A book review & giveaway

Today is my stop on the book tour of my friend, Christine Haynes, who is celebrating the birth of her new baby, The Complete Photo Guide to Clothing Construction. When I met Christine for lunch in London last year, she'd told me that her forthcoming book would be a part of the same series of books that I'd actually been talking about on my blog around that time, namely The Complete Photo Guide to Perfect Fitting.

The Perfect Fitting book was so incredibly clear, helpful and in-depth, that I knew Christine would be given the perfect canvas on which to convey all the tiny details that really need getting across in a book like this to make it genuinely helpful and complete. As a beginner to any new thing, what most visual learners need, is an overdose of photos. It's such a horrible feeling to be being walked through something and to find that the author has suddenly let go of your hand and left you to fall down into a great big hole in the pavement, before merrily proffering her paw once more several steps down the road, oblivious to the fact that you're still stuck down a GREAT BIG HOLE because she started mumbling when discussing the one vital piece of information that you really needed to hear in order to complete the task without being covered in tarmac!

Anyway, back to Miss Christine, who will not let go of your paw; who will not let you fall down the cracks in between her perfectly styled photos; and who, instead, will guide you through each step of every element of clothing construction, like your own grandmother, who really just wants you to know the best way to do things to make life easier for yourself*. Christine teaches sewing in her day job at Sew LA, which I think probably keeps her very much in touch with what someone new to dressmaking might need from a book - it's easy once you can suck eggs to forget what it's like to need every single thing laying out for you and that it really isn't obvious, if you've never been told, what the difference is between a regular zip and a concealed zip or what all the markings on those tissue paper pattern pieces actually mean. So, the fact that Christine starts at the beginning and works methodically from basics, such as cutting out a pattern, to more complex tasks, such as inserting an in-seam pocket, with the same thoroughness throughout is really fantastic.

A book of sewing techniques isn't in any way a new concept, as evident by the cloth bound editions I have on my shelves from the early 1900s, however, the ones which I referred to most at the outset of my journey into dressmaking were from the late 1990s and, while comprehensive, they were illustrated with a line up of painfully ugly fabrics. I know that I should really have had more of an imagination…but sometimes I found it hard to engage with those books. So this is where Christine's book feels unique and as though it has something extra to offer: it's gorgeous.

And the fabrics, patterns and notions throughout all feel thoroughly covetable and as though you're taking advice from someone who relates to your sense of style, as well as your need to learn. I don't know why that should be important, but it just is. William Morris' adage about having nothing in your house that you do not know not to be useful or believe to be beautiful really rings true…but it's even better when something covers both bases!

So, lovelies, Miss Christine has sent me a copy of her shiny new book to give away to you. If you'd like to be in with the chance to win it, just leave me a comment on this post, telling me about something ridiculous that you've done. I know that Christine will totally support me in hijacking this giveaway in the name of post-trauma-therapy, so if you've done anything akin to putting your electric kettle on the gas hob and lighting it in order to boil some water, only noticing your error when your kettle is in flames and the acrid smell of burning plastic is filling the air, please do share it in the comments. If not, I'm tempted to say that only fallible human beings may enter, but I don't want to discriminate against perfection, so just some words of consolation will suffice. Luckily, nothing but my sense of my own sanity, the kettle and two tea towels were injured in this incident, but I will be starting my week with a trip to to the shops to buy a new kettle.

I'm happy to post the to anywhere in the world and I'll pick a winner at random later in the week.

Florence x

 * While Christine gives the kind of advice you'd want and expect from the best kind of grandmother, I feel compelled to say that she is not actually of grandmother age at all. If you'd like to learn more about Christine, you can read her blog here, or discover her sewing patterns, here. You can follow the rest of her book tour in these places if you'd like to see some more from inside the pages:

Friday, February 28 – Sew L.A.
Monday, March 3 – Coletterie
Tuesday, March 4 – Miss Crayola Creepy
Wednesday, March 5 – Whipstitch
Thursday, March 6 – Lucky Lucille
Friday, March 7 – Grainline
Monday, March 10 – Oonaballoona
Tuesday, March 11 – Paunnett
Wednesday, March 12 – Sewaholic
Thursday, March 13 – Lladybird
Friday, March 14 – House of Pinheiro
Monday, March 17 – Flossie Teacakes
Tuesday, March 18 – The Sew Convert
Wednesday, March 19 – Craftsy
Thursday, March 20 – Sublime Stitching
Friday, March 21 – Sew Stylish ADSENSE HERE