Famous Couples: Fashion Doll Patterns [Paperback]

I have her Period and Contemporary Patterns for Fashion Dolls, but this features mostly costumes of Gene's period - 1930s-1950s - which means there are similar Simplicity and Vogue patterns. I enjoyed the book, picked up some good ideas, but have only used a few of the patterns, which work well. And, of course, I haven't yet sewn from this one at all.

However, I have looked through it, and it is a hoot. McMahon takes 10 famous couples from fact and fiction, and designs costumes that would be appropriate for them. Her couples range from Cleopatra and Marc Antony to Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. For most of the costumes, she is inspired by movies about these characters, or ones set in their period. She tries to be faithful to history in designing her costumes: the Lauren Bacall suit is almostidentical to one Bacall wears in a photograph. She also gives "bonuses": photographs of variations on her costumes and a description of how to do the variation, which means there are actually more than 20 costumes available. As in her last book, her accessories are a particularly wonderful bonus: hats and purses for the gals, and boots and sandals for the male doll.

As in her previous book, McMahon's illustrations are very clear. Her instructions seem vague when you read them, which can make a project seem a little daunting. However, I found that in her previous book, what you needed to do became very clear as you went through the project. Although McMahon has designs rated for beginners, I think her presentation might scare them off.

McMahon designs for all the 15" and 16" fashion dolls, and has various dolls modeling various costumes, with some astute judgment (I mean, Madra would just have to be Wallis Simpson). She cautions readers in the intro that, although all the costumes can be made for all the popular dolls, if you want to make a costume for one doll that is modeled by another, you must be very careful to cut extra margin, and to fit it on your own doll. But then she doesn't indicate which doll is modeling a particular costume, and it can be hard to guess, in particular in the case of dolls that seem to have been custom painted.

While the fact that there are many female dolls in this size range muddies that issue, the opposite happens for the male dolls. There is only one male doll currently available, and costumers can only hope that, as other male fashion dolls in this size come on the market, they will have the same dimensions.

McMahon rates her costumes for difficulty. Her patterns are not full size, and need to be enlarged on a photocopier - but, as she points out in her introduction, this means she was able to put in an additional 4 patterns. I enjoyed looking at this book very much, and am a confident enough sewer to expect to try and succeed with the patterns. In particular, I am very pleased that McMahon provides costume patterns for these dolls that are most original, and very different from the ones available at the fabric store.