Customer Reviews

Fabric Savvy -OSI

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I hadn't been pleased with Sandra Betzina's stuff generally: I found her Vogue patterns for "Today's Women" didn't fit this woman any better than yesterday's patterns, and Power Sewing was a big disappointment. But she gets a ringing endorsement for this one. Logical layout, all related information: foot to use, thread, suggested uses, and it's in alphabetical order. Wonderful reference book!

I'm a new sewer and find myself referencing this book all the time when I'm using a new fabric. It's amazingly complete! I just finished my first project in velvet and it went very smoothly, thanks to the tips from this book. I would have been fighting with the fabric forever if I'd just followed the pattern instructions.

I have to say I love this book. Easy to use, you can get in get the information you need and get on with your project!!! Love it...Thanks Sandra Betzina.

This is a great reference book for everyone who loves to sew! I have a vast selection of sewing books, but this is one that I refer to time and again. You won't regret buying this book.

A colorful, useful guide to fabric and how to handle it. I only wish that swatches of fabric or large close-ups of the fabric were included, rather than the outfits pictured, as the outfits are often made out of more than one fabric. Morevoer, with eight kinds of wool, being able to see and touch them would make the information more available to me. Also, it would be nice to see how finished garments hang on a body instead of how they lay flat. Nonetheless, it is a very good book, very well organized, and very well constructed considering how it will be so heavily used.

This is a terse book, nice and colourful but really not indispensible. Get Claire Shaeffer's Fabric Sewing Guide instead which really is encyclopedic. Unfortunately both suffer from not having things like cross-names (parachute cloth = supplex) but Fabric Savvy is just a little too brief and does not totally handle all the problems in sewing for that particular fabric like Shaeffer's does (it's a 4th the size).
Also Fabric Savvy covers of course allot less different fabrics batching them together and ignoring the nuances.

Anyone that sews should have this book!! This is a seamstress' BIBLE! I refer to this book everytime I change to a new fabric. This book is very detailed! This is a NECESSARY BUY!! Thanks Sandra!

Thanks you, Sandra!! This is truly a seamstress BIBLE!!! I especially use this book when I go to the fabric store. This gives me an idea of what type of notions that I need to purchase or perhaps I already have!!! I truly love this book!!!

This book clearly sets out the types of problems and techniques that can be associated with many different fabrics and fabric types. Especially good for the beginning sewer are the sections on thread, machine feet, needles to use and special techniques.

My only real problem with the book is that several of the fabrics I wanted to look up weren't there. I am not sure whether this is because the missing fabrics are not treated in the book, or whether they go under a different name in America to what it does in Australia.

The index would have been improved by a larger number of fabric names: for instance, poplin does not appear in the index, nor does Ultrasuede.

With all of the different types of fabrics that are available to home sewers now, knowing how to handle them can be confusing. Some fabric shops do not include care information or you may have misplaced the information that you received. Fabric Savvy is an excellent, clear, and concise guide that allows you to search for specific types of fabric and find out, not only the properties of the fabric, but the kinds of hand needles, machine needles, stitch lengths, threads, interfacings, linings, buttonholes, etc. to use in its construction. Plenty of illustrations and charts. Also like the spiral-bound design that allows the book to be laid flat.