Slipcovers (Creative Textiles)

Rating:
Summary: Best of the books on making slipcovers
Review: As an experienced seamstress that wanted to branch out into slipcovers, I found this book to be the answer to my prayers. I have several other books that have much prettier covers and use more glamorous fabrics but nothing that even comes close to the detailed steps provided in this book.

First off, making a slipcover is hard work. Nothing easy about it. I liked this book because it covers, in detail, each standard arm shape of sofas and chairs and gives pictures of exactly how to design and construct each type. The steps for making cushion covers is excellent. From how to make the pattern, making welting, putting in the zipper, to sewing the final seam. I refer to it each time because of the detailed construction pictures.

Most other slipcover books make way too many assumptions about the construction steps or try to describe things in text without pictures. This book does both very well.

Rating:
Summary: Best of the books on making slipcovers
Review: I bought this book to make a slipcover for my sofa - a project I'll admit is WAY beyond anything I've ever attempted. (Never been much on sewing). I had, however bought a similar book on curtains and was able to follow step by step producing a beautiful set of full length (9 1/2') lined curtains with goblet pleats and a roman shade. I wanted to find a similar book on slipcovers and this was my gamble.

I will say, this book does have a lot of extremely helpful illustrations and I like the format for instructions. The project I did was broken down into 32 steps. HOWEVER, as someone who got through college calculus by reading the book, I was stumped on most of this. I had to read and reread the steps before beginning and began without a very good understanding of the process. By continually rereading the steps as the project progressed, I managed to finish and ended up with a pretty good looking cover. The biggest problem was lack of reference. You were told to do something with a hem or seam, but not which seam or hem and often not on which piece that seam or hem was located. There were illustrations for most but not all of the steps - I needed them all!

I don't mean to be unfair to the authors/editors of this book. It is a very well organized piece, and the best of what I found at Amazon given the limited information about these books given here. I'm sure it's difficult to put such a mammoth project on paper, but I feel it could have been remedied with simply more instruction. Someone who has done a cover before, or had more experience in general might find this a great book, but no beginners please.

Rating:
Summary: Not sure about this one
Review: I bought this book to make a slipcover for my sofa - a project I'll admit is WAY beyond anything I've ever attempted. (Never been much on sewing). I had, however bought a similar book on curtains and was able to follow step by step producing a beautiful set of full length (9 1/2') lined curtains with goblet pleats and a roman shade. I wanted to find a similar book on slipcovers and this was my gamble.

I will say, this book does have a lot of extremely helpful illustrations and I like the format for instructions. The project I did was broken down into 32 steps. HOWEVER, as someone who got through college calculus by reading the book, I was stumped on most of this. I had to read and reread the steps before beginning and began without a very good understanding of the process. By continually rereading the steps as the project progressed, I managed to finish and ended up with a pretty good looking cover. The biggest problem was lack of reference. You were told to do something with a hem or seam, but not which seam or hem and often not on which piece that seam or hem was located. There were illustrations for most but not all of the steps - I needed them all!

I don't mean to be unfair to the authors/editors of this book. It is a very well organized piece, and the best of what I found at Amazon given the limited information about these books given here. I'm sure it's difficult to put such a mammoth project on paper, but I feel it could have been remedied with simply more instruction. Someone who has done a cover before, or had more experience in general might find this a great book, but no beginners please.

Rating:
Summary: Clear, easy to comprehend photographic instructions!!
Review: This is a well-done book. It offers clear, detailed photos (yesssss!!!), instead of those TOTALLY UN-HELPFUL DRAWINGS that so many silly books have nowadays. I am going to finally attempt my first sewing project with the help of 'Slipcovers" by Creative Textiles.