Weekend Review: Make it Yours with Mimi G

 

Make It Yours with Mimi G / Mimi G. Ford
NY: Abrams, c2023.
176 p.

This sewing book by the very busy and successful Mimi G is one more thing to add to her list of accomplishments. I feel tired just thinking about everything she does! ;) 

I enjoyed checking out this one - it's exactly what you might expect from Mimi G's style and her patterns already out there in the world. It's very much in her aesthetic. It includes 7 base patterns, and then ideas and instructions for modifications to those basics to create 18 new pieces, as desired. I think it's a book that will encourage many sewists to experiment and use the patterns that they already have to change up their wardrobes. The modifications can be fairly elaborate, and yet the instructions and illustrations make them feel not too scary at all. The patterns are also quite basic, not too trendy, so should be useful for a long while. I read this online so haven't tried the pattern sheets, but some readers have noted that they are a little difficult to trace off as there is no colour differentiation on them. 

Wrap Dress with ruffle

Mimi G says in her own announcement about this book: "Pattern-making and hacking can be intimidating but I truly believe this book will show you an easy and fearless way to dive in which in turn will open your eyes to the possibilities the next time to you look at a pattern and wish it had pockets or a different length, or a certain shape." I think she has successfully created a guide that does just that. Even if the styles included here aren't your own style, the information on modifying patterns and thinking of a pattern as just the starting point is transferable to anything you choose to work with. 

Cropped Shacket hack + Palazzo pants

The only thing I wasn't as taken with here was a lengthy section at the end showing Mimi G wearing the many pattern options in various combinations. This is interesting, but it is also long and feels a bit like padding. It might work better as blog posts or website content, but in a book I felt it was a little repetitive after the first few pages. The idea is to show you how to style your me-made wardrobe, mixing and matching to get over 100 looks. I just felt that many of the looks were very similar to one another - but maybe this is something that inspires other readers. 

Anyhow, if you like her style already, or this kind of modern casual wardrobe is your taste, this would be a really useful book, keeping you busy sewing for ages. If the patterns included aren't ones you'd usually make, you might still want to look through it for all the hacking tips. I thought it was an interesting read with lots of useful bits. 

Duster + T-shirt dress gathered waist Hack

(all photos via publisher)

Weekend Review: Blueprints of Fashion

 

Blueprints of Fashion: Home Sewing Patterns of the 1950s / Wade Laboissonniere
Atglen, PA: Schiffer, c1997.
176 p.

This was a fun discovery I made recently via OpenLibrary. It's a history of home sewing patterns, focused on the 50s, created by a man who was a collector and a costumer. It's so pleasing to look through! 

There's text for about half of it, and then images of patterns divided by types of clothing for the second half. It's so great to see all the examples, many of which were patterns I've never seen before. Looking at all the details was entertaining -- although only the front of the pattern envelopes are shown, without many examples of line drawings or pattern information. 

The text consists of some history of how paper patterns were used in schools and in the sewing world in general, specifically in the US. It's really only looking at the US, but still has lots of interesting info. The final bit is a little section on monetary values of patterns, but this book was written in the 90s and that info is now out of date and not very useful other than as historical data. 

I enjoyed reading this, with the details of different pattern brands and how they were marketed and sold to consumers. He goes over which patterns focused on designer knock-offs (the more expensive ones!) and which were more aimed at everyday wear, as well as those made for schools and home ec students. I thought the organization of the book was well done, and I learned about a couple of small, short-lived pattern companies I hadn't known about before. 

A good find and one that will entertain anyone interested in the history of paper patterns, or just in looking at LOTS of full colour pattern envelope images.