Couture Sewing Techniques

The Dressmaker’s Handbook of Couture Sewing Techniques

Lynda Maynard  (Interweave: 2010)

“A thing of beauty is a joy forever…”

That saying goes for the clothes we are all striving to make, and also for this book.

I love the cover and the colors used on the cover.  I love the wire spiral binding so I can flip back the pages in the workroom to use each technique.  I love the large amount of actual runway pictures used as examples and photos of fabrics and how-tos.  

At first glance, I thought the content was a little heavy on hem/banding techniques, but on second run-through, I found that it’s divided between creating supporting structure, finishing techniques and decorative techniques.  Especially helpful was seeing how backing a luxury fabric with a differently weighted fabric can change the hand of the fashion fabric and make it behave in a different way, but there is much more here. 

In the near-future I will be using several new techniques and referring to this book especially for the discussion of lining fashion fabrics.

In The Nouveau Style - Malcolm Haslam

Found this out of print book a few weeks ago at a used book store and was so happy!  It's a heavy coffee table book full of this era, blending Arts & Crafts into the more flowing Art Nouveau.  It's an examination of the style with examples through to modern times.  Very pretty and informative.

Sagrada Familia, Spain                                    Wiki Commons Photo

I learned all sorts of tidbits, such as there is a cathedral in Spain designed by Antoni Gaudi at the height of the Nouveau style that hasn't been completed yet.  Gaudi's been dead for well over 80 years, so while I studied him briefly in school, I  always thought his oeuvre was complete.

I thought Frank Lloyd Wright was a little obssessive for creating and then making sure the furniture at Falling Water remains there, but that design micro-management seems to have been a trend.  For example, 40 years or so earlier, Henri van de Velde not only designed his home Bloemenwerf, but then designed the furniture, wallpaper and even the clothing that the women wore in its interior.