NEW BOOK! Couture Sewing - The Couture Cardigan Jacket, Claire B. Shaeffer

Image Source: Amazon

Eeek, I've done it again! I've just pre-emptively added to my ever burgeoning sewing-book library AGAIN!

The reknowned Ms. Shaeffer has added a new title to her Couture Sewing series of books... this time it's a tome about that timeless classic The Chanel Cardigan Jacket called:

Couture Sewing - The Couture Cardigan Jacket,

by Claire B. Shaeffer
ISBN ISBN-10: 1600859550

ISBN-13: 978-1600859557

To quote the description from Amazon:

Quote: "If you want to make a jacket with the impeccable look of Chanel, this is the book to have. The Couture Cardigan Jacket presents sewing methods Claire Shaeffer developed based on her knowledge of haute couture construction and meticulous research studying original Chanels in museum archives and her own collection.  Via the DVD, Shaeffer instructs readers in essential techniques such as cutting and shaping the jacket sections, princess seaming, quilting, making the 3-piece sleeve, adding the chain weight, creating the double buttonhole, and more. Where there is a trick or shortcut for an operation (without lowering the quality) Shaeffer demonstrates it, along with a host of sewing methods discovered via careful and meticulous study of Chanel originals. The package is a perfect mix of instruction and insight into the complex design-details that make a Chanel a Chanel." Unquote.

The publication date is November 2013 in the UK, and October 2013 in the US.

Other Books by Claire
Claire Shaeffer has written many other books, much beloved by the sewing community, for instance the Claire Shaeffer's Fabric Sewing Guide, and the Couture Sewing Techniques, Revised & Updated.

I'm particularly fond of the now OOP (out-of-print) Complete Book of Sewing Short Cuts - which I feel is like an earlier predecessor to the popular modern book PatternReview.com: 1000 Clever Sewing Shortcuts and Tips

The Complete Book of Sewing Shortcuts - One of my favourite books!

Couture Sewing Patterns
Plus, Gertie (and other sewists / bloggers) rave about the excellent details given in her range of commercial sewing patterns with Vogue too. Some people like Julie even collect all the patterns she's ever produced too. 

In fact, I wonder if the publication of her new book this Autumn will coincide with the release of a new french-cardigan style jacket pattern à la Chanel? Or, if this new book will demonstrate the couture-style technqiues using her currently in print pattern no. V8804, it'll be an interesting read either way I'm sure?

Vogue Pattern: V8804
Image Source: Amazon

Thoughts On Classes...
The new book will come with a DVD too - which is great, as some techniques are so much better seen "live". I'm guessing that this will be the next-best-thing verses a real-life class on making this kind of jacket - which is what Amy at Almond Rock did earlier this year. Or, it'd make a great accompaniment to anyone attending a class too (or is it too early to say a great Christmas present????...... LOL!). Marina at Frabjous Couture had a series of posts detailing her couture jacket course with Susan Khalje which make for an interesting read. And, BurdaStyle have a great blog post where Marina summarizes her course experience too.

First Garment Make for 2013! (Part: Two - Overlocking and Vents/Side-Splits)

Picture heavy post coming below peops... if nothing else - it serves as an excellent visual reminder for me - as I need to make-up the plain black cotton version of this top... as I've already cut out the fabric LOL!

Following on from my last post I ran some test samples on my sewing machine - as I was concerned that it might chew up the lightweight flimsy fabric. I used a Microtex needle (so it's nice and sharp!) - and my vintage machine has the ability to lower the feed-dogs for Normal - Silk - Embroidery fabric. The last setting basically lowers the feed-dogs completely out of the way so the fabric can be moved around freely at will. SIDE-NOTE: That's a pretty handy feature if you're using a Buttonholer attachment, as it can save the need for an extra plate to cover any feed-dogs that cannot be lowered out of the way. With a Buttonholer the attachment itself grasps onto the fabric and moves it around as the buttonhole is stitched - therefore it needs the fabric to not move along with the sewing machine's feed-dogs.

 

The straight stitch samples came out best on a fairly long stitch length, with the top-thread tension reduced a little, and the feed-dogs lowered to the Silk setting. I also preferred the nicer stitch formation I got using my straight-stitch foot and straight-stitch needle-plate (the plate was another excellent purchase a while back from the ever-handy Helen). I find that with that plate I can only use the machine with the needle-positioned to the far left - otherwise the needle would break when it misses the tiny narrow hole... ask me how I know !!?!.

