What sewing or fiber arts book(s) are you reading now? Or have read recently? Or ever?!
I’m reading a rather old book, “The History of Underclothes” by husband-and-wife team C. Willet & Phillis Cunnington. Originally published in 1951, I’m reading the second edition published in 1981.
A more recent version, published in 1992 is described here:
That book looks really interesting. There are never enough books on undergarments of the past, especially since they significantly affect the look of outer garments.
I’m not reading any sewing books right now, but one of my all time favorite historic costuming books to look through is Norah Waugh’s “The Cut of Men’s Clothes” because of all the images of men in their outfits and diagrams of the patterns used to construct the clothing. I got it as a birthday gift back when I was a teen, and I’ve only ever made paper mockups of those patterns to see if they were really to scale. As far as the ones I tried, they actually are
Yes, that’s a major point of the book: how undergarments relate to outer (public-facing) garments. Really interesting!
Norah’s book isn’t in my library, but I’ll keep an eye out for it elsewhere. Sounds like a book I’d be interested in. So cool that you made mockups of the patterns… as a teen!
I used to make tiny paper patterns for cosplay back then, because I’d learned to sew pretty young, and I never could find the patterns for costumes that I wanted. I didn’t actually have the patience back then to sew up complex costumes or the money to buy that much fabric (I spent my allowance to buy fabric for sewing everyday clothing, or thrifting things to alter) so I just made tiny paper patterns that I taped up to test if I got the shapes right. I also used to look through Janet Arnold’s books which I borrowed from the library, and any other books with diagrams of historic patterns. Unfortunately, the library from my hometown no longer has any of those books
What other sewing related books have you read and enjoyed besides “The History of Underclothes”?
Well, not a whole lot of them because I’m fairly new on my sewing journey.
Every other book I’ve read has been technical, such as David Page Coffin’s books on shirts & pants, and “Sew Any Fabric” from Claire Shaeffer.
Currently doing Bernadette Banner’s “Make, Sew, and Mend” which has some nice suggestions on how to hand stitch.