Sewing for Plus Sizes: Creating Clothes that Fit and Flatter – Book of the Week

Review by Clydia Pappenfus for Sewing for Plus Sizes: Creating Clothes that Fit and Flatter
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This book is a masterpiece of practical information for those who would sew for any size person. Barbara Deckert has geared it to the “plus size” person, but the information it contains about line, design, fabric selection, equipment for sewing, and pattern alteration is applicable to anybody. The book has many very useful illustrations of various body shapes and the way various styles will look on them, along with suggestions for modifying garment styles to make them the most attractive on those shapes. Her attitude about clothing is that it should be enjoyable to wear. She doesn’t advocate stuffing the plus size body into a drab gray box, and the pictures of her and her models that the book contains demonstrates that bold, attractive colors can be worn to great advantage on it. Her section about fabric selection, both fiber content and design contains a wealth of information about the way to expect various materials to behave, along with practical guidance for selection of certain fabrics for some things and not for others. She dmystefies the arena of sewing tools, stating which are essential and which are not, along with tips such as “Don’t use bright, contrasting colors (for tailor’s tacks) because some threads may crock, or bleed color onto the fabric, or small fiber pieces from colored thread can stick to and discolor light fabrics.” The book is totally understandable and practical. Barbara devotes a large part of the book to pattern alteration for figure irregularities. This section contains a wealth of illustrations for changing the shape of purchased patterns to accommodate various physical differences, whether they relate to size or asymmetry. Her understanding of the way the body tissues behave and change shape from standing to sitting and the way for the sewer to allow for these changes sets this book strikingly above the general run of sewing books. I would heartily recommendd this book to ANYONE who sews, whether for plus size or not.

Review by Elizabeth Thompson ([email protected]) for Sewing for Plus Sizes: Creating Clothes that Fit and Flatter
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I am so sick of buying cheesy catalogue clothes for fat people that are poorly made and look like bright tents. I discovered that sewing for myself was the only way I was going to be able to find a suit for work that fit and looked good. Unfortunly, patterns different fit me because I’m short and fat; the book really taught me how to adjust my pattern and what body type I am. So, now I don’t have short sleeves past my elbow and short skirts past my knee, I adjusted them from what the book taught me. This is for all the fat girls!

Review by Claire for Sewing for Plus Sizes: Creating Clothes that Fit and Flatter
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This book encourages you to stop sewing apologetically for your body, and to dress expressively regardless of your size. Other reviewers have commented that the author’s recommendations regarding fabrics with large or bold patterns, or lots of fancy bling-bling are inappropriate for large women. The author makes it clear early on that dressing to look slimmer isn’t the ultimate objective here.

The author models a lot of clothing in the photographs. She is brashly large and beautiful and clearly has no intention of trying to fade into the background, as so many large women are tempted to do.

I also love her language and her matter-of-fact way of handling large-women issues, such as extra strain on certain seams that should be reinforced, and fabric choice for our comfort. There’s nothing giggly or abashed about it – in fact, it points the finger at the clothing industry for its insufficient and lame attempts to satisfy our clothing needs.

I also appreciated her explanations regarding why commercial patterns never seem to fit. First of all, designers aren’t trained to design clothes for real women – they only work with size 8 mannequins. Secondly, pattern manufacturers generate plus-sized patterns simply by expanding out proportionally a “regular” sized pattern – and that’s not how we’re shaped. When we gain weight, we gain a lot in some areas and not so much in others, and we all do it differently.

I also now know that even if I don’t have the exactly correct sized pattern, I can alter it to fit my measurements – something I haven’t been as good at before. Now I can buy a lot more of those cool vintage patterns on Ebay!