The Palmer Pletsch Complete Guide to Fitting

this book reveals a more understanding of patterns and how patterns can be altered so the clothing you want is the clothing you make and the importance of knowing your body shape and measurements. Love the detail. A must for great fitting clothes.

This is an essential book for those wanting to alter paper patterns so that the garment is the correct fit.

I've had this book for 2 years now. I began sewing long before this book was published in 2018, and wish it had been around when I started making clothes. Standard patterns, unless you're very-very unusual, stop fitting so well 'out of the box' the more you age. If you've had a series of projects end poorly fitting, then your sewing skill hasn't waned, you've just aged enough for standard patterns to not fit so well anymore - happens to us all (if we're lucky enough to get to age that is). I discovered this book when searching for pattern fitting. Fitting tissues instead of draughting patterns was something I'd wondered about, but it hadn't been a thing when I began sewing. Tissue fitting is a game changer. I refer to this book every time I make now, and repeatedly - it must be my most used book, filled with sticky notes. I suggest you don't try to digest it all. It felt like too much preamble, seemed to repeat things and be oddly organised. Still does feel that way, but I am an experienced sewist. I suspect the preamble might be useful to the less experienced. Read just far enough to jump in, with a 'follow along' project. Use it to make something rather than attempt to study it all beforehand, is my recommendation. I did this using chapter 13 'Fitting Sequence' - was lucky for me, but you might find one of the earlier chapters better. After two or three tissue fits, I now know my alterations, can anticipate them, and the book makes complete sense. I've made several garments since buying this book, all tissue fitted, and recently altered a Japanese pattern book pattern with fantastic success. I'm a taller than average European (not at all Japanese petite), have a very slight high back, as well as other small, but fit significant age related alterations. The book helps with stylistic changes too, though its focus is getting patterns to fit perfectly. Being able to cut fabric out using a bought pattern knowing for certain the fit will be correct makes the sewing bit relaxing and fun. It's given me the joy of sewing back. (I've gone on to buy their other books since).

I’ve been sewing for over 50 years but after body changes I was finding it difficult to get the fit I needed from commercial patterns. This book explains everything you need to know to get a good fit, even from patterns you thought you’d ‘outgrown’. I’ve always been able to fit dresses on others but I am now looking forward to trying these methods on myself as it seems relatively easy to manage this solo using this method. No more wastage making a muslin which still doesn’t fit, getting frustrated that your body measures very differently than sizes on patterns. It even has a small section on techniques. Excellent book I would highly recommend.

Informative, excellent buy.

This is a really good book and there's tons of useful information in here if you want to adjust a paper pattern to fit you exactly. Also the guide to what the stretch marks actually mean in terms of problems was really interesting and made me realise that every garment I own is cut too short for my arm-scythe depth. This might finally solve an issue where I was getting aches in my armpits occasionally and didn't understand why, until now. However, it is rather American in the self-promotion. The amount of times the book says 'for more information, please see our other book...' and lists what must be nearly 20 books overall throughout and again in the back. Feels more than a little cheeky to list your book as the 'complete' guide to sewing when supposedly there's other books with more in-depth info. Some techniques listed also are quite cumbersome. One particular technique listed in the book briefly (more information in another one they're selling...) recommends that you have at least 4 people on hand to actually map out your body shape. Great if you've got a large and patient family around you I suppose, but even at my craft group I'm not sure we'd actually have the space to do what they're asking. There's probably easier ways to do this these days anyway, like 3D scanning your body with your phone or something. Sadly that's not mentioned in this book so I'd need to look elsewhere for how to actually do that. Other thing is if you need specific info on changing a paper pattern for pants/jeans/trousers, there is little to no information on that in this book and you need to purchase one of their other ones for that. I think 'pants for real people' was the one they advertised, but there's another one on jeans specifically too just to be irritatingly expensive. Also, for drafting a pattern from scratch, look elsewhere entirely. These guys only specialise in editing an already printed pattern. Overall, glad I purchased, but the title is misleading.

El contenido del libro hace honor a su nombre. Es una guía completísima para aprender a ajustar la ropa hecha por ti mism@ a partir de patrones comerciales. Aunque las distintas técnicas se ejemplifican con un patrón de MacCall's especialmente diseñado por las autoras para este fin, son fácilmente aplicables a cualquier otro. Es una guía muy exhaustiva pero increíblemente accesible a personas que estén iniciándose en la costura de prendas pero tengan algunos conocimientos de costura y quieran aprender a conseguir un ajuste perfecto. El modo en que está presentada la información a lo largo de los 24 capítulos - muy claro, ameno y con una estructura muy didáctica- ayuda a comprender muy bien el método y su fundamento y las múltiples fichas resumen fotocopiables resultan muy prácticas para llevarlo a cabo. En definitiva, una guía muy completa, clara y práctica fácilmente accesible, una joya para la biblioteca esencial de costura. Recomiendo echar un vistazo al blog y website también (aparecen mencionados en las referencias a otros materiales de las autoras al final del libro), pues tienen cursos online en plataformas educativas a muy buen precio que permiten ver a las autoras realizando las técnicas del libro y son un estupendo complemento de esta guía. IMPORTANTE: Este libro está en inglés.

I am sewing for 12 years and this book changes everything for me! Love all the knowledge passed on in this book and the real people examples are beyond helpful. Great to see other peoples fitting routine, especially when they happen to have the same issues as oneself. I highly recommend!

I got this book for school I highly recommend it if you’re wanting to pursue sewing as a career or hobby. The book came on time and is great for beginners and advanced sewers. The only thing I wish with this book is that it was spiral bound to keep what page I’m on open. Other than that it has increased my knowledge with patterns and how to fit patterns to my body and others.

As a beginner, the book provide me with alot of information on how to make adjustment.

This is an excellent book! I have been trying to learn to sew apparel for years with no luck. I have small shoulders short waist and larger hips so I am a fitting nightmare. This method helps clarify a lot of thing an allows me to learn to fit my frame in the simplest method by myself. I have not gotten all the way through the book yet but I am super excited. The instructions are fairly simple. I loved the begining as it gives the history of fashion and pattern sizing. This book is chocked full of information that is clear with coinciding how to images. I am very happy so far. I have been highlighting the important information for easy reference. I definitely recommend this for beginners and I am also a beginner. What is great about this is that it uses a pre-made pattern so no pattern drafting, yay! Happy sewing.