I also tested the overlocker (serger) using 4 large spools of nicely matching grey thread I picked up IIRC at William Gee in Dalston. I had tried the tie-on method of switching over the threads... but only the left-needle worked! All the others got jammed and caused the thread to break. Anyhow... it's so easy to thread my machine I don't need the instructions anymore - just a pair of tweezers and some good lighting LOL!
  
Then, having examined the construction of the original (i.e. nosing around inside!) I could see that the majority of seams were overlocked together. I also observed, that to create the small, but simple side-vents (splits?) I'd have to overlock the front and back side-seams on both the front and back bodices from the hem-upwards for about 11cm (4½") - that's the length of the vent + extra at the very bottom for the turn-up of the hem-allowance + a bit extra above where the top of the vent ends. The idea would be to then straight-stitch the side-seams (SS) and the integral but short underarm seams together - stopping at the point where the top of the vent should be. The overlocked edges of the vent are then pressed to the inside of the garment along the same width as the 1cm (³/₈") SS - and then they are topstitched in place about 7mm (¼") from the edge. After that the hems can be overlocked, pressed and then straight-stitched into place.


So, to pre-overlock the vent/side-split edges I did the following:
(1) Marked the where the top of the vent is (the same place the side-seam ends/where the split-opening finishes).
(2) Marked the level at which the SS will end-up overlocked together - then clipped from the edge of fabric inwards at this level stopping at the point where the finished fabric edge will finally be (NB: for this delicate lightweight crepe fabric I cut the pattern pieces wider than the final).
(3) I then folded the fabric above the clip in towards the middle of the bodice, and pinned it out of the way. (It will be out of the way of the overlocker blades.)
(4) Then each of the 4 vent/side-split edges are overlocked (4 = 2 sides on the Front Bodice, 2 on the Back Bodice) - tailing off the threads at the point where the upper fabric of the bodice is folded out of the way.

 

I was then ready to straight-stitch the shoulders together - but this fabric is flimsy and fiddly to handle, so I pinned and then hand basted it together to get an easier to manage machine-stitch result. After the straight-stitching I pressed the seams, then overlocked them.

Next, I straight-stitched the side-seams. Starting from the curved area of the underarms working down towards the hems. I stopped to back-stitch very carefully at the point where the top of the vent opening starts. Luckily there's a tiny overlap of the fusible stay tape at that spot to reinforce the stitches - as I was concerned that it could be a stress point and tear through when worn (eekkk!).

Then, I needed to overlock the side-seams. However, I was concerned about my iffy ability to negotiate a tight curve on the overlocker - with out fluffing it up big-time and slicing something off with the blades irretrievably. So, I first carefully cut along the cutting-line of the underarm curve and also about a further 3 - 4cm worth of the vertical-line (see photo below) and then I stopped. I figured this would make it easier for me to manipulate the fabric around a curve when I overlocked the side-seams.
 

I then placed the under-arm seam-allowance under the presser-foot - aligning the cut-edge of the curved-fabric against the side of the cutting blades. And, I was able to overlock easily around the corner and down the straight (sounds like driving a racing car LOL!) !  ... i.e. just as per this tip about serging inside curves here I straightened the line as I fed it through the overlocker machine as I stitched around the curve. It basically eliminated 1 out of 2 sticky areas for me - I could ignore the problem of cutting in a nice curve, and instead I concentrated on just stitching it nicely instead (yay!).

When I got close to the top of the vent opening (which I had marked off with water-erasable marker at point about 5 - 6cm above the top of the actual opening) I needed to overlap the overlocking stitches with the pre-overlocked section. It's here, that the pre-cut, pre-overlocked edges of the vent seam allowances meet up with the overlocker blade-edge as it passes through the machine towards the needles. I overlapped both sections of overlocking a little bit before trailing off the threads gently to the side (see photo below).



Okay, so far the shoulders are sewn up, as are the vents/splits, and the side seams - only the sleeve-cuffs, neckline and hem left to write-up for posterity :) !

  
  On different tangent, but kinda related to overlocker/serger machines I spent half and hour   this evening moving all my favourite serger/overlocker pins onto a new separate Pinterest 
  board of their own (Sewing - Sergers & Overlockers: Tutorials & Tips) so I could find and
  browse them more easily hehe!

