Books and stuff

Karen was the great enabler for recent additions to my sewing library. Not that I need much of a push to buy books! She did introduce me to Half.com with it's great selection of sewing books.
I got 3 of them yesterday and I am waiting for Claire Shaeffer's Couture Sewing, which I have never owned, but have taken out of the library and paid enough overdue fines to have actually paid for it! I have seen some good reviews for The Zapp Method of Couture Sewing, it was cheap, so I clicked my mouse.

The Complete Book of Sewing Short Cuts by Claire Shaeffer is from 1981, so not expensive, but I love the other books of hers I have and use a lot of her techniques when I sew. With patterns having such skimpy instructions these days it helps to have additional sources. I looked through it last night and there is a lot of great information here. There is a newer edition of this book with a dffierent cover than the one I received.

Kenneth King does some amazing embellishment on his clothing and while I am not big on heavily embellished clothing, or even lightly embellished being pretty much a minimalist, there are times when I'd love to know how to bead, even small bits, so I bought his Designer Bead Embroidery. It is well worth the price, with gorgeous photos and what seem like terrific directions.

The other book, or rather cd book that I bought is Behind the Seams The Shaeffer Collection
Volume One CHANEL. This was produced by David Page Coffin and I bought it online directly from him. It's really gorgeous and maybe worth the $45 with shipping that it cost. I started looking through it today and I think that in some ways it's a perfect addition to Shaeffer's Couture book.

I'll have a review of my jacket in a few days. I am working on the white Hot Patterns Sunshine top and a pair of brown linen and lycra pants. It may wait until I have full outfit to show you.
I am chucking my black linen pants that I finished but never reviewed. Ther are construction pictures posted, but the fit is awful in the front crotch and everything I did to try and make it fit better just made it worse. I decided to start from scratch and tissue fit step by step with Palner Pletsch's Pants for Real People. I always tissue fit tops and jackets, but I haven't fully used it for pants. I bought Patti Palmer's dvd on pants fitting and I decided to give it a try.
I am using Sandra Betzina's V2948
It takes more than the usual amount of fabric because of the princess seams. Especially since I added some extra to the hems and I increased all my sas to 1". I was short so I used a different, lighter fabric for the waistband facings. It's all cut out and ready to sew.
The princess seams made fitting for my flat butt much easier. I used a size larger so that I could do the recommended (from Patti Palmer) tuck in the back without having to add to the side seams. It keeps the side seam centered, which I have had issues with in the past.
I'll keep you posted on my progress.