The Complete Photo Guide to Perfect Fitting

This has lots of clear, detailed pictures and instructions on how to adjust commercial patterns in order to achieve perfect fitting. Anyone who wants to achieve a custom look with their home sewing will use this reference over and over. The good news is that once you have created custom adjustments for basic patterns, you can use them over and over for virtually all your sewing.

This was a gift to my daughter. As we each have several books on alterations and fit, I was hesitant as to her
thought of one more book on the subject.
Her reaction: "I love it and it will go on the top of my alteration books."

There are clear photos; good directions and diagrams; information from the very basic, beginning of the process.

I am a big fan of photos and Hard Cover books. However, this is a great paper back. This is a larger size paper back book and not just is it very informative but the Pictures associated with the written instructions are fantastic and greatly appreciated. All I can add to this is just more and more photos please!.

This book is a wonderful addition to any sewing library. Pictures are very informative and the text is detailed. I read it cover to cover as soon as it came in the mail and better understand why I couldn't get some garments to fit "just right." I am very pleased to have this resource in my library and look forward to making better fitting garments.

I have several fitting books and this is the best one! This book has explanations and great photos to accompany them so the reader can't go wrong. Since my body isn't as young as it used to be I find a need to do a lot more altering to get a good fit, but a lot of the time my fitting was based on guesswork. This book ends all the frustration that goes along with guessing. A MUST HAVE for the home sewer.

I refer to this guide on a regular basis. Adjusting a pattern to fit has always been over my head at times. I will be referring
to this guide often. Only problem is that I was charged $20.00 more than I thought I would be paying. It was a shock to
see that amount on my charge statement.

Nancy Beall
[email protected]

This book is a wonderful addition to any sewing library. Pictures are very informative and the text is detailed. I read it cover to cover as soon as it came in the mail and better understand why I couldn't get some garments to fit "just right." I am very pleased to have this resource in my library and look forward to making better fitting garments.

I have several fitting books and this is the best one! This book has explanations and great photos to accompany them so the reader can't go wrong. Since my body isn't as young as it used to be I find a need to do a lot more altering to get a good fit, but a lot of the time my fitting was based on guesswork. This book ends all the frustration that goes along with guessing. A MUST HAVE for the home sewer.

I refer to this guide on a regular basis. Adjusting a pattern to fit has always been over my head at times. I will be referring
to this guide often. Only problem is that I was charged $20.00 more than I thought I would be paying. It was a shock to
see that amount on my charge statement.

Nancy Beall
[email protected]

I purchased this book for a class my costuming group was offering. I would never have chosen this on my own--I had always thought of fitting as a math-based chore. Sarah has broken it down to a much less scary monster, and I have learned a lot from the book.

Very good book to show you how to pin a test muslin garment for a better fit. Also shows how to make fitting adjustments to the pattern. This is a very helpful book to have as a complement to a fitting video.

I have never written a review EVER!!! I ordered this book before it was published. Now, mine you, my interest does lie in fitting, alterations, and garment sewing, but I don't believe I'm biased when I say this is the most comprehensive and wonderful fitting book to date. It has beautiful photo examples on almost every page. It breaks it down to layman's terms. It has 224 pages containing directions for the different types of clothing including pants. It shows the needed alterations and then shows you how to transfer the alteration back to the pattern. I just can't figure out how Sarah could have amassed so much knowledge in such a short time because she looks like a baby in her picture! Congratulations Sarah on your new book. It is a masterpiece. Deborah

I can't wait to use this book on my next sewing project. The illustrations make everything crystal clear. Simply browsing through this book, I now understand pattern fit and I can see where this book will help me fit patterns to my body shape and size.

This book is great. I've been sewing for almost 40 years and only over the last 6 or so, have had to re-think fitting. I took one of Sarah's classes at the Sewing/Quilting Expo in Fredricksburg, Va. after purchasing this book. The pictures and explanations are clear. Very good reference book to have on hand.

