Altered Clothing: Hip Fixes And Transformations With a Needle And Thread

by Kathleen Maggio, Tim Maggio (Photographs)

Using existing, vintage, and previously worn clothing, this trendy collection of ideas and projects shows readers how to breathe new life into tired fashions, making a bold statement with their creative designs. Original.

Genres: Sewing

136 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2006

Reviews

[Margie]

Not for the more advanced sewer. Has some very basic ideas which could be useful for high-schoolers who have taken a home ec class and who want to personalize their wardrobes. The projects definitely skew young, and I didn't find any that looked very original/interesting (to me). The instructions, though, assume a level of familiarity with sewing which doesn't seem to match the project level. "Finish raw edges" isn't a beginner-level instruction - it needs to be much more explicit.

It's hard for me not to compare this to Jenny Wilding Cardon's ReSew: Turn Thrift-Store Finds into Fabulous Designs, which has far more detailed instructions, but also much more difficult projects.

[Raina]

Ok, I didn't do any of the projects in this book, so maybe it's good for the projects that are included. But from flipping through it for inspiration, it seems to be a book of finite clothing turned into different finite clothing. Which isn't what I'm looking for.

[Ligaya]

There are some interesting transformations here, better than most books I've looked at on the subject. Some things decidedly did not work - the Passé Poncho to Swinging Skirt looks like you're wearing a poncho as a skirt... The Wall Street to Chic Street was a simple but very effective recycle. The Pocketed Tote is one of the best jeans to bag transformations I've seen. I'm a fairly experienced sewist so I skimmed through the step-by-step instructions but beginners might have some problems. I'm not making anything specifically from this book but it did give me lots of ideas.

[Erika Mulvenna]

Yet another book on the subject of refashioning - 'nuf said.