Are you fed up of the same old high street shops? Are you bored of your wardrobe? Do you fear arriving at a party and seeing someone wearing the same thing as you? Yes? Then it sounds like you're in need of a modern vintage makeover! This Old Thing is here to show you that vintage shopping doesn't have to mean rummaging through old cardigans at a car boot sale - instead, let Dawn introduce you to a world of beautiful and unique fashion treasures, and show you how to create a glamorous personal style that is all your own. Packed full of insider vintage fashion know-how, This Old Thing will take you through the history behind your fashion favourites (including the classic Little Black Dress...) advise you on how to find gorgeous vintage jewels of your own, and show you how a few simple tricks can turn an old item of clothing into a fabulous prized possession. Whether you're a vintage virgin or a retro clothing addict, This Old Thing is an indispensable style handbook offering even more of the vintage hints, history and how-tos shared by Dawn in the new Channel 4 series.

    This magnificent 400-page book unveils beautiful Haute Couture dresses, captured with original photography and unique, insightful text which serve to annotate the influence of Chrisitan Dior and his successors, Yves Saint Laurent, Marc Bohan, Gianfranco Ferr

    Filled with gorgeous project photography and quirky vintage illustrations that bring the 1920s, 1940s, 1950s, and beyond to life, Sew Retro celebrates sewing yesterday and today.Learn more about Sew Retro and enjoy bonus projects and tutorials at www.sewretrothebook.com!

    Making curtains neednt be left to the professionals ; withEasy to Make! Curtains & Blinds you, too, can create stylish window dressings for your home.

    Steffani starts with the basics, outlining two rub-off methods—tracing onto paper or draping with fabric—and explaining essential tools, materials, and sewing techniques. She then shows how to duplicate a skirt, a dress, a blouse, and a handbag, from rubbing-off the original, to creating the pattern, to cutting and sewing the new version, to making adjustments and incorporating a variety of other elements and details—not only refreshing your favorite fashions but replenishing your whole wardrobe with brand-new looks.

    Learn how to make different kinds of seams, hems, fasteners and bindings, as well as when and why to use each kind. Find your perfect signature style with fanciful finishing techniques like ruffles, pleats, ribbons and applique.

    TV fashion guru Gok Wan shows women of all shapes and sizes how to look great with their clothes on and off! The book is packed with expert health, beauty and styling advice to make you look and feel fabulous without cosmetic surgery or drastic dieting.

    With overviews of each key period and detailed illustrations for each new style, How to Read a Dress is an authoritative visual guide to women's fashion across five centuries. Each entry includes annotated colour images of historical garments, outlines important features and highlights how styles have changed (whether in shape, fabric choice, trimming, undergarments) from those shown previously. Readers will learn how garments were constructed and where their inspiration stemmed from at key points in history, as well as the differences between dress types for various occasions, variations in detailing, cut, and popularity, and the class, age and social status of the wearer.This beautifully illustrated guide equips students, researchers, curators and anyone interested in historical fashion with the tools to 'read' a dress. Using this book, readers are able to identify specific period styles, and will really know their cartridge pleats from their Récamier ruffles. - See more at: http://www.bloomsbury.com/au/how-to-r...

    When he decides to finally make the suit his own, little does he know he is about to embark on a journey into his own past.As JJ moves across the surface of the suit, he reveals the heartbreaking tale of his father, a charismatic but luckless restaurateur whose demons brought tumult upon his family. He also recounts the year he spent as an apprentice tailor at Modernize Tailors, the last of Vancouver's legendary Chinatown tailors, where he learns invaluable lessons about life from his octogenarian master tailor. Woven throughout these two personal strands are entertaining stories from the social history of the man's suit, the surprising battleground where the war between generations has long been fought.With wit, bracing honesty, and great narrative verve, JJ takes us from the French Revolution to the Zoot Suit Riots, from the Japanese Salaryman to Mad Men, from Oscar Wilde in short pants to Marlon Brando in a T-shirt, and from the rareified rooms of Savile Row to a rundown shop in Chinatown. A book that will forever change the way you think about the maxim "the clothes make the man," this is a universal story of love and forgiveness and breaking with the past.From the Hardcover edition.

    This spiral-bound book lays flat for easy reference and features full-color photographs of 16 sample skirts, with illustrated step-by-step instructions for completing each one. Encouraging you to experiment with bold patterns and unique fabrics, Francesca DenHartog and Carole Ann Camp provide simple guidelines for translating body measurements into panel dimensions. Create a custom-tailored wardrobe that fits perfectly and showcases your unique and personal style.

