Sewing Books!

Long time no see, dear readers!  (Again.)  Sorry about the disappearance, not only did I lose my sewjo, but also my blogjo (did I take that too far? OH WELL).  I have something special planned in a couple weeks for you all as a thank you for not abandoning me!

And also because I feel like it. 

Anywho, I've been sitting on this post for a while.  At Christmas, I received a Chapter's gift card, and I knew right away that I had to buy the Colette Sewing Handbook and Gertie's New Book for Better Sewing.  And I was not disappointed.

Seriously, look at these sexy sketches in Gertie's book. <3 br="">

I'm not going to review these books for two reasons: 1) I'm not actually finished reading through them (although I've flicked through and admired the handsome pictures and sketches in both, especially Gerties), and 2) better and more well spoken people than me have already done fabulous and thorough reviews. 

Great section in Sarai's book.

Not sure if I'm really keen to make any of the garments from either book since the styles are so different than my own, but these will make excellent reference books.  The amount of information that Gertie packs in about fit, alteration, and redesigning to make the garment your own are great, and the sewing methods and techniques she describes are going to up my sewing skills, I know it.  I'm not as far into Sarai's book to know exactly how this book is going to benefit me, but I've enjoyed the bits I've read while flicking through.

Of course, I say that I'm not going to make anything from these books, but there are two garments that I sort of desperately want in my wardrobe:

The Coat Dress from Gertie's book.

The Meringue Skirt in Sarai's book.

I really only have one comparison to make between the two books (because I find that they are different enough to stand up on their own), and that's in the physical books themselves.  While they're both spiral bound hard covers, with lovely pages and great colours, I sort of prefer the Colette book set up a bit better.  Every time I open Gertie's book, I struggle with the pattern envelope at the front.  It makes closing the book a pain, and the envelope has already fallen out.  I don't want to keep it separated from the book because that's how I lost the pattern envelope from another book, but I think I'm going to have to.  In the Colette book, it stays tidily in the back and doesn't effect the use of the book.

Just food for thought for anyone looking to write their own book!  :D

*~~*~~*~~*~~*

And now I'm off to do some sewing. I'm excited to get back to my Tiramisu dress, but a set of sorely needed curtains for our bedroom is first up on the docket (it's what the books are sitting on in the pictures above).  I'd leave it for after the Tira, but I'm pretty sure the neighbours and all the people who walk the trail beside the house would prefer me to stop flashing them. Or you know, not (but I should anyways).  As it is, making eye contact with a stranger while putting on your bra is awkward, so curtains it is!