cover image Learn to Make Children's Clothes

Learn to Make Children's Clothes

Sue Locke. Main Street Press, $10.95 (64pp) ISBN 978-1-55562-014-1

The color photographs of children in appealing, imaginative togs in an array of stylish colors will inspire even experienced seamsters. And simple instructions for quick-sew, mix-and-match patterns make the book accessible to novices as well. Locke, consultant sewing editor of Parents magazine, includes such tips as how to avoid buttons and buttonholes and use facile press-on fasteners instead, or reduce the bulk of four layers of material in the crotch of children's trousers to make stubborn, curved seams lie flat. Locke instills confidence as she offers two simple types of patterns. In the first, measurements of pieces of fabric are provided, and readers must use these measurements to cut the fabric directly. The other type is a graph showing the pattern pieces reduced in size on a squared grid. To obtain a life-size pattern, readers learn how to copy the pattern pieces onto squared dressmakers' paper of the correct scale. Better Homes and Gardens Book Clubs selection. (April 24)