Fabric Basics at Your Fingertips Have you ever wished you could call an expert and ask for a five-minute explanation on the particulars of a fabric you are sewing? Claire Shaeffer provides this key information for 88 of today's most popular fabrics. In this handy, easy-to-follow reference, she guides you through all the basics while providing hints, tips, and suggestions base don her 20-plus years as a college instructor, pattern designers, and author. In each concise chapter, Claire shares fabric facts, design ideas, workroom secrets, and her sewing checklist, as well as her sewability classification to advice you on the difficulty of sewing each fabric. Color photographs offer further ideas. The succeeding sections offer sewing techniques and advice on needles, threads, stabilizers, and interfacings. Claire's unique fabric/fiber dictionary cross-reference over 600 additional fabrics. An invaluable reference for any one who sews, Sew Any Fabric provides practical, clear information for novices and inspiration for more experienced sewers who are looking for new ideas and techniques.

A new edition of the best-selling fabric guide includes all-new updated information on the selection of the best fabrics for a variety of projects and how to make the most of them, including new tips and more than three hundred color photographs.

Information on fiber content and its importance to the appearance and performance of a fabric and tips and helpful hints on selecting fabric. It also features specific information for each kind of fabric, telling how best to prepare and cut that fabric. Over 50 projects with step-by-step instructions and photos are included.

Sew Clothes that Fit Perfectly! Pants, jackets, vests, shirts ... No matter what garments you want to sew, or what pattern you buy, Anna Zapp will show you how to get a perfect fit. Learn fitting and sewing tricks that will save time and effort and help you sew clothes that rival the most expensive couture lines.

“The book offers plenty of inspiration . . . There are a variety of projects for each season, including clothing, pillows, quilts and decorations.” —Oregon Live From autumn’s bursts of orange and red to spring’s lush greens, summer’s long-lasting golden light and winter’s cool whites and grays, the changing seasons provide endless artistic inspiration. In Sewing for All Seasons, author Susan Beal offers twenty-four beautiful projects imbued with the spirit of each season. Home sewists will enjoy stitching a cozy patchwork throw for autumn, a bright gardening apron to welcome spring, a colorful picnic quilt for summer, and soft woolen slippers for those chilly winter nights. With how-to illustrations, helpful templates and patterns, tons of color, and eye-catching photography, this book will leap off shelves and inspire crafters all year long. “Pretty close to perfect when it comes to hitting a balance of what I look for in a crafty book: lots of inspiration, modernity, realistic skill requirements and desirability of finished projects.” —Apartment Therapy “Appealing versions of classic, relatively simple sewing ideas . . . Practical, livable designs.” —Publishers Weekly