 

Next up... Part Three - Sleeve-Cuffs, Hems and Neckline
 

First Garment Make for 2013! (Part: One - Pattern Drafting & Fabric Cutting)

... I decided to ease myself into the New Year with a simple make I'd been planning on for a while. So, here's my rub-off copy of a RTW (ready-to-wear) top I bought last at the end of 2011 for around £23 (I'd fallen in love with the gorgeous geometric print fabric!).

Photo on the left taken at 7.30am, the one on the right at 7.30pm same day (hence the tired eyes LOL!)

Below is an image I found on the web of the original top (which shows it's colours better than my meagre efforts above) photo from M&S.

Inspiration: RTW Top from Marks & Spencer

The original top I'd bought from Marks & Spencer's had little cut-on cap sleeves (I'd say like kind of like an extended-shoulder seam, with a very short Kimono style sleeve as described here at the Coletterie) with cute turn-back cuffs sewn on too.

It was very easy to make the pattern - I just employed common sense when tracing the pattern pieces onto paper from the original garment. I didn't even need to consult my 2 books on coping RTW garments Patterns from Finished Clothes: Re-creating the Clothes You Love or Patternmaking for a Perfect Fit.

   

 2 great books on creating patterns from your existing garments

There are only 3 pattern pieces bodice-front, bodice-back, and the sleeve-cuffs... unless you count a moderate length of beigey-coloured 12mm (½") width single-fold bias binding that I used to bind the neckline - which I did following Jen at Grainlines fab tutorial "Getting Flat Bias Necklines" :) (last used to great success on my Spotty Scout Woven Tee top). In fact I only traced out the bodice once - and used it for both the back and front! Why you may ask? Well... the original M&S top is a loose, casual style - with no darts, and virtually no shaping. It's super easy to throw on for work, and in the right fabric can look smart - especially with neat little turn-back cuffs at the end of the short-sleeves. Therefore, front and back pieces are virtually identical - aside from the necklines... wonderful in terms of pattern tracing, and less work for moi LOL!

Copying the RTW top onto parcel-paper

Using my Clover Double Tracing Wheel to add the 1cm seam-allowances

I made the seam-allowances (SA) all 1cm (³/₈"), and the hem-allowance 1.5cm (⁵/₈"). The pattern piece for the turn back sleeve-cuffs was very easy. I initially thought that the cuffs might have been shaped, or curved in some way - so I carefully ripped out the 2-3 retaining stitches with my trust seam ripper and had a look. They were just rectangles - yay! So, the pattern pieces are just 11cm x 42cm (4 ⁵/₁₆" x 16½").

  TIP: I Found this handy site for converting between cms & inches 
  - it shows the imperial measurements in fractions ;)! You can still do it the old fashioned way: 
  X cm ÷ 2.54 = Y inches, 
  E.g. 10cm ÷ 2.54 = 3.93 inches (or the website says = 3 ¹⁵/₁₆") 

  or A inches x 2.54 = B cm 
  E.g  11 ¹³/₁₆" x 2.54 = 30.00375cm (i.e. the length of a standard classroom  ruler ;)!)

  (With 1mm = 0.1cm, 10mm = 1cm - in case you're playing around in millimetres too.)

Next, to decide which fabric to use. The original is 100% polyester - but in an almost silk-like drapey finish which I wanted to recreate as much as possible.  Having seen Winnie's recent make I remembered that I had the same fabric already in my stash + extra bonus, it was already pre-washed :) (Winnie got her fabric in a swap with Jane - we both bought the same fabric for only £2 / metre at this lovely meet-up back in April 2012).

So, the soft lovely lightweight grey floral fabric it was then! (I don't know the fibre content but it's possibly got some viscose or cotton in in - as it doesn't feel artifical/polyester-ey or acrylic in anyway.)

Cutting out was interesting as the printed fabric was a bit poorly printing along one of the selvedges - but it was easy to avoid.

Can you see the dodgy-area of poorly printed fabric down the left-hand side ?

And, I've drawn a conclusion about my fabric cutting-style "I do not like cutting on the fold!". I find it fiddly to line everything up neatly, and I feel I can save fabric more if I use a single layer. So, for this make, and going forward I'm going to make sure and pattern pieces I use that say cut on the fold - that I trace out and tape on their matching mirrored missing side.

