Make It, Own It, Love It: The Essential Guide to Sewing, Altering and Customizing

What an informative and enjoyable book - and I'm an experienced sewer. The author is refreshing, with excellent ideas for common procedures that that can be done more easily, such as shortening jeans, slimming trousers legs, even some excellent, easy to understand hand stitches ( and where to use them). He also just suddenly tells you something on a 2-page spread, using photos and understandable drawings, such as adding lace to add some class to a plain camisole. Chapters include Make It Wearable, Make It From Scratch, and Make It Live Longer, and he has the best demonstration I've seen for zipper repair and repairing a hole in the pocket. This does not look and act like a textbook, rather a friendly, helpful, and knowledgeable author. And he uses polished pebbles for pattern weights - why on earth did I ever make some?

I am glad to have this book, although the author on the cover is not wearing any women's clothing since this entire book seems to utterly ignore the fact that men wear clothing and some men are interested in making their own clothing. It seems that all custom tailoring books written are written to make women's clothing and men are entirely expected to wear store-bought clothing. This book is not written for how men are intending to make men's clothing. It says in the description that he makes clothing for his entire family. They must all be female and in that case he would be wearing women's clothing on the cover of the book. Be aware of feminine words in the description where clothing is being described, such as "dress", or "skirt", or blouse etc.

Terrific book that strikes the right balance of overview and detail with an excellent progression of chapters from the tools of sewing and names of stitches to how to use draft your own pattern to make a simple shirt or PJ pants. Additional chapters on embellishments, repair, fabrics, and care of garments are helpful. Excellent glossary and list of resources in the back. This book is good for someone who may have a basic understanding of sewing, perhaps has sewn a simple project like a mask but is ready to learn some practical skills such as hemming pants or adding darts to a shirt, or making a garment from scratch. The explanations are clear and concise with excellent grammar and take the mystery away from terms such as "easing" or "blind hems". The historical pearls, such as the origins of the bow tie, add interest and context to the otherwise pragmatic content. The clear photos and illustrations printed on thick quality paper, making it a pleasure to handle. However, my copy arrived with a tear in the cover, so one might need to re-inforce the binding with some clear packing tape to help improve durability, as I anticipate this book will be used quite frequently.

Love the voice and it's easy to follow. Not as many patterns as I thought there would be. Larger focus on alterations than making new items. I don't regret buying it, though.

Covers the basics. Great for beginners. I love how the information is organized.

Love the book

Liked it, learned a lot

It has some good basic info, but not too much I didn't already know. More of a beginners manual

As an experienced seamstress who is returning to the craft after quite a few years, I do not find anything in this book especially useful or new. In fact, if you are in need of basic information on sewing, it lacks a lot.

This book is well written and well presented. I am an experienced sewer and also teach children to learn the skill of sewing. This is going to be my new go to teaching book...Matt explains the basic techniques in a no nonsense way, the simple language he uses strips away the complexity of sewing with a look at what to have in your sewing kit. This is a book that I am going to keep in my teaching bag and constantly refer to it. With regard to sewing clothes, Matt opens your eyes to customising the clothes you already have or basic clothes you can pick up on the high street and make your own. It has a free downloadable pattern from Colette, touches on free hand sewing using your body measurements and introduces you to a company that send you a customised pattern for your size! Thank you Matt for such a valuable book.

I have lots of sewing books but this adopts a practical approach. (The zip book in my favourite trousers and this guid helped me to fix it without replacing it.)I loved The Sewing Bee and as a female who enjoys sewing, hope this book will encourage more men to sew.

This book contains really good basic information, including section on clothes maintenance and even shoe cleaning. From the author description, it seems to spring from a TV series I've hever seen. I'm glad that I didn't know that when I ordered it, as it might have put me off, thinking it just one more celebrity thing. Thankfully, it is much more practical. What I like most is the fact that it addresses issues in a man's wardrobe, not just women and children. As a man who wants to improve in this area, I seem to be caught all too often between books specialising only in women's and chidren's clothing or higher end tailoring for men. This book addresses projects appropriate to my gender sufficiently though not exclusively, and at a level at which I can apply techniques outlined. Actually inspiring!

This book is poor for an essentila guide in sewing.