Product Description

The inspiration and the skills to create fabulous, personalized clothing.

Any woman can transform and customize the clothes already in her closet, making them new, hip and utterly de rigueur. Drawing on technical skills and extensive experience designing for top fashion houses, Jayne Emerson offers inspiration to women who prefer personality in their fashion. Using bargain buys or closet orphans, women of any age can create updated designs by, for example, adding braid, over-dyeing a shirt or converting a sweater into a bolero.

In addition to the specific 30 projects described in detail, the author reviews the necessary sewing fundamentals and provides expert guidance for:
- Transforming lingerie and shoes
- Dyeing, over-dyeing, tinting
- Adding decoration
- Making alterations and changing form
- Making jewelry
- Using non-clothing items.

Throughout the book there are "Before You Start" sidebars, inspirational photographs, illustrated instructions and an eminently practical techniques section. When vintage has become too expensive and secondhand looks outdated, a new wardrobe can be created using New from Old.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #106056 in Books
• Published on: 2006-09-12
• Format: Bargain Price
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 144 pages

Review
Show you how simple changes... can transform a boring garment into one you'll love wearing. (Sew News 20061201)

Deliberately avoids elaborate patterns and complex projects and focuses on transforming, say, an old leather skirt into a tote bag. (Tralee Pearce Globe and Mail )

Rediscover how good it feels to make something with your own hands. (Melissa Black On the Town )

About the Author
Jayne Emerson is a textile designer who has sold her work to such major fashion houses as Donna Karan and Louis Vuitton. This is her fourth book.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Introduction

Fashion is constantly changing, and keeping up with the latest trends can be difficult, especially if they don't always suit you. Finding your own style is key when arranging your wardrobe, and well-fitting clothes in colors and styles that suit you are always going to look good. This book is not a project book, although instructions are given at the back for the more complex but still easy projects. It is a sourcebook to whet your appetite, inspire you, and get the creative juices flowing. In these days when fashion has become such a throwaway commodity, it is important to get some individuality back into your wardrobe.

You might be able to go to the mall and get fantastically embellished clothes, but they will not be unique unless you pay a fortune for them. Also, you are unlikely to find the perfect garment in the right color, fabric, and length, and with exactly the right amount of decoration. The joy of creating your own clothes and accessories is that you can tailor them to what you want and what suits you.

This book also helps you widen your search when shopping, and gives you ideas for what to do with things you were going to throw away. You might have, or find, a skirt in a fabric you love but not the shape. You might have a silk blouse that is the wrong color or a jumper that is just plain boring. This book can give you inspiration to rescue the good qualities in an item and make something wonderful from it that is entirely yours.

I always gain a real sense of pride and satisifaction from completing a new piece of clothing, and when done properly, it looks like a designer special. The secret when customizing your clothes is not to overdo it -- a few well-placed stitches or a dip in the right color can be all it takes to breathe new life into the fabric. Of course, there is always scope to go mad and do something eccentric. Just go with what suits you and your personality. If you keep an eye on the trends in the glossy magazines you will never be short of ideas.

Customer Reviews

New Looks for Old Clothes
This book encourages creative ways of thinking about clothes I currently own and those I may make or purchase later. Some of the ideas are quite simple, others more sophisticated. I like the fact that it includes directions on how to achieve the results portrayed in the pictures.

OK book for beginners but.....
as the other reviewer mentioned, this book is almost exclusively about making simple, small alterations to clothes you already own or pick up at the thrift shop. While the instructions were good and the pictures nice, the projects in and of themselves were fairly commonplace. Dying clothes (literally dying the whole garment), adding beads, faux flowers, rhinestones at necklines, or adding trim to plain pants was the majority of the projects. While this info may be good for a beginner, it's just more of the same for all other more experienced crafters like me.

I would not suggest this book unless you get it cheap or from the library.
3 stars.

Good for non sewers
Okay book for beginning and non sewers. Doesn'thave any really fashionable ideas. I'm still waiting for a really good book.