Review: Complete Idiot's Guide to Sewing

Complete Idiot's Guide to Sewing
by Lydia Wills

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Complete Idiot's Guide to Sewing / 0-02-863891-3

This is, in my opinion, a very poor introduction to sewing. I am still largely a beginner when it comes to sewing clothing, although I am very familiar with my machine after years of quilting, and I found this book to be mostly a waste of good time and money.

The organization of material here is very poor, and does not lend itself to easy learning. Concepts are scattered throughout the book, separately by chunks of unnecessary and annoying 'anecdotes' of how many loose threads the author can find around her house on a given day. Like the stereotypical tenured professor reaching retirement age, she rambles on and over the subject, trampling over useful subjects (how do I sew zippers properly?) in favor of unhelpful monologues on the importance of organizing your sewing room effectively (read: exactly like she does) to save time.

I can honestly say that, despite having a leg up by already being familiar with my machine, I do not feel that I've learned anything from this book at all and concepts that were already clear to me were actually rendered deeply confusing by several of the poorly illustrated techniques in this book. The only thing of value here is the final "Suggested Gifts" section, which has some nice ideas, but most of that could be found on the internet these days, with a minimum of searching. Pass on this book, is my advice.

~ Ana Mardoll

View all my reviews