Singer Sewing Book

by Gladys Cunningham, Jessie Hutton

Libro usado en buenas condiciones, por su antiguedad podria contener señales normales de uso

Genres: Sewing, Crafts, Reference, Nonfiction, Fashion

500 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1949

Reviews

[Alessandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mary Brooks Picken was a genius of home economics. This is a thorough, complete introduction and guide to sewing. It's also a fun period piece of vintage 1949 interior decoration and crafts, and a little bit of fashion.

[Erika Mulvenna · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great sewing book including basic information for a beginner and advanced topics such as pattern fitting and alterations, and tailoring. As a collector of vintage/antique Singer sewing machines, it is good to see that this book incorporates many of the Singer sewing attachments (like the old fashioned buttonholer for straight stitch machines) and presser feet when describing some specific skills or techniques. This book also uses illustrations of several vintage Singer sewing machine models from the Touch and Sew series to the Slant-O-Matics and even some of the 301's. I'll say it again, this book has great information and illustrations in it, and I would recommend it to anyone either starting to sew or an advanced beginner wishing to learn more.

[Erika Mulvenna · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good, basic sewing book including informatino on garment and home dec sewing. Clear illustrations, color photographs, good instructions.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

A comprehensive guide to dressmaking, soft furnishings, home decoration and mending. Contains 24 colour plates and numerous black and white line drawings within the text. The author, Mary Brooks Picken, is a well respected author and the series of dressmaking books published for the Woman's Institute of Domestic Arts and Sciences were also her work. This edition is the first to be published in the UK but is based on the second, 1953 edition of the 1949 original, both published in the USA.

The chapter headings are as follows: Your Sewing Machine; To Sew Successfully; Your Attitude towards Your Machine; Your Sewing Equipment; Your Dress Form; "Room of Her Own"; Know About Fabrics; Colour and Clothes; Your Measurement Chart; Know Your Figure Type; Patterns for Your Use; Pattern Adjustments; Pattern Layout - Cutting and Marking; Chart Your Way - Bastings and Markings; Darts and Tucks; Gathering, Shirring and Ruffling; Pleats and Insets; Fit Your Dress; Press as You Sew; Seams and Seam Finishes; Buttonholes, Buttons and Fastenings; Pockets; Neck Openings and Collars; Facings and Corners; Know Your Sleeves; Sleeve Finishes; Waistline Joining and Finishing; Skirt and Dress Plackets; Marking Hem and Hem Finishes; Belts and Belt Loops; Tailoring Well Done; Learn to Do Fashion Stitches; Bindings and Edge Finishes; Cording, Tubing and Self-Trimming; Decorative Finishes; Designers' Sketches; Hand Sewing - Stitches; Sewing for Children; Sewing for Infants; Smartness Essential in Children's Clothes; How to Bundle Your Sewing; Planning Clothes for Children; Teaching Children to Sew; Home Decoration; Windows and How to Drape Them; Changing Window Proportions; Fixtures; Dressing Your Windows; Slip-Cover Measurements Chart; Slip-Cover Your Chairs; Dressing Up Your Bed; Dressing Tables; Dressing Up Your Cupboards; Dressing Your Table; Monograms; Singercraft Rugs; Decorators' Sketches; Mending; Swing Needle Machine Stitching.

If you have a vintage, straight stitch sewing machine, this is an especially useful book to own as it is contemporary with such machines (swing needle machines being a relatively new development and being dealt with in their own chapter at the end of the book) so the methods and attachments featured are all appropriate for these machines and the chapter "Learning to do Fashion Stitches" is dedicated to showing how to adjust the stitch tensions and feed to prepare the machine for this sort of work and shows the reader how to accomplish such decorative effects as "spark stitch", "boucle" and the "metallic stitch" so redolent of 1950s evening wear.

[Julie]

I haven't used this book much, but it's essentially like Reader's Digest Complete Guide to Sewing: it's a thick reference book with short sections on how to do anything related to sewing. I found it for very cheap in New Zealand, so rather than keep checking out the Reader's Digest book from the library, I got it so that I'd have something of my own.

[Adi Elkin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good reference book with some funny vintage flavor.