Want new clothes? Neither ready to wear nor sewing from patterns fitting you well? This post is a book review of “Made To Measure” by Elisalex Jewell.
Introduction
Most of my ready to wear pants are too long. Some of my tops and dresses are too. Fit issues with ready to wear clothing are common. Sewing your own clothes from patterns may not solve these issues. In both cases, the clothes or patterns are only available in specific sizes that don’t happen to be yours. There are lots of free resources online to help you with fit issues and/or clothing alternation. You could also input your measurements into a custom clothing pattern generator and make a garment from the resulting pattern. I bought “Made To Measure: An Easy Guide To Drafting and Sewing a Custom Wardrobe” by Elisalex Jewell.
What’s the book about?
Made To Measure teaches you how to sew clothes based on your measurements. The book is divided into three major sections.
1) The Basics
This section is approximately one third of the book. The tools and equipment needed to sew clothes are introduced. Next learn about fabric types and fabric care, grainline, crossgrain, bias and cutting fabrics. Beginners and intermediate sewers will appreciate the sections on hand sewing, sewing seams, finishing seams, darts, gathering, hems, invisible zippers, buttons and button holes. Circle skirts are next.
2) Drafting, Fitting and Customizing
Learn how to take your measurements, draft your shoulder seams and how to identify and fix common fit issues. Sew sleeve variations with these detailed instructions. Cloning a garment using a blouse as an example is next.
3) Draft It Yourself Projects
This section is approximately half of the book. Learn how to make dresses, skirts, blouses, trousers and jumpsuits that will fit your specific measurements. Difficulty ranges from one to three. Customize your garments further with the included variations. Make a paper pattern then a muslin before cutting your more expensive fabrics.
Conclusion
“Made To Measure: An Easy Guide To Drafting and Sewing a Custom Wardrobe” by Elisalex Jewell was exceptionally well written and illustrated. It’s a great book for women who are struggling to find ready to wear clothes that fit them well or who are having hit and miss results when making clothes from patterns. Beginner to intermediate sewers will appreciate the well throughout and detailed second section of this book. I’m looking forward to sewing some of the garments in this book. I’ll update this post as I complete my new clothes.
Have you made clothes to your measurements? Do you have made to measure resources to recommend? Comment below and/or Pin me for later!
Tanya
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