment aside in frustration. Barbara addresses these and dozens more sewing emergencies with highly creative but perfectly do-able
solutions. Concise, engaging, and packed with information, Sewing 911 will take the stress out of those inevitable sewing
mistakes by sparking the sewer's aptitude for creative problem solving.

I finished this book in one sitting because I was so riveted by the possibilities. Find out how disguising an accidental snip in your fabric can actually take your garment to the next level - from ordinary to designer-detail stunning.

Sewing enthusiasts have long needed an author who is not afraid to admit that she, too, encounters the occasional "oops!" Barbara Deckert has made this taboo topic highly approachable and even fun to deal with. Sewing 911 is a must-have reference for every sewer's shelf.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sewing 911, April 25, 2006

By 

Mary Wilkins "http://sew-whats-new.com" (Timberlea, Nova Scotia Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sewing 911: Practical and Creative Rescues for Sewing Emergencies (Hardcover)

I found this book while away travelling. First of all, I like the hard cover and internal spiral. This book covers a lot of problems we sewists come across. Loads of fitting issues are addressed as well as those awful ironing accidents we tend to have.

There are tips on what to do when you don't have enough fabric and how to fix those nasty buttonhole problems. I really enjoy the sense of humor that Barbara Deckert showed in the book. The book also gives solutions to machine problems and there is a very good stain removal chart at the end of the book.

Her tips are sensible and helpful. I am very glad I stopped to purchase it.