Due to the lightweight nature of the fabric I knew that I'd need to stabilise the neckline, shoulder-seams (front + back - as I was concerned about tearing), thicken-up the sleeve-cuffs (so they don't flop down and get all narrow/wrinkled and unsightly looking) and possibly beef-up the 2 simple little side-vents a bit too.

So, I did some test samples with various fuseable, iron-on stay tapes in my stash (utilising my trusty iron + point-presser clapper to ensure good results) to check for: 
a) durability (I didn't want them to bubble, or warp, or come off as soon as I glanced in their direction LOL!)
b) colour match (NB: the fashion fabric is light weight - so there's the possibility of show-through from underneath)
c) weight (as I want added strength, but not stiffness!)

The different knit fusible stay tapes

Fused fabric sample

I tested some Extremely Fine Fusible Knit Stay Tape from Sunni's store in both Ivory and Black. It fused very well in both colours, and had a great flexibility still to it - which I had expected, with it being a knit-tape. I also tried a Prym Tape from John Lewis (called 'Edge Tape Interfacing' in 10mm, White). All the stay tapes performed very well... so it was just down to colour! Due to the semi-opaque nature of the fabric I was worried about show-through from the stay-tapes. So, I held them up to the light to judge on the best one - I even tried cutting them in half-strips to make them narrower and less visible. I also tried layering tapes onto of each other ivory first then black, and vice-a-versa... I guess I was hoping it'd sort of turn grey together when viewed from the front, and I was willing to give it a go if it didn't turn out too stiff LOL!

The best in the end was the Ivory tape from Sunni. I cut it into narrow half-width strips; all the better to reduce it's visibility from the outside. Due to the flexible-nature of the knit it was very easy to apply around curves, without any need for clipping - yay!

As I now prefer to do it this way; I do not cut out the neckline from the rest of the fabric until I really have too. I feel it is easier to handle, and far less likely to warp and stretch out of shape this way (especially on this delicate lightweight crepe fabric). To my mind, it saves me a headache and what little fabric I would of saved had I gone ahead and cut it out the "usual" way I can live without ;) LOL!

So, I fused along the stitching line - saving the cutting out of the neckline for later (until after I've sewn the first stage of applying the bias-binding facing to the outside of the neckline - which is just before turning it to the inside and stitching it down again).

Next up... Part Two - Overlocking and Vents


 

Gertie's New Book for Better Sewing - I've Pre-Ordered My Copy!

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We all know I'm a sewing-book-aholic ;)!

Well the new book (her first ever!) from Gertie is gonna fill a new space on my shelves later this year.

Image Source: Gertie's New Blog for Better Sewing

I've just pre-ordered my copy from Amazon UK. (According to the UK site, it should be ready to ship to me around about September 2012.)


Read about it on Gertie's blog here.

So What Do These Singer Things Do Then...?

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I've been shopping again (yeah I know Quelle surprise!). 2 weeks ago I bought this mixed lot of mysterious Singer 99 sewing machine accessories. The final winning bid price of £6.19 including the P&P ($9.77 USD approx.) was too good to resist, besides it was after work I was tired and sometimes you just need a teenie-tiny retail fix - youknowhatImean?

I knew what a couple of the items were from the listing photo (the seam guide, binder foot, thumbscrew and the roller hem foot). And I could tell that they are all low-shank attachments (apart from the seam guide and thumbscrew - which are generic in terms of high/low shank machine fitting). Luckily, I have a Low-Shank to High Adaptor to use with them :)


But, there were 3 weird-to-me contraptions that had me flummoxed!  So, here's where the internet and my trusty collection of books came in handy!

I had a quick whizz around the web to check on UK prices for brand-new versions of my 3 "weird" attachments (or even ones in great vintage condition) it seems they're EACH going for around £8 to £16 ($12.50-$25 USD) in the UK, and some in the US are selling for $25-$30 each (eekk! that's £15.80-£19 GBP approx.). So, for £6.19 I've got 5 different feet for a fraction under £1.24/$1.95USD each (that's not counting the 2 extra bits: the seam guide and thumbscrew)... can anybody say B-A-R-G-A-I-N!!

2 of the 3 mystery attachments had part numbers stamped onto them (apparently Singer parts often have the word Simanco on them along with the part number too). I was able to search for them on the web, and to learn a little about how to use them too. Their real names were: 35931 - Adjustable Hemmer, 36583 - Tucker / Tuck Maker, and Ruffler (though oddly enough it seems rufflers didn't get a part number allocated to them - and there's in fact several different styles of them out there, which confused me a wee bit!).

