The Complete Photo Guide to Clothing Construction helps you master all of the techniques needed to sew clothes; including tops; dresses; pants; skirts; and even outerwear. This technique-driven book follows the entire process of clothing construction; including a section on the sewing machine and other tools/materials used; information on working with patterns and fitting; laying out the pattern pieces; cutting and marking; and on through every step of construction to the final button. Large; detailed photos guide you from start to finish and help give you a visual basis for learning the skills.
#4537131 in eBooks 2014-02-25 2014-02-25File Name: B00INAACO8
Review
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful. Extreme lives in extreme landsBy Washington readerJamie James writes that the genesis of this engrossing book lies in an experience during a trip to Angkor Wat in 1988; a time when Cambodia was all but closed to Westerners as its long civil war spluttered to a close. A soldier asked James what American money looked like. Inspecting Washingtonrsquo;s portrait on the duly proffered dollar bill; the soldier asked ldquo;Is this your king? He looks like a lady.rdquo; At that moment James knew just how far away from home he was. Almost thirty years on; in the age of ldquo;Househunters Internationalrdquo; when every corner of the planet is accessible to anyone with a passport and the right credit card; this incident would be unlikely to happen.This was not the case until well into the last century. Until rather recently; relocating to a distant country was an extreme and often irreversible act; entailing risks of all kinds. Those who chose to do it were often not quite normal; as Jamesrsquo;s fascinating portraits of six especially memorable and creative cases demonstrate. But there is no single template for the personality of the ldquo;exoterdquo; (his term for someone who reinvents himself under the influence of foreign surroundings): there seems to be a spectrum running from ldquo;adventurousrdquo; through ldquo;eccentricrdquo; to ldquo;bizarrerdquo; and ldquo;crazy.rdquo; Walter Spies; the multitalented German who immersed himself in Balinese culture and revitalized the local arts scene; charmed everyone he met. On the other hand; Maya Derenrsquo;s burgeoning career as an avant-garde filmmaker was undone by her immersion in Haitian voodoo; which alienated her most influential supporters. It is hard to read the account of her possession at the wedding of friends in Westport; Connecticut (of all places) without concluding that this woman; whose innovations in film had attracted significant notice; had become unhinged.Similarly; there is no single template for the exotesrsquo; passions and pursuits. Although the title refers to ldquo;Artists and the Last Age of the Exotic;rdquo; James has chosen figures who were in reality polymaths. Spies was a musician as well as a painter; the Javanese painter Raden Saleh was an amateur paleontologist; the writer Victor Segalen was a doctor and an archaeologist; etc. They were not solitary figures; either: one of the most interesting aspects of book is its treatment of the impact of its subjectsrsquo; lives and work on others. A random selection from the index presents an astonishing variety of eminent persons who crossed their paths: Charlie Chaplin; Noel Coward; Henri Rousseau; Franz Liszt; Paul Robeson; and Queen Victoria just for starters.This is a most erudite book but not an academic one. It is blessedly free of the tendentious cant about cultural appropriation; Orientalism; colonialism/postcolonialism and so on that taints many studies of similar subjects. There is a lively thread of personal experience running through the book -- James describes his travels in the footsteps of some of his subjects; and prefaces and concludes the book with lessons he has drawn from his own life as a Texan transplanted to Lombok by way of New York and Bali. He has the too-rare knack of elegantly combining detail; analysis; and narrative with remarkable concision; this book contains more richness than most volumes three times its length manage to achieve. By examining the lives of these gifted people who gave themselves over in the most extreme ways to strange new homelands; ldquo;The Glamour of Strangenessrdquo; should be irresistible to any thoughtful person who has ever become smitten ndash; even fleetingly ndash; with a foreign place or culture.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Full of interesting folks to pursue further. Something about ...By DLWFull of interesting folks to pursue further. Something about JJs writing seems to lack are real focus as these are very different lives; but they are all extremely well fleshed out while still leaving you hungry for more information.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. A fun readBy Cassandra LangerFun read full of interesting facts about a fascinating group of eccentrics. Well written; researched; and entertaining
