Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

Terrorized during home ec? Don't see your personal style reflected in retail? Tired of fashionable yet uncomfortable clothes? San Francisco–based artist Philip offers a very viable solution (that is, if readers consider sewing machines friendly). Positioned as a guide to owning the power to DIY garments in comfort, this concentrates on four elementary pieces—top, trousers, skirt, shirt—with minimal closures and no fitted darts or zippers. Nothing, even rudimentary techniques, remains unexplained. Sidebars help solve tension issues and share the how-tos of bias tape, while Philip carefully divvies tools into absolutely necessary, nice to have, and rarely used, with a conscious economic heart. The rest of the book is filled with templates and straightforward instructions. After mastering the four garments (Philip admits to sewing 100 of the same design), next are alterations and adornments presented simply, with good directions and patterns: changing seams, sewing a neckline, sleeve variations, hemming for shirttails and vents, among others. The only detraction is that she doesn’t include more finished-garment photos to underscore possibilities.