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List Price: $24.95
Best Price: $24.95 (new)
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Author: Donald H. McCunn
Edition: Revised
ISBN: 0932538002
Number of Pages: 190
Publication Date: 1977-11-01
Publisher: Design Enterprises of San Francisco

Customer Review

A must-have for any sewer
by Customer A2T31O1JG2CUEV at January 30th, 2007
This is the single most useful sewing book I have ever read. I would literally take this book with me to the proverbial deserted island (the better to make skirts out of palm leaves with). I cannot recommend it highly enough. If you sew garments, you NEED this book.

The book covers not only the basics of skirts, pants, and tops, but also how to take measurements and do fittings - including on yourself!, how much ease to leave, how to move darts, how to tell if you need to change purchased patterns, and how to produce various styles - even fairly complex ones like leg-of-mutton sleeves.

It has a few small flaws - such as claiming that women's pants sit at the waist because it was written in the seventies, not really covering stretch fabrics, and not explaining how to make sure extra fabric puffs out instead of drooping down - but they're nothing compared to the immense overall usefulness of the book. It also does not cover foundation garments (bras, corsets, hoop skirts, etc), though that's really a topic all it's own, so I can only hope they someday come out with a companion volume.

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