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List Price: $24.95
Best Price: $24.95 (new)
Availability: New (1)
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

Impressive and not particularly difficult
by Customer AXSH6O4OP5L4M at December 29th, 2006
Wow, I'm impressed. I've been sewing since I was about eight--I won't tell you how long ago that was!--and even got into designing my own clothing as a teenager. Because of this experience I was already aware of the degree to which one can combine patterns or redesign parts of them to suit one's own design ideas. What I had not learned already was the wonderful principles of measurement--especially self measurement--provided by the author or of the methods by which a pattern piece could be altered easily and more precisely.

The chapters on altering patterns for the bodice and sleeves of blouses or of skirt darts and drapes, etc. were amazing and so easy. The word descriptions sometimes get a little confusing, but a quick look at the illustrations makes any issues clearer immediately.

I felt that the explanations especially of fitting the garment to the figure of the wearer were very informative and helpful--they were definitely worth the price of the book. Little that I had learned previously prepared me as well as this book did for fixing design flaws. One still has to recognize what looks well on the individual for whom the apparel is designed, but at last no one is expected to diet down to the figure of a hat-rack with a head to wear a nicely designed and fitted garment.

Those who like to buy commercially made clothing might also appreciate the information on tailoring garments to the figure, since from these instructions, problems areas in fitting might also be corrected with a little additional work.

One of the more interesting facets of the book is the set of instructions for putting together a posterboard designer's model for fitting clothing without the wearer's presence. The stiff material of the paper model of a blouse or dress, sans bust, is made from a pattern, and a padded bra placed over it to help with fitting. Ingeneous and very inexpensive!


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