Review on 🧵 Enhanced Edition of Vogue Sewing: Updated for Modern Seamstresses by Barbara Simmons

I bought this book based on many recommendations from various popular sewing blogs. This book covers a wide range of topics on many aspects of home sewing, from determining figure type and choosing pattern size, to hand and machine sewing techniques, to basic pattern changes when fitting, tips for working with complex fabrics and finishing. with a wide range of tailoring and haute couture techniques as well as creative touches. It's really very comprehensive and just packed with information. In order to fit all of this information into this book, I feel they had to sacrifice some clarity. For example, all template change instructions are illustrated with a single line drawing that gives an overview of the changes made, and new lines drawn in the template are highlighted with this very thick orange line that sometimes obscures other changes made to the template will. Region. The multi-level instructions with several illustrations are also a bit strange. Each step is a marker and the accompanying illustrations are numbered, but the text never refers to the illustrations by number and there isn't always an illustration for each marker, so all you have to do is figure out what goes with what. It's definitely not an impossible task and I think you can get all of the information presented if you're willing to sit down and digest it for a bit, but it's definitely not the most comfortable presentation I've seen. However, this book is definitely a good foundation for a home sewing library. I wouldn't say this is the only book you will ever need, but if this is the first sewing book you get it will lay a great foundation in your sewing skills and take you quite a long way. Over time you will need more detailed books such as Claire Schaeffer's Handbook of Sewing Fabric and Fashion Sewing Techniques, but this book will still be valuable as a general reference. However, one should keep in mind that this book has a lot in common. from the Reader's Digest Complete Guide to Sewing (or the older Reader's Digest Complete Guide to Sewing). If you already have one, I don't think you need another one. I hadn't noticed this before, but after buying and reading both books and seeing that they are very, very similar in content, I've noticed that most bloggers recommend one or the other, rarely both. I would say that the new edition of the Reader's Digest Guide is probably more beginner-friendly, and I think even the old edition, which only has line art, has clearer illustrations and a bit better formatting than the Vogue book, but the Vogue book is it by far the largest. Sewing information is worth money because there is so much in it. If you can, try borrowing both books from the library or from a friend and flip through and see which one you like best, as I think it really comes down to personal preference. . If you already have a Reader's Digest guide, the Vogue book contains information that isn't in the Reader's Digest book, but I think it's better to invest in more in-depth books on specific subjects than to buy another book , which covers essentially the same thing and the same basic principles. If you've bought or already own a Vogue book, there's no reason to buy a Reader's Digest book unless you really like the Vogue book's teaching style.