I then looked up the names of my new attachments in my 2 sewing machine attachment books: The Sewing Machine Accessory Bible by Wendy Gardiner and Lorna Knight and Sewing Machine Attachment Handbook by Charlene Phillips.

I find the later book by Charlene has better diagrams and explains the different working parts of the attachments better, and it's got a better coverage of those more vintage style presser feet you'll come across. The former book by Wendy and Lorna seems to cover more about modern-day feet - although there is definitely cross over between the two books, I am glad I have both as they both bring something different to the sewing-table so to speak :) I've not read either of them cover-to-cover, I think I'll always just dip into them when I'm trying to figure out how to get a new presser foot to co-operate with me!

Unfortunately, the 'Tuck Maker' is missing it's 'Tuck Guide Adjusting Screw'. I only knew what part it was called because Charlene's book has handy diagrams which label and describe the different parts 'n' do-dads of the various attachments.

I did get very industrious and cut out a bunch of calico scraps ready to try out the 'Ruffler' on different settings (and I was trying to follow the instructions in Charlene's book) sadly it doesn't seem to work (poo!). I guess it could need oiling, as they are pretty rusty. And, that's something else I need to check out - how to clean rust off of vintage attachments without ruing them!

I did come across this nifty YouTube video demonstrating a Ruffler in action though:

And these 3 websites had great pictures / descriptions for my vintage attachments (and other parts too). Links:
http://www.singersewinginfo.co.uk/simanco_accessories/
http://www.singer-featherweight.com/siteone%20pages/histor_accessories.html
http://www.april1930s.com/html/machine_attachments.html

Father Christmas Was Most Kind...

Don't forget! You've still got 9 more days to enter my first ever GIVEAWAY :)

This is the joke I got in my Christmas Cracker at dinner *this year.

Q: Where should a dressmaker build her house?
A: On the outskirts.

Father Christmas was indeed very kind to me this year. Perhaps he thinks I've been an especially nice little girl? Maybe if I write him some letters like Ally has, then I may fare even better in 2012 ;)?

My haul this year is mainly books:-

• Patternreview.com 1,000 Clever Sewing Shortcuts and Tips: Top-Rated Favorites from Sewing Fans and Master Teachers I'm already half way through reading this one, it's fab!

• The Theory of Garment-Pattern Making - A Textbook for Clothing Designers, Teachers of Clothing Technology, and Senior Students I heard about this one from Kathleen Fasanella's review of it on fashion-incubator.com
• Winifred Aldrich's 5th Edition of Metric Pattern Cutting for Women's Wear, this book much posted about on sewing blogs surprised me with how thin it is! It's chock full per page with information (so I'm not disappointed) - but given it's coverage in the sewing blogging world I had expectations of an enormously thick tome somehow.
• Grading Ruler, by Coni Crawford. This comes to me all the way from the US (a wee present to myself - my huge thanks to Faye for helping me with this :)!) Finger's crossed that it will help me with my hopes to grade the many vintage patterns I've been buying over the last year from Etsy, I should be able to use it with my pattern grading book I picked up awhile back.
• Fantastic Fit for Everybody I saw this on Karen's blog and knew I wanted to add it to my list of fitting books.
• And, last but not least the Colette Sewing Handbook and the Peony #1017 Dress Pattern from Colette Patterns.

I also received one of these for my cutting table:

Image Source: Amazon.co.uk, Scotch C22 Heavy Duty Tape Dispenser

It takes, x2 75mm diameter-core rolls of tape, up to 25mm (1") wide per roll side by side. I've already filed mine with two-types of the invisible Scotch Magic Tape - normal, and the removable kind.

So, I'm a happy bunny!


*It always strikes me as funny how when in the midst of January we always say "this year" in reference to Christmas - when it was technically speaking last year LOL!

Part 1: Maybe It's Genetic?

This is a 2-part post: see the second half here.

Last weekend we went visiting to my Mother's house. It was a flying visit, so we didn't stay long (we were on our way back from a day-long visit to one of my brother's house nearby).

