Hi everyone! This week Meg, Haley, Taylor, Wallis and I are going to be sharing our favorite sewing
books with you. Last week we shared our favorite sewing tools and if you want to check out that
video, the link is in the description below, but yeah, let's see what's on everyone's bookshelves.
So confession time, I don't actually own any garment sewing books, I own some fashion
illustration books but no fit books or anything like that so I'm going to be sharing some quilting
or a quilting book with you. This is by Laura Preston, she is a really fabulous artist and
one of the cool things about her is that she, I'm pretty sure she wrote this entire book while she
was living in a small trailer. She and her partner were traveling around the United States and she
started her business and wrote this book and it's a really great book because it really walks you
through all of the process or all of the quilting process. So if you're brand new to quilting, I
highly recommend it. She shares lots of different things like hand quilting or machine quilting
and it also just includes a bunch of different projects, they're kind of grouped by skill level
so it starts off with simple rectangles for you know fun things like this wall hanging
and then it builds up to some more challenging projects like you know circles and curves
and yeah I think it's a beautiful book and has lots of really fun projects in it.
I've actually made one and I think my favorite thing about quilting and projects like this is
that if you have leftover garment fabrics that are woven textiles you've got a bunch of
supplies for quilts and quilting projects like this so it's a great way to use up your scraps.
Hi I'm Meg, I'm the editor here at Seamwork and today I'm going to share a book from my collection,
it is the Reader's Digest Complete Guide to Sewing. This book has a soft spot for me in my
heart because I inherited it from my grandma who loved to sew, but it's also a pretty practical book
if you're looking for sort of an overall view of what sewing has to offer obviously it's full
of techniques that we all need to know you know how to sew a hem, how to insert a sleeve, how to cut,
some basic alterations, but really what I really enjoy about this book are the kind of
very outdated and maybe slightly absurd projects that they have in the back. You know this book
I think is from 1976 sometime in the 70s so it's got that color palette going on which I enjoy,
but it has some pretty fun projects if you want to kind of create home decor that is for carefree
living they have a nice section here that you can replicate. It's fun to see their interpretations
of what makes a modern bedroom and all the projects that you can put into your modern bedroom,
it actually includes a pretty valuable project, there's a couple of bedspread projects in here
that are actually, they're not bad, if you kind of feel like sewing your own bedspread and one
of my favorites of course is this project which you can probably complete in an afternoon for the
weekend, it's a giant pencil pillow. I don't really know what you'd need it for but it's inspiring to
think that you could sew this if you wanted to. So the reason that I like this book is because
it's kind of a glimpse into the past, is it outdated, yes you can still use a lot of
the techniques and the ideas, check out the colors if you'd like they've got some good ideas there,
but I've actually seen this book a lot at the thrift store or at garage sales if you're lucky
like me you can have a loved one pass it on to you but if not just do some thrifting and
you might be able to get your hands on a copy. Hope you enjoyed this little book tour, I'd love to hear
what your favorite sewing book is so if you'd like to leave a comment and let me know or hop
on to the Seamwork community and share your favorite book, it'd be cool to get a list going. Happy sewing!
Hi, I'm Haley, I am the pattern designer here at Seamwork and today I am going to share with you
my favorite sewing book. So the sewing book that I'm going to share with you is a classic but
there's a specific edition, I like I won't keep you in suspense any longer. It is Helen Joseph
Armstrong's Patternmaking for Fashion Design. If you have ever taken a pattern making course,
this is very likely the textbook that you were given, it is kind of an essential pattern making
bible if you're interested in pattern making, I highly recommend this book. I'm trained in
pattern making and I learned like the first 50% of what I learned about pattern making, I learned
from this book. It is excellent and it takes you through it all from drafting a block and then
all of a ton of different manipulations to create practically any design. It is a really good,
classic book. However, and there is a however, the best edition in my opinion is the fifth edition
of this book. I think when I went to school I was, I had to buy the seventh edition and later on
at another job that I had I met a pattern maker and she had this edition and it is so so
much better and I'm going to tell you why. The fifth edition has fitting information in it,
other editions of this book it covers all of the drafting and manipulations that you need to master
pattern making but this edition goes much more in depth about what kinds of fit issues you might
run into, diagnosing them and then fixing them in that as any sewer knows
is one of the most challenging parts of sewing for yourself and anyone is getting that fit just right.
