Discount Couture Sewing Techniques On Sale.

	Product Description: Starting with hand sewing - the basis for every haute couture garment - expert Claire Shaeffer guides the reader through the steps to turn the ordinary into the extraordinary. She presents the sewing techniques practiced in the studios of such legendary designers as Dior, Chanel, Givenchy, and Balenciaga. Detailed instructions and illustrations make high style a snap.

• 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)
• How to Make Sewing Patterns
• The Art of Manipulating Fabric
• More Fabric Savvy: A Quick Resource Guide to Selecting and Sewing Fabric Completely Revised and Updated
• Couture: The Art of Fine Sewing

Rating : - Not the same-old, same-old; wonderfully different from basic how-to books
If you buy only one book about sewing...well, it probably shouldn't be this one. But if you buy more than one, this would be an excellent choice.

This book was something of a godsend for me. I draft many of my patterns from scratch, and heavily alter any store-bought patterns I use. Some of the standard sewing how-to books (like Vogue's) are hard to beat for easy reference and the sheer breadth of topics they cover, but because they are written for the widest possible audience, they can be frustratingly over-simplified on certain topics.

Example: I had spent hours scanning through books and the web trying to demystify set-in sleeves. I kept turning up the same information over and over again: how to ease the sleeve cap, how to join the sleeve to the garment, how to perform very basic alterations. None of this was very helpful when it came to drafting a sleeve. How wide should the sleeve cap be? How tall? How steeply should it taper? How much extra, exactly, should be added for ease? Here, at last, are the answers to those questions.

I found the writing to be exceptionally clear and accessible, in fact more so than most "beginner" books. Even if you have no intention of copying the painstaking construction techniques detailed here, there are lots of little tricks and techniques to help you fit garments more precisely, construct them more easily, and achieve a finer end result.
If you like making clothes but hate for things to scream "home-sewn!" then this book is for you.
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