So, I was lingering in Mummy's dining room and as I was idly scanning my eyes over her bookshelves I spotted some sewing books. Now, Mummy and I have never had one of those archetypal, stereotypical Mother-Daughter relationships that families are supposedly meant to follow. [For which read: we have generally never gotten on, we are civil but not overly friendly, and we have never bonded over anything. I have no special memories of time spent/family events/occasions/touching moments during my childhood, teenage or adult years that involve my Mother - although there are many happy times with my Father, brothers and the rest of my family. Basically, as the old adage goes "You can choose your friends, but you can't choose your family" - and whilst there is no animosity present, we just don't hang out or anything like that.] So, you can imagine my surprise when I came across these alluring tomes! Had these tantalising vintage sewing relics been in my midst during my formative years; when sewing did not draw my attention in the way it does now, then maybe my pleasureable pastime might have come to fruition much sooner LOL! (Back then it was merely a useful tool when I wanted to crop some jeans into shorts, or hem a skirt bought in the local Oxfam for £1.50 I made 2 dresses that I recall, and not much else.)

Anyway I digress! So, I HAD to take some pics of course ;)!

The first two books that I pulled off of Mummy's shelves were by Adele P. Margolis (and spookily enough I already own copies of these very two titles myself):

Design Your Own Dress Patterns by Adele P. Margolis (1971)
ISBN 0263516741, Original cost £3.85
(I have the re-issued 2006, paperback edition now titled 'Make Your Own Dress Patterns', ISBN 0486452549).

How to Make Clothes That Fit and Flatter by Adele P. Margolis (1969)
ISBN 0385090641, Original cost £UNKNOWN.


I thought that was the lot, but as I put the Adele's back, I spied at the end of the very long shelf some more reading-marevls!

Clothes - Their Choosing, Making & Care by Margaret G Butler (1965)
ISBN 071342700, Original cost £UNKNOWN

Sewing for Men and Boys by Simplicity (1978)
ISBN 0918178002, Original cost £0.60
Curiously, Mummy seems to own a UK edition (it has 60p printed on the front cover). However, online I can only seem to find the US edition with $1 on the front. Flicking through Mummy's copy I've realised that the photo on the cover is different between the different countries.

Introducing Pattern Cutting Grading and Modelling by Margaritha Goulbourn (1971)
ISBN 713427108, Original cost £1.90

Introducing Pattern Cutting by Ann Tuit (1974)
ISBN 0435428608, Original cost £2.80

Betty Foster's Dressmaking Book (1979)
ISBN 0356063198, Original cost £1.25

McCall's Sewing in Colour ((C) 1963, Impression 1977)
ISBN 0600024571, Original cost £2.95

Dress Pattern Designing by Natalie Bray (1974, 4th Edition 'Metric')
ISBN 025896944X, Original cost £UNKNOWN
This is the link to the current, modern 2003 Edition.

More Dress Pattern Designing by Natalie Bray (1974, 3rd Edition 'Metric')
ISBN 0258969725, Original cost £UNKNOWN
Again, link for the latest 2003 Edition.

Tucked inside one of the books was a pink and white packet of Betty Foster's Dressmaking Design Paper. It's large paper, printed with squares, and the idea is that you use a smaller diagram of a pattern and transfer by hand all the lines, and curves onto the larger squares of the 'design paper' - thereby keeping everything in proportion to the scaled-down smaller diagram. (On a side note, it even looks like the company Betty set up to sell her products is still up and running in Crewe.)

More pics are in my Flickr photo set of the books here.

Please see my next post about How Did Mummy Start Sewing? for more! 

Confessions of a Sewing Book-aholic

To paraphrase the title of Sophie Kinsella's chic-lit novel 'Confessions of a Shopaholic' I have to say "Hello, my name is Claire, and I am a sewing book-aholic".

Karen recently about 'Long Live The Craft Book' and how despite her deep love for her Kindle, she still feels a "need to invest in a physical book that I can love, stroke and put on a bookshelf". Amy of 'Sewing by the Book' has spoken about 'Reading Sewing Books on a Kindle' where she's compared a paper vs. a digital version of a book - and the digital version failed to live up to it's expectations. Suzy of 'SuzySewing' is doing a monthly book analysis, and Amy of 'Dianaandme' is reviewing books weekly, and in her own words "If I come to the conclusion that the book is useful, but not for me, I will stick it in a giveaway and see who wants it.".

This got me thinking about my own not-so-little sewing library.

 I'm definitely gonna need a stronger bookshelf!

