I just got both of Fran's books. Excellent...of course. Every school or
professional shop that makes period stuff should have them on hand.
Are some of the patterns complicated? You bet! Because these are some of the
most complicated dresses ever conceived! Are they clear and understandable.
YES THEY ARE. And the real mind boggling stuff is of course the draped
overskirts and backs.... duh. This is because of what I stated earlier about
draping. It is abundantly clear from the diagrams that many of these styles
[if not
all] were draped from a rectangle of fabric. The pulling up and pleating up
gets crazy when laid out flat. But if I had this book on hand and the correct
flat panel of fabric [it's right there in the book] I'm sure the matching of
x's to dots and so forth would become clear as a bell as you actually draped
the bustle.
The bodices and undraped things are easy to figure out at a glance however.
I've just looked through them once and the only criticism I have is that
some pieces are 1/4 scale and then some will be 1/8 scale on the same page. It
LOOKS funky. But everything is clearly marked so...even if it does look
funky....it's completely understandable and makes sense. Also, I'm not sure
every
pattern has an illustration of the final product. I could be wrong. Usually
the actual fashion plate the pattern is for, is there...but sometimes even
that
is not so clear. Minor...very minor...
Great books....I love them.
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