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Singer Sewing Book
Basic sewing book for the home sewer including information on garment, home deck, and craft sewing.
244 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1949
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 5, 2012
Mary Brooks Picken was a genius of home economics. This is a thorough, complete introduction and guide to sewing. It's also a fun period piece of vintage 1949 interior decoration and crafts, and a little bit of fashion.
November 14, 2007
This is a good, basic sewing book including informatino on garment and home dec sewing. Clear illustrations, color photographs, good instructions.
February 4, 2017
A comprehensive guide to dressmaking, soft furnishings, home decoration and mending. Contains 24 colour plates and numerous black and white line drawings within the text. The author, Mary Brooks Picken, is a well respected author and the series of dressmaking books published for the Woman's Institute of Domestic Arts and Sciences were also her work. This edition is the first to be published in the UK but is based on the second, 1953 edition of the 1949 original, both published in the USA.
The chapter headings are as follows: Your Sewing Machine; To Sew Successfully; Your Attitude towards Your Machine; Your Sewing Equipment; Your Dress Form; "Room of Her Own"; Know About Fabrics; Colour and Clothes; Your Measurement Chart; Know Your Figure Type; Patterns for Your Use; Pattern Adjustments; Pattern Layout - Cutting and Marking; Chart Your Way - Bastings and Markings; Darts and Tucks; Gathering, Shirring and Ruffling; Pleats and Insets; Fit Your Dress; Press as You Sew; Seams and Seam Finishes; Buttonholes, Buttons and Fastenings; Pockets; Neck Openings and Collars; Facings and Corners; Know Your Sleeves; Sleeve Finishes; Waistline Joining and Finishing; Skirt and Dress Plackets; Marking Hem and Hem Finishes; Belts and Belt Loops; Tailoring Well Done; Learn to Do Fashion Stitches; Bindings and Edge Finishes; Cording, Tubing and Self-Trimming; Decorative Finishes; Designers' Sketches; Hand Sewing - Stitches; Sewing for Children; Sewing for Infants; Smartness Essential in Children's Clothes; How to Bundle Your Sewing; Planning Clothes for Children; Teaching Children to Sew; Home Decoration; Windows and How to Drape Them; Changing Window Proportions; Fixtures; Dressing Your Windows; Slip-Cover Measurements Chart; Slip-Cover Your Chairs; Dressing Up Your Bed; Dressing Tables; Dressing Up Your Cupboards; Dressing Your Table; Monograms; Singercraft Rugs; Decorators' Sketches; Mending; Swing Needle Machine Stitching.
If you have a vintage, straight stitch sewing machine, this is an especially useful book to own as it is contemporary with such machines (swing needle machines being a relatively new development and being dealt with in their own chapter at the end of the book) so the methods and attachments featured are all appropriate for these machines and the chapter "Learning to do Fashion Stitches" is dedicated to showing how to adjust the stitch tensions and feed to prepare the machine for this sort of work and shows the reader how to accomplish such decorative effects as "spark stitch", "boucle" and the "metallic stitch" so redolent of 1950s evening wear.
The chapter headings are as follows: Your Sewing Machine; To Sew Successfully; Your Attitude towards Your Machine; Your Sewing Equipment; Your Dress Form; "Room of Her Own"; Know About Fabrics; Colour and Clothes; Your Measurement Chart; Know Your Figure Type; Patterns for Your Use; Pattern Adjustments; Pattern Layout - Cutting and Marking; Chart Your Way - Bastings and Markings; Darts and Tucks; Gathering, Shirring and Ruffling; Pleats and Insets; Fit Your Dress; Press as You Sew; Seams and Seam Finishes; Buttonholes, Buttons and Fastenings; Pockets; Neck Openings and Collars; Facings and Corners; Know Your Sleeves; Sleeve Finishes; Waistline Joining and Finishing; Skirt and Dress Plackets; Marking Hem and Hem Finishes; Belts and Belt Loops; Tailoring Well Done; Learn to Do Fashion Stitches; Bindings and Edge Finishes; Cording, Tubing and Self-Trimming; Decorative Finishes; Designers' Sketches; Hand Sewing - Stitches; Sewing for Children; Sewing for Infants; Smartness Essential in Children's Clothes; How to Bundle Your Sewing; Planning Clothes for Children; Teaching Children to Sew; Home Decoration; Windows and How to Drape Them; Changing Window Proportions; Fixtures; Dressing Your Windows; Slip-Cover Measurements Chart; Slip-Cover Your Chairs; Dressing Up Your Bed; Dressing Tables; Dressing Up Your Cupboards; Dressing Your Table; Monograms; Singercraft Rugs; Decorators' Sketches; Mending; Swing Needle Machine Stitching.
If you have a vintage, straight stitch sewing machine, this is an especially useful book to own as it is contemporary with such machines (swing needle machines being a relatively new development and being dealt with in their own chapter at the end of the book) so the methods and attachments featured are all appropriate for these machines and the chapter "Learning to do Fashion Stitches" is dedicated to showing how to adjust the stitch tensions and feed to prepare the machine for this sort of work and shows the reader how to accomplish such decorative effects as "spark stitch", "boucle" and the "metallic stitch" so redolent of 1950s evening wear.
August 17, 2016
A good reference book with some funny vintage flavor.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
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