Customer Reviews

Shirtmaking: Developing Skills For Fine Sewing

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

And I own quite a few. This book takes you step by step through shirtmaking, for men or women. But it's not just making shirts, it's about fine sewing. There are all sorts of details in the book, seam finishes, high-end details, discussions about shirting fabrics. It's the sort of book that makes you want to be a quality seamstress. Every page gives you the sense of how much the authors knows and loves this craft. Excellent how-to illustrations, and wonderful photos of finished garments. I recommend it for any level sewer.

I have owned this book and the companion video for over two years now and it is a book I often have open alongside my sewing machine as I sew. David's techniques are very innovative and produce professional results. It is great to get the tricky bits of a shirt - collar and cuffs looking perfect. David also offers advice on getting a perfect fit, taking a pattern from an existing shirt, and gives patterns for a range of collars, cuffs and plackets. I have saved hundreds of dollars making beautiful customed tailored shirts for my husband and myself using David's techniques.

As someone who is mostly interested in sewing clothes for myself (a man) I feel gypped by most sewing books that are 75% concerned with specific construction techniques for women's clothing. Finally a book where the variations for women are in effect relegated to sidebars. The author of this book, David Page Coffin, is the Senior Editor of Threads magazine, probably the best of the sewing magazines (not perfect, but at least not packed with quilting and baby clothes). Coffin is a former painter who taught himself how to sew and has made his own shirts for a couple of decades. The fact that he comes from a self-taught amateur background but is a sewing journalist who has interviewed custom shirtmakers and watched them at work gives this book a good balance. Coffin is something of a shirt fetishist, and he includes information on the historical development of the "classic dress shirt" as well as photographs of various vintage ready-to-wear and designer shirts and shirt collars (yes, he goes into how you can make shirts with detachable collars). At points he sounds like some sort of shirt archaeologist, for example, teling us that a particular vintage custom shirt he has in his "collection" used a pieced sleeve to save on fabric costs. Coffin describes his own methods in detail, but makes the point that there is more than one way to do things. The book is beautifully designed and illustrated (drawings by the author), and full-sized patterns for various pieces like collars, cuffs, and plackets are included. I can't emphasized how excited I was to find a book like this, and I have the video on order.

As a woman who has a terrible time finding clothes to fit, I've tried sewing some of my own, with less than satisfactory results. Even after learning to regrade commercial patterns to fit, the finished garments never looked right--they all screamed "Hi there! I'm like, totally homemade!" As basic a garment as a shirt was an exercise in frustration; after struggling to get collars and cuffs to look "right" I was about to give up entirely.

In _Shirtmaking_, David Page Coffin addressed every single problem I have faced, and now I can actually turn out tailored shirts that both fit me *and* look like they were made by a professional. All the questions left unanswered by the instruction sheets included with commercial patterns were addressed in this book, and along the way Coffin also answers a lot of general questions I had about sewing that are ignored in most books aimed at home sewers. _Shirtmaking_ is clearly written, and with a bit of patience and the ability to follow directions an intermediate-level sewer can turn out a successful garment. While the specific focus of the book is sewing men's shirts, the exact same sewing techniques can be used on women's shirts and blouses, and Coffin provides plenty of illustrations and examples.

Coffin covers his subject so thoroughly and precisely that he comes across as a bit fussy, but this sort of fussiness is a virtue and a godsend. There is an embarrassing number of sewing books gathering dust on my shelves, but I still refer to _Shirtmaking_ frequently. It is *by far* the single most useful sewing book I've ever bought, and is well worth the money.

I don't usually like sewing books-they're generally repetitive and contain little new information-but this is an exception. The author gives an incredible wealth of detail on the history and technique of shirtmaking. His patternmaking, stitching, cutting, layout and constuction techniques are well worth the price, and should prove beneficial to anyone who sews.

It is not for beginners-it assumes the reader has mastered basic sewing skills-but any competent sewer should have no problems. I especially like that it focused primarily on men's shirts-so very, very few books even bother to mention sewing for men.

This is a great book for people who've wanted to pull apart a commercially made shirt to see how it's made and replicate it. The information is VERY detailed and the author is VERY passionate about shirtmaking and the various techniques. This is a plus and a minus for the book - to get the best out of the book you really do need to READ the book; there are no quick fix solutions, just fabulous detail. So, if you're looking for a book offering quick, concise information this book is NOT for you. But if you're passionate about producing a professionally made garment and enjoy learning detailed techniques buy the book.

I have all the deepest respect for David Coffin. He has meticulously studied every aspect of making the classic men's shirt and has taught himself how to reproduce the techniques of the finest couture houses. In addition to his skill at sewing, he demonstrates his artistic strengths through his personally-illustrated drawings which show the techniques in great detail. In fact, "detail" would be Mr. Coffin's signature strength. His ability to relay the information in straightforward, efficient language seems to be a natural extension of his talents. Incidentally, I could not find a single spelling, grammar or other editorial error anywhere in this book. I think that seems like a perfect example of the manner in which Mr. Coffin approaches his work.

I only wish he would write a book about pants making or tailoring! This is my ultimate reference for shirt sewing! I have had it for over 6 years and I still pull it out every time I make a new shirt. I still use his placket pattern and instructions. It is beautifully illustrated and includes not only better-than-store-bought details like flat felled seams and quality interfacings, but some really interesting design ideas.
Only 1 thing! source info in the back is out of date. If you are near Houston, try "High Fashion Fabric" for the best cottons.

This book is just about the only resource for readers interested in learning about a specialized area of garment sewing: the made-to-order or made-to-measure man's dress shirt. There are several major topics in the book. I didn't think they were equally strong, but it depends on how much you already know, and what your interests are. The author gives a lot of interesting information about the kinds of garments that are found in luxury shirt shops. He explains the styles, materials and some of the more difficult and advanced sewing methods involved. He also gives lots of technical sewing advice that would be hard to find elsewhere. For beginners, this may be very helpful-or rather daunting. I personally thought some of his methods make the tasks more fussy than they need to be. The historic secion of the book was my favorite part. He gives a really good overview of the history of the modern menswear shirt. This is quite a complex garment, as you will know if you have ever tried to sew (or iron) one. It was interesting to learn how the many little design details evolved.

Another major section of the book is dedicated to examples of creative variations on the standard shirt. This can be a source of design inspiration, but it really depends on your personal tastes. I'm a shirt purist and really prefer the classic version, so I didn't get much out of this section. But if you want more variety in your wardrobe, and have lots of personal flair, this book will certainly get you going.

This is not a book for beginning sewers, or for those interested in learning how to sew a classic man's shirt using efficient industrial methods. But if couture shirtmaking is of interest to you, this is THE book on this specialized subject.

My only disappointment with this book is that there isn't a whole series of them for pants, jackets and so on. Even if you don't sew, this really was an eye opener for how fine shirts are made, how they should fit and details to look for. He goes into wonderful detail on sewing technique and why. My former tailoring teacher always harped that we didn't want things to look like "Loving Hands from Home"-- Coffin's techniques help guarantee that the effort and time you expend will ensure that your final product is well worth the time over the bargain shirt you can buy on sale.