Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

The marketing decisions on the design and packaging of this book are genius. It sucked me in immediately. Tons of 5 star reviews from fellow sewers, how could I go wrong? Well, I will start with my gut reaction; for the most part, I do not like these clothes. These garments are for tall, thin twenty year old hipsters with a lot of cash for fabrics like Harris tweed and Irish linen. Which leads me to another thing about this book that I found off-putting, the pretentious tone. Lots of black and white “cool” photographs (with a whole page dedicated to a study in railroad tracks-I guess I am not enlightened enough to get that). Some of the photographs of the models are downright unflattering, and some of the garments are wrinkled. Really, really wrinkled. Looking past all that, I found a few garments that I may possibly sew, both are jackets. The Heron, a cute short jacket with batwing sleeves. Also the Haremere jacket and the Haremare coat, both oversized “boyfriend” styles with a small shawl collar. I guess if either is a success it is worth the price of the book. Just for a basis of comparison, my favorite sewing books are the Alabama Chanin books. Love everything about them. Just to check my sanity, I showed this book to a friend who is a magazine editor, and who used to work for a fashion magazine in New York. She looked at it and said “this is not for you.” So over fifty, petite sewers who live in suburban towns-beware!