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This was one of my Mother's Day gifts from my children. One sewing book and one gardening book. I had added it to my Amazon wish list because the free chapter looked good. The book is unfortunately, disappointing on so many levels.
The photos are of poor quality and way to small to illustrate the techniques being demonstrated. There are too many photos of tools that could be better shown in one larger, clearer photo. I have no clue why she chooses to use such a shallow depth of field. It's rather irritating to have a picture of a slip with one breast in focus and the other out of focus due to that shallow depth of field she seems so fond of. It's useful when you want to isolate a portrait in the landscape to focus on the figure, but one breast in and one out of focus? None of the photos are particularly crisp which makes them less than useful.
The other issue I have with the photos is that light colored garments are shown against nearly identical background colors making what is being shown nearly indiscernible. There are some photos of patterns that are so faint as to be useless.
Then there are the garments being used to demonstrate technique. It's nearly impossible to understand from the photos what is being shown. That, and the garments aren't anywhere near being quality samples.
The chapter on adjusting your pattern for fit leaves a lot to be desired. As a full busted woman I know that adding just to the side seam at the bust is not enough. I need to add length to go over my bust so that the front doesn't hike up. Not so here. The rest of this chapter is just as lacking.
The writing is fortunately far better than the photos used and there is some useful information here. But, for me the negatives far outweigh the pluses and I can't recommend purchasing this book.It is a self published book and it would have really gained a lot if it had some professional help. If you can find the Tauntion series that's out of print with it's books on The Easy Guide to Sewing Tops and T shirts, this one is by Marcy Tilton, and Sewing Knits by Connie Long, you'll get a lot more and clearer information than is available in this book.
Have a lovely Memorial Day