I bought this book as a gift for one of my staff members. It is very useful and has clear instructions on fitting and altering patterns and garments that have made a big difference to her confidence in fitting garments in our store

For those of us who have gotten "rusty" fitting adult bodies this book is an excellent reference and reminder. The large numbers of pictures make fitting problems obvious and the corrections can be easily followed. Buying the book does not make fitting easy, it shows you where to look. The trick is to train the eye to see the fitting problem and then select the appropriate "fix" before making it up in the expensive goods.

This is a great book for fitting issues as it has actual photos and not just illustrations. It is easy to use and understand and is a great tool to have in my sewing room. I would certainly recommend this book to any sewer who enjoys great fitting clothes.

very good book problem for me I bought four sewing books and this one is similar to two of the others.

If it was the only book I bought it would have been enough. Would recommend this book OR he other one
but not both.

This is an excellent resource book for any sewer wanting to perfect the fitting process. The diagrams , photographs and explanations are easy to follow. You can read the whole book to improve your techniques or dip into the book for relevant sections. Well worth the very reasonable price.

If you are a visual learner, this is the book for you. Not only is there a very good explanation, there are plenty of pictures to help solidify those instructions in your mind. The only way this could be improved would be to also offer a DVD that goes through the book. Being a visual learner, this is the first book I can think of that I actually figured out how to make a skirt fit me well.

Love the book but it does not show page numbers in the table of contents. It also does not show what page you are viewing and if you are comparing it to the printed version the page seems to be cut in half or thirds. So the pages are not the same and the pictures are on top of the text and you can not shrink or move the picture to view the text.

This is now one of my most favorite reference books!! Very clear pictures and step by step instructions to solve many, many fitting problems. Wish I had know about this book sooner. Highly recommend adding it to your sewing book collection.

This book covers a narrow selection of fitting concepts using slopers, focusing almost exclusively on muslin draping, with only some passing mention of flat pattern work. The bulk of the pages are taken up with large photos illustrating repetitive applications of the same few techniques. The book boasts of "More than 650 large format color photos" but, to be honest, all that reflects is how bloated this book is with redundancy. It is missing a lot of information that I consider very valuable for home sewers and thus not worth the price. Ms. Veblen clearly has enormous experience and great expertise with individualized fitting, but this narrow focus on her viewpoint means that the book could turn out to be not helpful at all, depending on your personal situation.

The book starts by discussing the foundational techniques for muslin-fitting, such as proper clipping and pinning methods, and how to detect and interpret basic indicators of fitting problems, such as drag lines and fold lines. This section also includes a few pages on basic pattern manipulation as a way to record muslin alterations, such as how to use a curved ruler to blend seams, and how to walk a pattern. The second section takes up the bulk of the book and applies the basic techniques from the first section towards fitting slopers (basic garments used as the foundation on which other garments are designed) and every step is illustrated with a large photo. This section first covers the overarching procedure for fitting 6 different garments, and then focuses on the exact manipulations for different areas of the body for a couple different pattern types (e.g. bust adjustments for garments with darts, princess seams, and raglan sleeves). This section is more or less repeated exercises in the concept of "add fabric where it's tight, remove fabric where it's loose." There is a final short section (4 pages) on detail adjustments such as collars and cuffs. The book does not provide any instruction on common flat pattern manipulations because the author disapproves of using them outside the context of copying muslin changes. Lastly, this book assumes that you are always starting from a pattern with a reasonably-close bust measurement and provides no info on pattern-grading. This is unfortunate, as pattern-grading is an important skill to have, especially for people who enjoy working with vintage patterns, which are not always available in the ideal size.

My biggest critique of this book is that most of it is very redundant, and spends most of its pages repeating itself rather than teaching other techniques. It's like a book that tries to teach you math by showing you 300 different addition problems: Chapter 1 - How to solve 2+2; Chapter 2 - How to solve 2+3. Because this book dwells too much on specific examples, it leaves out too much that should be covered in a book marketed towards a general audience. If the step-by-step photo illustrations had been limited to a few examples, it still would have been enough to demonstrate and reinforce the draping concepts covered in this book, while freeing up pages that could be used to teach other things like pattern grading and flat pattern alterations.

