Whelan - Sew many dresses, sew little time: the ultimate dressmaking guide: interchangeable patterns to create 200+ unique dresses

Copyright 2015 by Tanya Wendelken

All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Potter Craft, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.
www.crownpublishing.com
www.pottercraft.com

POTTER CRAFT and colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Whelan, Tanya.
Sew many dresses, sew little time: the ultimate dressmaking guide: interchangeable patterns to create 200+ unique dresses / Tanya Whelan. First Edition.
pages cm
(alk. paper)
1. Dressmaking. I. Title.
TT519.5.W44 2015
646.4dc23
2014040704

ISBN 978-0-7704-3494-6
eISBN 978-0-7704-3495-3

Photographs by Tanya Whelan
Illustrations by Tanya Whelan, Barry Becker, and Barbie McCormick
Technical and editorial contributions by Barbie McCormick
Styling and dressmaking by Tanya Whelan and Sandra Hutton
Jacket design by Stephanie Huntwork
Jacket photograph by Tanya Whelan
v3.1

TO MY MOTHER-IN-LAW, MAXINE WENDELKEN , the most glamorous and beautiful woman I ever met in real life, and an expert dressmaker and designer in her own right. Those pictures of you in those beautiful dresses that you made yourself have always mesmerized me and helped motivate me to write this book. Thank you for inspiring me, Maxine. I love you.

M aking a dress is not hard! In fact, making a dress is often more straightforward than making a handbag. And with the interchangeable patterns in this book, designing and creating hundreds of unique looks219 dresses, to be exactis well within reach.

The secret is that the waist darts and measurements line up perfectly with each bodice and skirt in this collection, making the patterns completely interchangeable. As someone who has sewn from individual dress patterns for years, I must admit to being a little embarrassed not to have realized earlier that a system of interchangeable bodice and skirt patterns was a possibility.

Fitted dresses with waist seams actually all share the same basic construction, so theoretically, you should be able to switch the bodice of any fitted dress pattern to the skirt of another pattern. But in reality, you would probably have to make a few changes to the patterns, such as moving the waist darts and altering the waist width. I wanted to make this process easy-peasy, so I created a set of basic patterns for bodices and skirts that meet perfectly at the waist to be combined and interchanged according to your dressmaking instincts. Instead of simply sewing from patterns, I want you to know that you can indeed design your own dresses, customized with the silhouette and fit that you desire.

Even experienced sewers are sometimes nervous about the idea of making a dress for themselves. After all, unlike an accessory, a quilt, or a home-decorating item, a dress is something you actually wear on your body out in the world. I think many sewers have the sense that dressmaking is too difficult or requires a very specialized knowledge of sewing, and that whatever they make is going to end up looking homemade so the whole dressmaking business is best left to professionals or very experienced sewers. But theres no need to fear! In past generations it was very common for home sewers to make their own dresses. In high schools across the country, home ec classes taught the basics of sewing and clothing construction so people knew that making clothing was something the average person couldand shoulddo. If youve ever checked out the inside of dresses from a vintage shop youll see that many of them dont have labels and were in fact made by home sewers. I cant actually remember seeing a dress in a vintage shop and thinking, Boy, that looks homemade. Usually Im just thinking about the design, the cut, the fabrics, and the finishing techniques used in the garment.

When I started writing this book, I had a conversation with my mother-in-law, who was a professional designer, seamstress, and incredibly stylish lady in New York City in the 60s, about the revelation that sewing a dress is really so much easier than people today think it is. She agreed that women used to make dresses all the time and women today could do it, too. She later showed me pictures of herself looking totally Mad Men 60s glam in beautiful, simple, and classic fitted sheath dresses she had made herself. Talk about inspiration.

If you know how to use a sewing machine and want to design and sew your own dresses, this book is for you. Advanced beginners will find simple step-by-step patterns and instructions to make beautiful, classic dresses. For competent sewers who have sewn with patterns before, the book offers a complete set of dependable interchangeable bodice and skirt patterns that add up to 219 possible unique dresses. If you are curious about pattern design, there are simple techniques for modifying patterns. Do you want to learn to alter a pattern to fit your figure better? This book covers that as well.