Wednesday, December 11, 2013

What I'm Reading: Tailoring

Last week I mentioned my frustration with finding a good book on coat-making, and I'm happy to report that I've found the answer!


I. Love. This. Book. I read a LOT of sewing books, and I didn't realize until now just how often the same information is presented over and over. Or maybe I'm just ready for a book that delves deeper into a specific topic. Either way, I read something new on every page of this book and it was so refreshing!


I can't find an author on the darn thing, but the title is Tailoring: The Classic Guide to Sewing the Perfect Jacket, copyright date 2011. No out-of-date eighties hair here. Just lots and lots of great information on tailoring a jacket/coat.


Even stuff I didn't know I needed to know! What I liked best about this book is that it presented three distinct ways of making a jacket: custom tailoring (by hand), machine tailoring (by machine, duh) and fusible tailoring (with fusible interfacings). It made a clear distinction between these three types, why you would use one over the other, and how to combine them properly.


I got my copy from the library, but it immediately went on my Amazon wish list. I think this book is the perfect companion to anyone working on a coat or suit jacket and it deserves some in-depth studying. If there is any drawback here, it's that there are only two pages on how to asses fit (something I'm having issues with in my muslins). I probably should have started with a book on fit, and moved on to one on construction, but c'est la vie!

And hey! This book just showed up on Sarai's list of her 50 favorite sewing books. Go figure!

7 comments:

  1. Such satisfaction in finding a good instruction book, yay!

    My instructor in the Techniques of Fit class I am taking has suggested a couple of books as good companions to our textbook.

    The Complete Photo Guide to Perfect Fitting by Sarah Veblen
    Fit for Real People by Pati Palmer, Marta Alto

    It does help if you have someone to help you assess your muslins.

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    1. Oooo I'm jealous of your classroom experience! There's a university in my city and I've often thought of sneaking into a lecture or two :)

      Funny story about Fit for Real People...I found a copy at a used bookstore and was so excited to buy it, since I'd heard such good things. The very first time I looked something up in it, the pages I needed were MISSING. Not torn out, just straight not there!

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  2. This looks amazing. Thanks for sharing.,

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  3. Hi Beth. I wonder if you would consider adding yhe gadget to allow someone to follow via email subscription, or via Blogovin? It makes it so much easier to follow a great blog when new posts come right to your inbox. Thanks.

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  4. PS - forget last post. I had not paged down far enough to find the email subscription gadget. Sorry.

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    1. Hi Nancy! The Bloglovin button is the circle with the plus sign in it, just below my "About Me" in the right-hand sidebar. I wish it were a bit more obvious, sorry!

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