As this book stands, it is fully useful only if you are trying to fit basic slopers. If the pattern you are trying to fit does not fall under one of the specific instances illustrated in this book, or you do not have the same figure features as the models, then the only part of the book that you will find useful is the 50 pages on the basic techniques. Those basic techniques are covered in other books that also include a large quantity of useful information that this book doesn't have, and so I don't really feel like this book brings anything new to the existing reference library. Vogue Sewing, Revised and Updated and Reader's Digest's New Complete Guide to Sewing both have fitting tutorials that cover the same basic principles, though addressed through flat pattern manipulation instead of draping. Another book that is often recommended though I have not yet read is Fit for Real People.

I also take issue with the almost complete absence of information on flat pattern manipulation. It is helpful that the book teaches you how to identify fitting issues by looking at the muslin, but after that, not everyone will be able to make the alterations purely through draping, nor is it always necessary. Firstly, notice that all the pictures in the book are of one person making the changes on another. Slashing and draping is a great skill to have as a professional dressmaker working on someone else, but can be difficult to do by yourself. Setting aside the author's stated disapproval of dressforms for a moment, not all home sewers even have access to a good dressform they can use for draping muslins. Sometimes, it is much easier to address a fit issue through flat pattern manipulation. Secondly, a person sewing for herself will likely have identified her figure requirements and honed in on the particular set of alterations needed, at which point those alterations can be applied to other patterns with similar sizing and styling. For both these reasons, understanding and being able to correctly apply flat pattern alterations is a very important skill for all home sewers to have and should not be dismissed outright.

One aspect of this book that is interesting (though your mileage may vary) is that it is written in the tone of one person fitting a second person, and the word "client" is used throughout. This tone might be a bit odd for a home sewer fitting herself, but it could be argued that injecting a bit of professional detachment and viewing yourself as your own client could help the sewer be more objective about her figure needs and thus achieve a better fit.

To sum up, I don't feel this book contains enough information to justify its cost for most home sewers. The range of information covered might be useful for someone who wants to be a professional dressmaker since draping is much more useful in that context, the extensive photos could help build confidence for working with a variety of different figures, and fitting slopers to a client from which to create a various garments makes more sense than fitting a bunch of different patterns. However, I would think that Helen Armstrong's Patternmaking for Fashion Design would be a better value for someone in that position because it not only covers making slopers, it covers pattern alterations for design as well. If you are interested in buying this book, I strongly recommend you try to borrow a copy from the library or a friend first, to see how much of it you can actually use. I fully appreciate the author's point that fit is a very complex problem and it would be impossible to give step-by-step instruction on every instance of garment fitting people might come across, but the fact that the book then devotes the majority of its pages to excruciating detail about a handful of fitting scenarios instead of trying to concisely teach you how to tackle a wider variety of scenarios severely devalues the instructional value of this book. If you have the specific fit issues that this book addresses, then this could be a great follow-along guide, but if you do not, this book is mostly repetitive photos of a handful of concepts covered in 50 pages.

The Good:Lovely, lovely visuals for someone who has to "see" to learn.
The Bad: I have not completely finished the book in Kindle version but I am unhappy to see photographs superimposed over text so the text is covered up and unreadable. (1688 of 4251 and 1696 of 4251, so far) Seems like a digital conversion problem more than how it was written. I don't know who is the one to fix this but I would like another copy. The content is THAT good. But for those glitches, it would be 5 stars.

My grandmother taught me the basics of sewing years ago, but by the time I was skilled enough to learn to fit things properly, she was too ill to help me. I miss her warm, experienced, patient help. That's the very best way to learn to sew! If you don't have a wonderful real-life person to teach you, though, this book is the PERFECT substitute.

