Gertie's New Book for Better Sewing:: A Modern Guide to Couture-Style Sewing Using Basic Vintage Techniques Hardcover-spiral Author: Visit Amazon's Gretchen Hirsch Page | Language: English | ISBN:
1584799919 | Format: PDF, EPUB
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About the Author
Gretchen Hirsch writes Gertie’s New Blog for Better Sewing (blogforbettersewing.com) and teaches sewing in New York City, around the country, on PBS’s It’s Sew Easy, and on Craftsy.com. She lives in Beacon, New York.
Books with free ebook downloads available Gertie's New Book for Better Sewing:: A Modern Guide to Couture-Style Sewing Using Basic Vintage Techniques Hardcover-spiral Epub Free
- Hardcover-spiral: 208 pages
- Publisher: Stewart, Tabori and Chang; Spi edition (September 1, 2012)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1584799919
- ISBN-13: 978-1584799917
- Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 9 x 1.2 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
The first part of this book is great. Lots of information on vintage sewing techniques explained in an easy to understand way. The art for the book is spectacular. Sun Young Park is a wonderful talent and I look forward to seeing more of her work.
The problems are centered around the patterns.
First- the size chart doesn't have an accompanying figure to show you where exactly to measure yourself. Early in the book Gertie talks about measuring and recommends using your high bust measurement. But I'm still not clear if she wants the reader to use a high bust or bust measurement. (see edit below)
Second- there are no technical drawings of the garments. There are some artistic renderings throughout, but not all of them match the patterns, nor are they paired with the patterns. And there are no technical drawings of back views.
Third- the patterns lack lengthen and shorten lines.
Fourth- some of the patterns seem like they're not just inspired by Vogue's New Book for Better Sewing, but that they are the exact same Vogue patterns that have been made larger and then multisized. i.e. the portrait blouse, the bow-tied blouse, and the sultry sheath (she says that she wanted to include a version of that dress but with a different neckline. It appears to be the same dress (jumper version) down to the uneven dart placement). The uneven dart placement drives me crazy. I wish Gertie had moved the darts so they lined up. For someone who wants to sew the Vogue projects, but doesn't want to spend the money buying the individual patterns, this is a great option for them, but it didn't appeal to me and I wish the book had stated that some of the same patterns were included.
And yes, the fit bothered me a little.
My biggest beef with this book is the writing style: I wish Ms. Hirsch had cleaned up her blog-style writing a little bit more in favor of something that sounded more professional and more like something we would expect from someone who bills herself as an editor and a writer. She starts far too many sentences with "Being a [whatever] . . . ". I know she meant to sound approachable, but it makes the book feel a bit flavor-of-the-month and less like a respectable sewing reference.
Her section on fabric types wasn't meant to be expansive but I still wish it had been more comparative. Descriptions are nice but less useful to people who don't have samples on hand to determine whether organza is lighter than chiffon. I wish that she hadn't snubbed quilting cotton wholesale. I thought it was odd that she passed over denim and chambray--the classic casual shirtwaist fabric--in her section on fabric types but included gingham, apparently because it's cute. Most cotton gingham readily available today is either sloppily-woven faux homespun or awful cotton-polyester blend, and the stuff that isn't is usually, well, printed quilting cotton. Furthermore, if you're in the market for a crisp white cotton blouse, you cannot do better than Kona, which is opaque and an absolute dream to handle (as anyone who does applique can tell you).
I agree, too, with the reviewer I read somewhere (Amazon?) who wished that the clothing had been shown on somebody other than a whole series of Gerties. Between the drawings and the photographs, there is an awful lot of Gertie in the book.
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