The Maker's Atelier is for women of any age or shape who want to dress well but cannot always find what they want in stores. Frances Toibin's self-proclaimed mission is to help fashion-conscious women create their own beautiful clothes to wear with style. It is founded on the belief that the simplest shapes in the finest fabrics make the most successful clothes. In The Essential Collection, designer Frances has taken the key shapes from some of the most enduring fashion trends, such as the pencil skirt and the boxy shirt, and refined them into clear dressmaking patterns with easy-to-follow instructions. Frances has sources the perfect fabrics to suit each garments and shows four alternative looks for each pattern to provide further technical know-how as well as style ideas to enable the home dressmaker to make their own capsule collection of garments unique to them. For example, the pencil skirt is shown in navy gabardine to suit an elegant working wardrobe, but alternatively this skirt takes on an edgier look when made up in metallic stretch fabric with a raw hem. With dressmaking patterns supplied in the pack alongside the book, and given in sizes 4 to 16, The Essential Collection makes it possible for all women - whether dressmaking novices or accomplished seamstresses - to own an enviable selection of timeless and adaptable staple garments.

This sewing guide reveals a breakthrough method to simplify learning stitches of all kinds, with more than 100 stitches from the simple to the fanciful. As makers, we tend to learn different stitches over time without thinking much about how they relate to one another. But when Natalie Chanin and her teams at Alabama Chanin and The School of Making began to look at needlework closely, they realized all stitches are based on geometric grid systems. They also discovered that learning new stitches—even elaborate ones—became simple and easy when using grids as guides. In The Geometry of Hand-Sewing Chanin presents their breakthrough method, featuring illustrated instructions (for both right- and left-handed stitchers) for more than 100 stitches—from the basic straight and chain to complex feather and herringbone. Photos of both right and wrong sides are included, as well as guidelines for modifying stitches to increase one’s repertoire further. The book also offers downloads for two stitching cards with the grids on which every stitch in the book is based. These printable cards can be used as stencils for transferring grids to fabric.

This vintage book contains a comprehensive textbook for clothing designers, teachers of clothing technology, and senior students. With detailed diagrams and a wealth of useful and interesting information, this timeless handbook is highly recommended for those with an interest in fashion and design, and would make for a worthy addition to collections of related literature. Contents include: “The Human Body”, “Physical Proportions”, “The Sizing of Garments”, “Size and Movement”, “The Garment Pattern”, “Garment Balance”, “Measurement”, “Applying The Measurements to the Pattern”, “Garment Shape”, “The Designing of Speciality Garments”, and “The Grading of Patterns”. Many vintage books such as this are becoming increasingly scarce and expensive. We are republishing this volume now in an affordable, high-quality edition complete with a specially commissioned new introduction on embroidery.

An introduction to the basic principles of pattern cutting, this practical book shows students how to interpret the human form and look at clothing through the eyes of a designer rather than a consumer. As well as explaining the proportions of human anatomy, the book introduces key tools and then takes the reader from simple pattern-cutting ideas to more advanced creative methods. Finally, the book looks at the work of fashion designers who are masters of pattern cutting, such as Comme des GarCons, John Galliano, Yohji Yamamoto and Issey Miyake. With photographs of final and dissected garments, along with CAD/CAM diagrams to explain how those pieces were cut, the book will gradually build an understanding of pattern cutting, and enable students to experiment and create exciting patterns for their own designs.