It's FABULOUS. This is a really useful "how-to" book, but even more, it's a textbook on fitting. This book could easily be used to teach a course on the subject. It's not a dull, boring, hard-to-read textbook, though. This is a fun, interesting, easy-to-read one! With many, many, many really helpful pictures.

You'll learn the background theory that teaches you to solve problems on your own. You'll see all sorts of common problems addressed, often with more than one possible solution. Fitting, I've learned, is an art, not a science, and The Complete Photo Guide to Perfect Fitting is the best book on the subject I've come across so far!

I simply bought the wrong book. I've been a once-in-a-while sewer and I think this book is for at least intermediate sewers. In fact through most of the book she's talking to the sewer who is fitting clothes for someone else, so it was simply the wrong book for me. I did pick up a few useful details, like walking a pattern, which were of immediate help, but mostly I felt lost. First, the terminology threw me, but even after I got used to that, I just couldn't follow her thought processes. Also, I didn't care for how the book explained how to fit a muslin in one section but didn't explain how to transfer that to the pattern until 20 pages later. She starts out saying that fitting is a complicated process and that's exactly how she writes about it. It's probably a good book for more advanced sewers, but not for hackers like me.

Perfect Fitting explains in clear and easy to follow detail how to both see and create the perfect fit. The photos and descriptions explain how to recognize needed adjustments before the final garment is sewn and how to make the adjustments in the muslin and pattern.

I believe that mastering the skills explained in this book will let me take my sewing from "home made" to "better than ready made."

I love this book. Sara made it so understandable. The pictures are very helpful to understand what you need to do to make the adjustments. This is a reference book everyone who sews needs in their library.

Looking forward to using this guide in my next project. All of the suggestions appear to be sound advice with very clear instructions on how to acheive the results. Love all of the photo reference, will refer it to my students for sure!

I felt disappointed because the book had a lot of pictures but the layout and content was confusing. You might think that if there's images numbered 1-2-3, they are related, perharps step 1-2-3…. but wasn't the case.
Books are my source of knowledge and I'm proud to say that I don;t mind paying a lot for a good one, but for the first time I felt I wasted my money and time, trying to make sense of a very basic book.
I wished I could return it.

I love this book. Sara made it so understandable. The pictures are very helpful to understand what you need to do to make the adjustments. This is a reference book everyone who sews needs in their library.

Looking forward to using this guide in my next project. All of the suggestions appear to be sound advice with very clear instructions on how to acheive the results. Love all of the photo reference, will refer it to my students for sure!

I felt disappointed because the book had a lot of pictures but the layout and content was confusing. You might think that if there's images numbered 1-2-3, they are related, perharps step 1-2-3…. but wasn't the case.
Books are my source of knowledge and I'm proud to say that I don;t mind paying a lot for a good one, but for the first time I felt I wasted my money and time, trying to make sense of a very basic book.
I wished I could return it.

This is a fantastic book. I just ordered it last week and it has already helped me advance by leaps and bounds. Within five minutes Sarah's photos and tips had answered three nagging questions. I am a beginning garment sewer, but I have taken a few draping and patternmaking classes so I have an okay grasp of those fundamentals. I think if I were a rank beginner and not experienced at working with patterns this book would be too advanced. But it has already proven very, very helpful for me. I'm starting to work on a lot of projects where I need to create custom slopers by draping directly on duct tape dummies for out of town clients, so having these troubleshooting photos is a lifesaver. Fitting on a person is the best approach, but when your fit model can't move and tell you how things feel, a visual guide explaining so many fit issues is incredibly helpful!

I really have learned so much about fitting in just a few days. The only thing I wish was that the pants section was more comprehensive, but what is there is still very helpful. The book still gets five stars, and frankly just the tips on improving reach in the armscye are worth the price of five of these books! Not only is this helping with my work, but it makes me so excited to design some clothes for myself. Thank you, Sarah!

Book is meant for tailors. Limited scope just kept showing the same seams over and over . Did not help me learn how to modify/alter clothing to fit at my level- which is pretty experienced but not a tailor.