Reconstructing Clothes For Dummies

by Miranda Caroligne Burns

Reconstructing Clothes for Dummies offers inspiring projects and savvy tips on how to salvage those tired old clothes in your closet and turn them into a one-of-a-kind wardrobe. It shows craftsters, DIY enthusiasts, budget-conscious fashionistas and people from all walks of life how to unleash their inner fashion designer and transform outdated duds into hip new clothes. Featured projects include making good use of old scraps; reviving shrunken sweaters; finding redemption in that bridesmaid dress; decorative repair and embellishment of existing pieces; and creating unexpected home décor with what’s hiding in your drawers.

Genres: Sewing, Crafts, Fashion

368 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Miranda Caroligne Burns (San Francisco, CA) has donned a variety of hats in her young years: physical therapist, event producer, community activist, installation artist, author, performance artist, philosopher and fashion designer. Mentored by her mother, Miranda has been sewing and creating her own clothing since she could hold a needle. Over time she developed a zest for re-use and heartfelt desire for truly unique design. This ethos is masterfully woven together to recall the forms of yesteryear with an otherworldly edge -- a philosophy she calls “neoarchaic.”

Miranda’s life has been a bi-coastal artistic evolution. She became active in the alternative arts scene in Boston, where she introduced “living construction,” a live sewing performance piece staged in gallery window fronts.

Relocating to San Francisco in 2005, she quickly emerged as a bright new star in a constellation of provocative artist-designers. Her fashion shows are known for their performance-art quality, embodying political, artistic and personal statements. These shows include Catwalk on the Wild Side (U.N. World Environment Day Gala “Walk the Talk”), Love Fest VIP Event (San Francisco City Hall) and Maker Faire (Swaporamarama and Make Magazine). She has also had various individual performance art appearances at Supperclub San Francisco, San Jose Museum of Art and Burningman.

Meander through San Francisco’s Mission-Deco Ghetto neighborhood and you’ll find Miranda reconstructing in the window-front of her boutique, miranda caroligne – a living construction boutique (www.mirandacaroligne.com), 485 14 Street @ Guerrero. You’re sure to be delighted by the local art and design, and step forward with the inspiration to do it yourself!

Reviews

[Lana. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Burns is passionate and enthusiastic about fashion and reconstruction. One knows this by the many exclamation points that punctuate the text (though as with most Dummies books, much of the content is arranged in lists) and her happy go lucky philosophy that there are no mistakes.

After reading her introduction, I did feel a little pepped-out, but was also inspired by the ideas of positive environmental impact (reduce, reuse, recycle), self-expression, and that if something isn’t worn, it’s being wasted (it’s time for me to dive into those sentimental pieces and do something with them).

Pros:
- Designs are funky and modern and are easy to medium level
- Techniques taught are transferrable to other projects
- Includes ideas for scraps
- Talks about finding the proper tools (sewing machine purchase and maintenance) and ergonomic considerations for setting up one’s workspace
- Set of colour photos has projects and variations modeled on women, men, and children
- Despite saying upfront that this is a beginner book on reconstruction, still goes through some basic sewing techniques

Cons:
- Diagrams are sometimes difficult to follow
- Suspect that some projects will only look good with overlock machine to create a finished / serged seam.
- In “Dummies” book fashion, the layout is sometimes distracting
- Repetitive (for someone not just looking at a single project, the variations listed at the end of each project read like straight copy and paste from other projects)

[Miranda · Rating 5 out of 5]

ok, so I wrote this book and I'm really quite proud of it. I've gotten great feedback on it from creative people who are excited about reinventing their wardrobe to express themselves in their own unique way. There's over 50 projects, each with a list of suggested variations to make it your own style. All projects have instructions for hand-sewing, machine-sewing and overlock machine-sewng. I generally use an overlock, with external seams. All of the photos are shown in this style to help the reader see where the seams are. There's some basic sewing review, and some no-sew projects, but generally you'll have the most luck if you have some basic sewing skills or if you aren't afraid to try new things and make "mistakes". (I LOVE learning from mistakes and having pieces evolve with them!)
I've got to vent a wee bit here: The cover image here is old, it isn't a project in the book and isn't remotely like anything in the book. Thus far the dummies marketing of it has been totally inappropriate: this isn't a book about tailoring, or how to get trendy stuff cheap. It's about rethinking the waste in our lives, and inspiring our creativity to make use of things otherwise deemed as trash.
Check out my website for an idea of the general style www.mirandacaroligne.com
I plan to get a gallery up of projects from the book soon.
Please feel free to share your own photos with me and I'll happily include them!

[Jessica · Rating 2 out of 5]

A little disappointing. threadbanger has much better ideas.

[The Wandering Bibliophile · Rating 1 out of 5]

Repetitive, very little practical information and the projects were downright ugly.