I currently own 46 books and 6 DVDs (one interactive DVD comes bundled with the David Page Coffin 'Making Trousers' book). And, *gulp* more are on their way to me in the post (hehe).

I catalogue my bibliophilic addiction at LibraryThing.com where I can log details of my stash using their free service. You can even see which other site members own the same book - or who has a title(s) on their wish list. Plus, from each book's own page there's links to different stores that might sell them. This is very helpful (or bad if you consider the impact on my purse-strings!) especially in the case of out-of-print and vintage titles such as 'Dorothy Moore's Pattern Drafting and Dressmaking' (a tome I acquired from the US Amazon site last June after spying it on Peter's blog), or for older editions of the popular covers-all-bases-for-basics book by the  '^*The Reader's Digest Complete Guide to Sewing'.

There is some feeling in the blog-i-verse that older editions of the Reader's Digest book have better coverage on aspects of basic tailoring than newer copies. (Perhaps I'll do a read up on both my copies and report back?)

My 2 editions of 'Reader's Digest Complete Guide to Sewing' book side-by-side
A quick flick through shows me that some sections are very updated (centre picture),
and some are virtually the same (right picture).

My purchasing is worse when I am browsing my favourite blogs (like Miss Celie's Pants), and I spot a tasty looking morsel - the excitement elicited by the fellow blog's own enthusiasm immediately has me reaching for my PayPal login details and before you know it wham, bam thank you mam I've ordered myself a copy of 'Singer Sewing Reference Library - Sewing Activewear' (blimey just checked and copies are going for less than 50p!).

Have I actually sewn any activewear? Umm... nope (not yet anyway)! But, I do have a lovely warm fuzzy feeling in my tummy when I look at my new ** IKEA Lack bookshelves and see the books there - ready for when I need to reference something. It's quite satifsfying to know I can grab a book and snuggle up on my sofa to read-up on a technique or method. I love the internet, but it's very cosy  to have a mug of coffee and biscuit in hand with the telly on in the background and to slowly flick through the crsip pages in my hand :)

I've stalked you my pretty and now I OWN you mwahahahahah!

I've been in the sad(?) habit of stalking used book sites for copies of rarer items, such as 'Fundamentals of Draping & Pattern Drafting' by Moira Doyle, (as I'd heard good things about it). The price was way to high initially, and only 1 or 2 used copies ever seemed for sale anywhere. Then early this May there were like 10 or 12, and the price had dropped to around $10-$15 USD (whereas before I was looking at $70-$80). So, I have concluded that as the book is aimed at college students that it must have been the end of their course and people were selling-up on texts they no longer needed. (This is the publisher's site with details of that book and the author's other title - 'The Essentials of Pattern Grading', it's a handy site 'cos you can preview quite a few pages from the books without having to buy them). Now, all I need is the FIDM Ruler to go with the grading book grrrr - it's so hard to get hold of it from the US. The FIDM people want you to fax/email them your credit-card details BEFORE they'll tell you how much shipping to the UK is - like that's a very secure financial thing to do (NOT!).

The DVDs

Mind you on the other side of the book-coin some very accomplished bloggers have their own books in the pipeline Gertie, and Kathleen are 2 that I know of - and other bloggers and sewists are having their work featured in the new BurdaStyle book due out in November this year- so people are transitioning from the flat-screen to the printed page (kinda like technological progression in reverse, yet I have not doubt the foray into publishing will reach a wider and equally appreciative new audience).

Some other interesting sewing-book links:

• Tanit-Isis Sews - My sewing library… 

• Singer and Sew (Julie) - On My Shelf

• Erica B's DIY Style!  - Sewing Book Reviews and My Sewing Library

• Gertie's Blog for Betters Sewing - Building a Sewing Library

• BurdaStyle.com - 6 Essential Patternmaking|Sewing Books For Your Library

• delfinelise - Books!

• Greenapples (StitchyWitch) - Books for sewing beginners

^*The eagle-eyed amongst you will spot that I own 2 editions of this title, the latest version (white cover with blue spots) plus the vintage copy dating from 1981 - though there are even earlier editions still out the to be had for very little cash! Used copies of old editions are going for less than a fiver on Amazon UK (and from only $1.23 on the American site!).
**Hubby and I am midst a long project to turn the junkyard that is our spare bedroom into a fresh and lovely bed sewing room all for moi! I've had over 10 different tester pots of green paint, and I have STILL yet to find the perfect shade *sighs*