Wednesday, May 29, 2013

What I'm Reading: pants fitting resources

As soon as I finished the muslin for my Thurlows I realized I'd need some help making pattern alterations. I browsed Amazon for the most popular fitting books, then sped off to the library to see what I could find. I ended up with the following:






All three of these books offered something unique. Why is it that there's never ONE book that covers everything haha? I also used this post at A Fashionable Stitch to assist me. And while I didn't personally use the information, The Colette Patterns blog has an awesome pants fitting guide as well.

The first book shown above, The Complete Photo Guide to Perfect Fitting, by Sarah Veblen, is an excellent resource. I only read the portion about pants, but there are sections on all other types of garments as well. It's one of those books that I could buy and study for ages. When explaining alterations, the directions are precise and helpful. Where this book excels is with all the photos. If you're a visual learner, you'll appreciate all the steps shown clearly in photos of the alterations. The only part I found a tad impractical (at least in the pants section) was the use of two or more muslin fittings. For my own home sewing, I'm unlikely to make that many muslins. Sorry world! But I could see where it makes sense for a sewing business. Who knows, maybe someday...!

Easy Guide to Sewing Pants, by Lynn MacIntyre, also had lots of pictures and clear instructions, but of course this book was aimed towards pants sewing only. The difference here is that this book also contained information on constructing pants, including zippers, waistbands, and fly fronts. Unfortunately, there wasn't any help on welt pockets, which I desperately needed while making my Thurlows! This was a handy little book and I'm kind of sad to have to take it back to the library.

The last book, by Lee Hollahan, didn't help me at all with pants. The only alteration it covered was lengthening or shortening pants. It's just not that kind of book. Now that I'm writing about it, though, I think I may keep it a bit longer and read it more in-depth, because it has some cool ideas for altering patterns I already have. More to come on this title, I'm sure!

Any other great pants fitting resources out there? I know Pants for Real People is a popular one. What do you use?

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