This easy-to-understand dressmaking guide explains everything you need to know to make six basic garments - dresses, skirts, blouses, pants, jackets, and coats - with detailed instructions that take you step by step through each stage of construction. Black and white illustrations show you techniques and highlight the fashions of the 1970s.

Idea for beginners, Sew It Yourself shows how to select a design, prepare and alter a pattern, and choose a fabric that's easy to work with and care for.  For more advanced sewers, there are tips on seams, facings, waistbands, pockets, collars, sleeves, trimmings, and more, plus advice on how to work with plaids, checks, and strips and how to handle velvet, chiffon, crepe, mohair, leather, vinyl, and other difficult-to-work-with materials.

Whether you've been sewing for years of have never threaded a needle, Sew It Yourself can help you master easy-to-learn techniques that will enable you to create fashionable, money-saving clothing for yourself and your family.

Sew it Yourself
How to Make Your Own Fashion Classics

by Gidon Lippman & Dorothy Erskine

copyright 1977

Experience the fun and satisfaction of doing it yourself, plus the pride of wearing high-quality fashions at budget prices, when you begin making your own clothes with the help of Sew It Yourself.

For those not familiar with the authors... GIdon Lippman was head of the Fashion Department at Harrow School of Art and formerly lectured at the Royal College of Art

Dorothy Erskine lectured at Harrow School of Art and worked extensively in fashion journalism in London and South Africa.

The authors have had enormous experience, both in the fashion industry and in the teaching of fashion students.

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CONTENTS

Introduction

This section is a planned, progressive sequence in the choice of design, pattern, and material.

Choosing the design ~ Color and fabric ~ Planning ~ Fashion ~ Classics ~ Suitability to figure ~ How to take body measurements ~ Buying patterns ~ Adjusting pattern to figure ~ Preparing pattern for layout on fabric ~ Types of fabrics ~ The fabric for the garment ~ Fabric terms ~ Pre-cutting preparation of fabric ~ Finish ~ Choosing lining ~ Essential tools and equipment ~ Use of sewing machine and attachments

Making Simple Garments

This section explains how to put together six basic garments, using simple techniques.

Coordinating ~ Planning ~ The basic skirt ~ Basic hand stitches ~ Machine stitches ~ Pressing ~ Processes in order of construction ~ Initial processes ~ First steps to first fitting ~ First fitting for shape and alterations ~ Final assembling and completing ~ Finishing Skirt techniques ~ Making Slacks ~ Making a semi-fitted dress ~ Making a jacket ~ Making the soft coat ~ Making the shirt

Further Advanced Techniques

This section contains additional and more advanced techniques for anyone wishing to extend their expertise and knowledge of the subject.

Design and pattern adaptations ~ Figure types ~ Processes and Decorations: markings, basic hand stitching, seam finishes, facings, hems, waistbands, openings, pockets, buttons and buttonholes, collards, sleeves, pleats, decorations ~ Fabrics ~ Notions: threads, fastenings, buttons belts, bindings and braids, grosgrain ribbon, piping cord, tape, padding

Glossary

Included in the book is a comprehensive Glossary.  Contents: Dressmaking and fashion terms, fabric descriptions, textile processes, manufactured fibers, non-woven fabrics, textile terms.

Through the numerous diagrams, charts, illustrations and stage-by-stage instructions, the authors hope you will achieve results in a relatively short time.