Adele P. MargolisMake Your Own Dress Patterns: With over 1,000 how-to illustrations: A Primer in Patternmaking for Those Who Like to Sew (Dover Crafts: Clothing Design)

I have been sewing for a few years, clothing for about a year. I am a creative type, 26 years old, who was frustrated that when I made a Big 4 pattern it wouldn't fit right and would look terrible, not very stylish in the least, so I knew if I wanted to get serious about making my own clothing, I needed to learn how to make my own patterns to get just what I wanted so I started to explore what resources were out there to make your own patterns. I checked out a lot of books from the library, and this was the one I decided to buy.It is very accessible even to a beginner and blows your mind with all the ideas you get about designing your own clothing. She explains about slopers, a basic pattern that you can change to create any pattern you might want to. I cannot stress enough how vital it is to have a sloper that fits you before playing with all the fun designing stuff in this book if you want to end up with clothes that really look good on you. Of course this book is interesting reading on its own, even if you aren't planning on sewing a ton any time soon, or if you just want to add some details to tried and true patterns you already use. BUT, if you are getting this to make patterns for yourself, you are going to need another resource for making your own sloper. See below for how I made my mine.What I have done now is purchased the Dress Kit as part of the three kit combo from Sure-Fit Designs, (which is INCREDIBLE, and well priced compared to other similar products, AND with fabulous customer service) and made my own sloper, a personalized basic dress pattern that fits me perfectly. With sloper in hand, I have used Make Your Own Dress Patterns to make some lovely items of clothing that I am really pleased with. I plan to increase my technical knowledge of pattern drafting from scratch and hopefully draping in the future, but the Sure-Fit Designs Kits combined with this book have been a great start for me to build my confidence that I really can design my own patterns that will fit, and not waste my beginning years in sewing making things that fit poorly and look bad even if my technical sewing skill is increasing just because drafting your own patterns is seen as a more advanced skill. Even if you are a beginner, if you are adventurous and excited about sewing you can do it! (Also get a good basic sewing skills book, and start with a skirt, not a ball gown :)So, summing up, if you want to make your own clothes, make a few easy projects like a bag, an elastic waist skirt, etc. to get comfortable with your machine (just look for tutorials on blogs), and then get something to make your own sloper, like the Sure-Fit Designs Kits, (I have also heard of the Kenneth King Moulage system) get Make your own dress patterns, and a basic sewing book to help with your technical skills, and go crazy!

Love this book, lots of great information and illustrations on how to make 👗 dresses, still reading 📖 this book, love the patterns.

Holy cripes! I can't even BELIEVE how much stuff is packed into this book. Everything you ever wanted to know about how to tweak a piece of fabric to make it fit/look a certain way is listed. I started to read it, then found myself flipping through pages because it got to be info overload. The only way really to fully grasp the concepts in this book in its entirety will be to actually DO each pattern alteration, one-by-one (which might take a few months, since there are so many). Luckily, the author gives you tiny block patterns to trace in order to do them small-scale. Honestly, I can't imagine wanting to make any type of style alteration and not finding the how-to for it in this book. It was written in '85 so the shown styles are a bit dated, but the foundation info is all here, so it's easy enough for the reader to modernize. For $12.97, I feel like a got a steal.

I like the book because it is very detailed when giving instructions, but it did not teach me how to make the basic pattern for the dress. ( which is the reason why I bought this in the first place ). You have to have the pattern beforehand. Also, you have to have a basic understanding of dressmaking to apply what the book instructs you to alter/modify your pattern....I decided to keep the book because it is a treasure trove of information for me to have at my arms reach. All in all a very good reference book!

I discovered Adele Margolis years ago. Nice to have an updated book.

This book starts by explaining the function of darts in a basic sloper, and demonstrates how to retain the fitting functions while changing the positions of the darts. The author shows how to divide one dart into several, replace a dart with a series of tucks, replace a dart with gathers, and even eliminate the dart. As the chapters progress, the alterations become more complex, for example, transferring the fit conferred by the basic dart into curved seams. The book is not intended to help in fitting clothes; one must already have the basic slopers for a bodice, skirt, or pants. The author's understanding of patterns and how they fit is highly accurate, and the suggestions for changes are innovative. I would say that the book deserves four or five stars for its theoretical analysis - my criticism is that it isn't very practical. Perhaps I'm being too demanding, for it may be impossible to teach pattern-making without hands-on demonstrations. The book's fashions are, unfortunately but unavoidably, dated. This, too, affects the extent to which the book is helpful in designing modern garments, and as a consequence I am, after reading it, still unsure of how I would change certain pattern styles. I nevertheless recommend the book for its value in understanding general principles of making a piece of flat cloth fit the contours of the body.

This book was originally written about 50 years or so ago. Do not expect glossy pictures. That being said whether you want to make your own patterns or adapt some patterns you already have this is a great resource. It shows you with line drawings how to cut your pattern to change it. I trace my basic patterns on paper than adapt them to any style I see or can imagine. Love this book.

So much info! Very happy with it. Excellent read.