    Author Sato Watanabe has published many books that are favorites among Japanese sewing fans. In this book, she shows you how to make genuinely professional-quality pieces quickly and inexpensively at home. DIY Sewing designs include:Lace Shirred BlouseTiered Sleeveless DressZip-up Vest with High NeckFrilled Shirt in CharcoalFlannel Short CoatAnd much more…All of the styles and fashion are easily customized to create your personal style, and there is something for everyone and every occasion in this book—from a bright two-texture combo dress to a relaxed, bohemian tunic—and everything in-between. All the styles are thoroughly modern and practical, ranging from softly feminine or straight-line simple to smartly-tailored or loosely-deconstructed.Simple lines make these garments perfect for women of all ages and all sizes. This book includes a complete western-sized sewing pattern for each design that is easily adjusted to fit your body form. The understated, graceful designs in this book are ones that you'll come back to again and again.

     What if you could start your day out with an excited shout instead of a frustrated sigh? Unfortunately, selling handmade goods online is no longer as simple as throwing together a product listing and waiting for sales to roll in. There are now millions of people with handmade products and they are all eager to build a sustainable income. The Handmade Entrepreneur uses precise methods based on proven marketing techniques to set you above the competition. It teaches you how to create a genuine business you can count on rather than a bundle of shop pages and social media accounts built on a foundation of guesswork. What You Can Expect to Learn from This Book: • How to take DIY pictures that get clicks and sales • How to set up a shop that turns visitors into buyers in under two seconds • How to price your items • How to write titles and descriptions • How to brand your business with DIY techniques • How to rank your pages • How to find targeted audiences • How to build up your list of followers • Where to promote your listings • How to sell without selling • How to form relationships with people who can send you extra sales • How to start a "buzz" about your products • Which tools to incorporate into your business The goal of this book is to free you from having to rely on any third-party website for your sales. Yes, you can take advantage of platforms like Etsy, and you should, but websites come and go, and if all your sales come only from that website, you run into trouble every time there are algorithm changes, a saturation of sellers, or cheaper products to compete with. You are trying to generate sales, which means that you are trying to run a business, which in-turn means that you need a real business plan. Brick and motor stores don't just buy a bunch of goods, throw them in a building, and hope people will come. They plan, study their target market, pick a perfect store location, and prepare to market themselves. Just because you sell online does not mean that you can skip all of these steps. You have billions of products to compete with online and a crowd of shoppers who have an overwhelming number of options before them. You must prepare your storefront, get your products ready, know your audience, and then know how to market to them. Optimizing Your Shop for Sales Dani starts out showing you how to prepare your products with photos that attract clicks and sales. It doesn't just tell you how to do it, though. It SHOWS you. Thanks to the help of many carefully selected Etsy sellers, there are many example photos for each point. In addition to this, the author only shows you DIY photos to prove that you can do it all on your own. Next, Dani discusses how to optimize your shop. She goes through every aspect such as banners, profiles, descriptions, tags, and titles. You will learn how to optimize your pages so that people stay there instead of leaving instantly. This can be done by creating an inviting environment with images and content that buyers can skim through in under two seconds. If buyers can determine that your page is worth staying on in less than two seconds, you have won the battle. Finding Targeted Audiences and Marketing The issue with selling online is finding people who would be interested in your products.

    And with this one skill and some basic guidance, television host and crafty expert Brett Bara demonstrates how you can make custom home decor, stylish fashions, and one-of-a-kind gifts.Sewing in a Straight Line is a step-by-step guide to creating 28 deceptively simple projects that look like they came from a chic boutique—far more impressive than you would expect for such little effort! These easy-to-make items offer quick gratification that even the busiest among us will appreciate. From a flirty two-hour miniskirt to the cutest plush toys, many of the projects take only a spare afternoon.With Brett's eye for fresh, modern style and her encouraging advice, sewing couldn't be easier. So break out your needle and thread, fire up your machine, and get creative. A world of handmade possibilities is a few easy stitches away!

    Only the rich can AFFORD cheap shoes The only thing worse than being skint is looking as if you're skint.' For centuries. an interest in clothes has been dismissed as the trivial pursuit of vain empty-headed women. Yet. clothes matter. whether you are interested in fashion or not because what we choose to dress ourselves in defines our identity. For the immigrant arriving in a new country to the teenager who needs to be part of the fashion pack or the woman turning forty who must reassess her wardrobe. the truth is that how we look and what we wear. tells a story. And what a story. THE THOUGHTFUL DRESSER tells us how a woman's hat saved her life in Nazi Germany. looks at the role of department stores in giving women a public place outside the home. savours the sheer joy of finding ...

    To describe them all would be to describe the entire history of sewing. In "The Art of manipulating Fabric," Colette Wolff has set herself just this task, and she succeeds brilliantly. Working from the simplest possible form - a flat piece of cloth and a threaded needle - she categorizes all major dimensional techniques, show how they are related, and give examples of variations both traditional and modern. The result is an encyclopedia of techniques that resurface, reshape, restructure and reconstruct fabric. More than 350 diagrams support the extensive how-tos, organized into broad general categories, then specific sub-techniques Handsome photos galleries showcase the breathtaking possibilities in each technique and aid visual understanding by emphasizing the sculptured fabric surface with light and shadow Textile artists and quilters, as well as garment and home decor sewers, will expand their design horizons with the almost limitless effects that can be achieved