If this is something that you struggle with and you're also looking for a good pattern-making book,
I highly recommend this book, it is my favorite I reference it time and time again and it's
also just really inspirational to thumb through. The fifth edition I think came out in 1987
so it has some pretty amazing 80s illustrations and styles to thumb through as well, so yes my
favorite sewing book: Patternmaking for Fashion Designers by Helen Joseph Armstrong, the fifth
edition. Thanks for indulging me and letting me show you my favorite book, I will see you next time.
Hi my name is Wallis and I am a patternmaker for Seamwork. So I wanted to share some sewing
books that are untraditional, but they are very special to me, they are books that are based on
the idea of something called upcycling which was when you take a garment that already exists
and try to like reimagine or refreshen it. So the first one is called T-shirt Makeovers
it is by Sistahs of Harlem, they were two women of color in New York who had a clothing
line for a little while. I'm going to show you T-shirt Makeovers as well as Chic Sweats.
Both of these books were produced by them both of these books are actually currently out of print so
if you wanted to be able to get these for yourself you will have to buy them second hand. So
these books are just really special to me because this is basically what got me started sewing is
trying to take clothing that I already owned and find ways to freshen it up and repurpose it.
Another book is Little Green Dresses, this book is a little bit different it's not focused
on things as quite as casual as sweatshirts or t-shirts Little Green Dresses is full of
ideas of how to take clothing that you currently own but it's a little less casual
and also this book is definitely more technical than the other two.
Hello, I'm Taylor. I am the product manager at Seamwork and today I wanted to share
one of my favorite books with you. It is called Fast Fit by Sandra Betzina. It's a super great book.
I recently got it because I was in the search for finding just like quick easy fitting help
that isn't on the internet, I'm sure like all of you know there is a ton of information
on the internet and it's just kind of hard to decide which method to go with or who to
who to like what to do or who to trust in their opinion like what do they think, what do I think,
and so lately I've been thinking maybe I should reference books more. I've seen a
lot more people on Instagram referencing books and I'm like man do I have any fitting books?
I have a lot of general books like I have the Ultimate Guide by Reader's Digest and I also
have the Vogue Sewing book, both super great encompassing books, but they don't have full fit
sections, they have fit sections but the whole book you know, this is all about fitting, which is cool.
So a few things I wanted to show you in this book specifically that I think are really great
are how certain things are done, essentially. So the way that Sandra, Sandra's method is, let me go to
a page that I can get to, so for one example the knock knees, it gives you the problem and then it
gives you, what's this say, a fast fit solution right there and then it gives you a step-by-step solution, so
one really quick way and then it goes a one, two, three, four, five step way, which I think is so
helpful and super quick and something that you can just do on a whim and give it a try versus like
I don't know like I just get so overwhelmed with fitting and I think this method is like
having a book like this is going to be super helpful for me. I also really think these
illustrations are freaking adorable, it shows you the fitting you know problem to diagnose so
in an illustration form which I thought was cute. So she literally does this on so many fitting
things, like she covers the arm, she covers the shoulder, she covers the tummy, she covers the booty
she covers the legs, all of them, which is really great and then there's another really cool thing
about here is just like telling you how to make general alterations too so she'll show
you how to make, here's like an example of just width alterations on several different bodice
and sleeve ideas too. Overall it goes over a really great way of how to measure yourself really
well too, which isn't always super easy you know like the resources out there are not always super
similar so following one method might be really helpful to you but yeah I would say if
you're interested in a fitting book that's super simple cute you know give this one a try. Thanks
for joining us, we hope you enjoyed learning about some of our favorite books. If you have a favorite
sewing book please let us know in the comments. We love hearing what you enjoy and what you find
helpful and we're also curious what are some other things that you'd like for us to share with
you all here on this channel? Let us know that as well and we'll see you next time. Happy sewing!