Sunday, April 10, 2022

Weekend Review: No Patterns Needed

 

No Patterns Needed: DIY Couture from Simple Shapes / Rosie Martin
London: Laurence King, c2016.
208 p.

This is a title that wasn't quite what I'd expected. It is full of patterns that you make yourself using your body measurements and some starter shapes - rectangles, circles, triangles. For a book that says it's for you if you don't want to work with complicated ready-made patterns, I found that making your own in this way can be even more complicated! 

There are a variety of designs in the book in each section, starting with the easiest (rectangles) and going  on to have a chapter on circles and then  triangles. Personally I only found 2 of the designs at all appealing; they are quite simple and remind me of the kind of DIY aesthetic of younger people who are interested in cutting up t-shirts and refashioning and things like that. So if you have a newer, young sewists in your life, they might find this one of interest.

I like this one

Anyhow, the sections are well designed. Each has extensive instructions and diagrams for each design, and then photos of the finished project on a couple of different models. The photos are large so you can really see the outfit, but are not super slick, perhaps to fit in with the DIY vibe of the book. All the models are young, and most are pretty thin. 

I think this is a bit of a "low waste" style of cutting for most of the designs, since they start with basic shapes like rectangles. But then there are bodice pieces with curves and so on, so unless you can nest those the low waste effect is reduced. 

Not a bad book, but not my style particularly. So I won't be adding to my own collection, but I can see that a more experimental and/or freestyle kind of sewist might really enjoy it. 



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