Caitie's Book Report

Claire B. Shaeffer is the author of the book Couture Sewing Techniques as well as several other how-to sewing books. She is a college professor, a columnist contributing articles to sewing magazines, lecturer, and an overall respected author. I believe with of her credentials and experience in the classroom and writing books instructing how to sew couture in particular. The book is very well written with step by step instructions on how to do each stitch, pictures are generally next to the portion of instruction. I also really liked that there are pictures of the finished product, which is helpful to see how it is suppose to look and compare it to your personal work. Each section has an introduction explaining what the section is about, it has a definition of what the title is, such a “pleat”, it explains what a pleat is and all the different kinds. It then goes immediately into the how-to.

The writing itself is pretty easy to follow. Because the book is step-by-step this makes the process even easier. One could read the book cover to cover if they wanted to but I see it as more of a reference book. Each section is very clearly marked so it’s very easy to flip to a certain point and check for reference. There aren’t any specific projects to do this book is more of a how-to not really a text book or teaching book. The pictures that go with the steps are very well drawn though and easy to follow. Because the book is more of a how-to it requires a lot of explanations, which requires words. Most of the book is words with various small pictures scattered throughout the chapters.

All the mages are extremely easy to understand and read. Most of the images are photographs of finished garments that display the certain technique being talked about. There are illustrations too though for people to check their work as they go to make sure they’re doing the steps right. I found this quite helpful because I’m more of a visual learner.

The writing itself is pretty informal. It is a lot like someone just telling someone else how to do the technique, not lecturing. I find that style of writing very nice. Formal writing is a little harder for me to understand, so I appreciate books that are less formal. There aren’t any projects with the book as I mentioned before, so there are no patterns or DVDs or anything like that, that come with the book. It’s all on its own. I recommend if one wants to work with the book, they should be an experienced sewer. Couture is very complicated, and although the book is very easy to follow and understand, the techniques themselves are pretty advanced.

I really do recommend the book if you have experience with clothing design under your belt and want to take your clothing to the next level. Again, the book is very easy to understand and I feel that Shaeffer has a lot of experience with instructing people on the techniques of sewing. If someone doesn’t have the sewing experience yet, I still recommend it for dreaming about what you will be able to do one day. It’s very inspiring to keep you wanting to learn more which is what this kind of book is all about. The book isn’t very expensive at all so I think the list price of about $25.00 is very reasonable. And one can always look for it lightly used for less if that price for some reason isn’t manageable.