Can anyone recommend a book on altering/mending clothes?

pinkwitch76

Hi all!
I've tried searching but didn't come up with anyhting... Can anyone recommend a good book about altering and mending clothes?
Amazon has lots about embellishing and customising, but I want good old fashioned "make it fit better and last longer"!

short_bird

If you have some experience and don't require a lot of diagrams, The Awful Dressmaker's Book is quite useful. It's available through Amazon. It was originally published in 1965 and is good on repairs and mistakes if you're using patterns. There are quite a lot of dressmaking blogs where people fit their clothes and photograph the process: also, googling Make Do and Mend for Victory should lead you to the US booklet from World War 2.
Hope that helps:D

pinkwitch76

:rotfl:Loving the name of that book... every time I make anything from a pattern, it is always awful!
I was more thinking of instructions for repairing or altering existing bought clothes and charity shop treasures though... would it be any use for that?

short_bird

yes but not many diagrams.There are bits on raising and lowering waist seams, darning... can't tell you much more as book not in front of me! I'll consult the books I have at home and see if there's anything suitable there.

gibson123

pinkwitch are you on Pinterest, there are lots of tutorials on there.

As youtube is great for tutorials.

Search under category e.g. altering a skirt, also search under "upcycling" which is the new buzz word for altering.

SpikyHedgehog

I picked up 'Sew and save', by Joanna Chase in the library the other day, it's reprinted from the 1941 original so looks really retro! Not many charts or pictures, so the way it tells to cut a pattern needs to be worked out on newspaper, which I haven't done yet. But there's a good section on 'making more of old clothes'.

squiggles

There is a website called craftster.org which has a clothing section. I have no interest in sewing or clothing so unable to advise if it would be of any use to you. I use the website for house and garden ideas. I would love to try the fused glass projects.

meritaten

If you are talking about taking in seams etc on loosefitting clothes - the easiest way is to put the item on inside out - then get your peg basket out and peg each seam until the item fits snug but not tightly. carefully take it off and pin where you think the seam should be - try it back on to check the fit (take the pegs off now), and then stitch. Do NOT CUT the seam. Try it on again. if satisfied it fits well then cut a generous seam allowance (at least half inch), press, turn the garment right side out and try on. This is the way my nan (a trained seamstress) always did it with bought clothes - the ones she made for us always fitted perfectly.

with skirts with waistbands you may have to take the waistband off and take in the skirts side seam (same way as above) re- attach the waistband but its bigger! so what you do is to attach the button side as it was before - the buttonhole side just gets left and the button moved to correspond with the buttonhole IYSWIM? much easier than trying to make the waistband smaller!

Nan had loads of these little tips - I am not much of a seamstress myself (tho I did work as a machinist for a year or so), but remembering these tips means I am much in demand to do alterations for the family!