High-Fashion Sewing Secrets from the World's Best Designers: A Step-By-Step Guide to Sewing Stylish Seams, Buttonholes, Pockets, Collars, Hems, and More (Rodale Sewing Book) (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

If you want your notched collars to lie smoothly like Ellen Tracy's, your pants zippers to be as invisibly fused with the inseam pocket as Giorgio Armani's, and your topstitched facings to have the impeccable look of Chanel, this is the book to have. Home sewers need and want exactly the kind of painstaking construction tips that Claire B. Shaeffer provides. She not only tells you how to add designer details such as those mentioned above, but also how to copy any garment, alter a sleeve, change seams to darts or folds (or vice versa), and make a basic pattern. This is one of the best intermediate sewing guides on the market.

Review

"A surefire bible for any sewer who yearns to copy the high-priced couture garments seen at retail."--Victor Costa, Fashion Designer

"Serious sewing students have always looked to Claire Schaeffer's inside view of the industry as the link between ordinary home sewing and real professionalism. This book contains the information and techniques that we have been yearning for, asking for, and needing to evaluate the quality of our work."--Linda Lee, Owner of The Sewing Workshop, San Francisco, California

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 245 pages
• Publisher: Rodale Press (May 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0875967175
• ISBN-13: 978-0875967172
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #422,512 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

241 of 241 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars transformed me from a beginner to a confident sewer, August 11, 2002

By A Customer

I bought this book about 6 months ago and read it from cover to cover. I was fascinated, but I didn't want to write a review until I had actually tried some of the techniques.

Well, I've done the piped pockets, the bias cvered seams, and I'm working on the flounce collar (which happens to be fashionable again), and they look pretty good!!

But worth all the money, are the pages on manipulating patterns. With commercial patterns costing well over $10 today, this book enables you to play with what is already in your collection. Before this, I was a slave to the pattern companies, but now, I know how to make what I want. I eliminated a waist seam on a jumper for my daughter, and created an unusual skirt by combining two patterns.

My confidence in my ability to construct a garment, and have it look professional, has increased mani-fold.

184 of 184 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Hidden bonus: pattermaking basics and garment copying, September 26, 2001

By A Customer

The gimmick of the first two-thirds of this book is that the author shows various designer ready-to-wear garments with an interesting construction method or detail, and then she shows you, step-by-step and in detail, how to reproduce it. Where there is a trick or shortcut that reduces the time to do something without lowering the quality she uses it, but on the other hand she includes many labor-intensive methods where the quality would be improved by such methods. She covers facings, hem, pockets, trims, fasteners, and more. The book is not so comprehensive in the number of things it covers that it could replace a reference-style book, but where it covers something, it does so in detail (an you need to read closely sometimes). The illustrations are excellent--way above average for a sewing book. The really interesting thing about this book is the last third on patternmaking basics. She covers the three basic ways to copy a garment (measuring, tracing, and rub-off), and tells you how to check your copied pattern pieces against each other, how to true them, etc. She then goes into pattern modification techniques. I managed to copy a Land's End buttondown shirt with a certain amount of success following her instructions.

164 of 166 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars the best sewing book around for intermediate ++ sewers, August 24, 1997

By	[e-mail] (Denver, CO) - See all my reviews

I have been sewing all of my life, and have studied under some of the most qualified teachers, but this book goes further than any other in its context and pictures. Claire shows some of the many techniques High Couture achieves its name. A must for any serious sewer, especially one who wants a beautiful finish as well as fit in her/his garments. It is a very technical book, which might be a bit frustrating for a beginner, but it will definitely inspire everyone. It has replaced my old Vogue sewing book of the early 60's. Bobbie Carr's book is also excellent, but this one is much more inclusive in its techniques. I think it is a must. Sharon O. Carte