S.L. HarbourAn Introduction to Wedding Dress Alterations: A Dressmaker's Guide to Working with & Sewing Bridal Wear

Educational

what a great book gives lots of advice and tips

A well produced book of convenient size with clear informative text, line diagrams and illustrations with an eye-catching cover.Written by one with an intimate knowledge of her craft, knowledge gained no doubt by many hours at the “sharp end” by working closely with clients to produce a perfect fitting. These skills have been put down on paper to enable others to make alterations to suit the bride etc.

A very handy informative book. Well written and easy to understand. This book will take anyone through the intricacies of wedding dress alterations. The illustrations are simple and precise, as are the instructions. This book is very user friendly and is written in simple language without being patronising. Clearly written by someone who knows her subject from zipper to hem!

The content of this book is ok, although not always very detailed, but that isn't my main issue. For the price, there are an unacceptable number of grammatical and spelling errors in the text, sometimes multiple errors on one page! It was very troubling to see. Can people no longer proof-read? Honestly, I found it a huge distraction. It really does call the quality into question. For that reason alone, I can not recommend this book.

This booklet is a complete waste of money. It does not qualify as a book although they did attempt to make it look like one by leaving huge amounts on each page blank. No decent images, I could have written a more informative book and printed it to a better quality at home. I opened it after receiving it and thought it was a practical joke because it's just absurd.

Même si je ne parle pas couramment anglais, je m'inspire des photos lorsque j'achète un livre en anglais.Celui-ci ne contient aucune photo, juste des shémas dessinés, ce qui est beaucoup moins attrayant.

I've recently started an alterations business and bought this to add to my reference library. It's a solid introduction to bridal wear but it is only an introduction. There are lots of good drawings and explanations. I intend to get the author's other books as time goes on. I haven't had any bridal wear yet but at least with this book I have an idea where to start.

The book was delivered well before promised and in great condition. I have already started reading the material in the book. It is very informative and easy to read. Good information for someone looking to do this as a business of their own.

This book is fine, but I was very much looking for a basic introduction that I could hand out and lend for basic sewists that would help them with bridal and evening wear alterations.This is not that book, and although nothing in the book is *incorrect* as such, I have a hard time figuring out for whom this book was written.In all, it is for the sewist who knows how to use a machine and has perhaps worked with some very basic patterns but has not read or learned much about the very basics of alterations.The book goes into the very basic differences between a custom gown and a ready to wear gown, explains some of the fabric, findings, and finishing terms, and then goes into some VERY basic alterations. If you already know what a dart is, how dart intake works, and how to alter basic compound seams, this is not for you. The alterations for the bodice are along the lines of: "If the bodice is too big through the bust, perhaps place a dart or take in the side seam." It is VERY basic, which is totally fine, but it could be spelled out a little more in the description.As it is, it has some very basic alterations that most sewists already know and some very basic hand stitches that are useful, but not unknown to even the most casual sewist.As for whom this book could possibly be written, I would say that I can imagine a very young sewist or designer who is really struggling and trying to take on any and all work to make ends meet may find this useful and not overwhelming. I have a hard time imagining that it would be useful for anyone who has already sewn a gown or is already working towards opening their own shop.I could also imagine a bride trying to save some money by doing their own alterations picking this up.I would also recommend this as a kind of entry for children and teenagers who already know some sewing basics and are expanding their skillset - it is just adult enough to make them feel grown up and has the kind of information they will feel good learning without being overwhelming. I'm thinking of perhaps including it in a prom workshop for this reason.So it is totally fine and there is absolutely nothing wrong with this book, but it is very, very basic and will not be particularly enlightening to a competent sewist at anything but the most basic level. Most of these techniques are covered in regular sewing manuals and are known widely outside of bridal sewing.If you are building a library or fall into the categories I wrote about, go for it. If you aren't and/or don't, then probably give this a pass. It is fine, but not entirely useful for most.

I would say this book is precisely what it says it is. An INTRODUCTION to wedding dress alterations. There is some great written advice about running your own alterations business and how to conduct fittings and the types of figures and how to alter dresses for those figures. But as someone who makes and alters gowns I would have liked more in depth illustrations on the actual sewing techniques. There are only hand drawn illustrations and not enough of them. Unfortunately there is little out there for explaining advanced wedding alterations, so this book is useful for an overview for someone just getting into this type of work.