First off, I have to say that I've been using this book on and off for the last 25 years or so. Made several of the outfits in the book for not only myself but for others(male, female and children)...whether it was going the RenFaire, SCA events or just mucking about for LARP or Halloween. This book has the basics for almost every time period from a European basis. Now to OWN such a wonderful resource AND in hardcover for the price (~15$), I can finally make more costumes.
What impressed me the most is that the book itself is as close to mint as possible. It appear that the only time the book was opened was to put the Library stamp on several of the end pages. No pages dog-eared, written on, tore out or anything. Granted, I knew I was going to get a used book but HOLEY MOLEY, this thing looks like it came from the printers. The one that I've used before was almost falling apart and it was a soft cover. (And i used that as reference ALOT in my college years in Denton, TX.)
To those buying this specific book, GET IT. This book has everything you need to get started on building a costume that has that HISTORIC LOOK to it...fashion it to suit your tastes and needs. BUT this is not for making a HISTORICALLY ACCURATE piece of clothing....for example, a simple tunic from the medieval period. In this book, it gives you a pattern to cut 2 pieces of cloth together (basically) and BLAMMO, tunic! I've made basic tunics from a HISTORICALLY ACCURATE pattern and it was much more of a bother(not much of a bother tho, I've been sewing stuff since I was 12)...2 bits for sleeves, 2 bits for gussets, 2 bits for f/b of tunic. If you want historically accurate, get another book. For random costumes (like the title suggests), GET IT.
Another reason to get this book is because it is so handy....especially for High Schools. I believe that every school library should have this on their shelves. Even colleges (the one that I used for ages was on the shelves of the TWU library there). Like I stated before, this has library markings on it but it came from a Public Library. Libraries in schools will get more use out of this book just for the sheer necessity that many of the more crafty students will pick up rather than being on a public library shelf and never seen. If anyone sees this that is a purchaser for your school's library, buy this up and get it into the hands of students that are needing something like this to make stuff for plays and such.
On to the rating of the seller. SPOT ON EXCELLENT!! Ordered it (and a couple other pattern books) and had it in my hands in less than a week. The merchandise itself was as mentioned...INCREDIBLY good. Packaged in a standard mailer, but well protected and secure. But then, it's a book. Hard covered and incredible hard to smash to bits...even the other books i got with it (soft paper covers) didn't get dinged up or damaged in any way.
TLDR: LOVE IT!!! TOTALLY HAPPY ALL AROUND!!! RECOMMEND THIS SELLER VERY HIGHLY!!!
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