Heirloom Sewing for Today: Classic Materials, Contemporary Machine Techniques

What a beautiful book. This one has great photos and lots of inspiring ideas to help you create a garment you will love. Many of us have lost the ability to sew by hand and prefer the sewing machine. This book is geared completely to the sewing machine sewer. It is a must for seamstresses who have an interest in fine sewing details. It goes into much description of fabric types that are typical of heirloom sewing. You also learn how to stack trim in just the right way. Please buy this book.

great information book a well put together book to help you learn how to do many techniques

I am new to heirloom machine sewing. This book is a great reference. I have a martha pullen pattern, and for the price of the patten, i wish the pattern was printed on better paper. Next time i will refer to this beautiful book instead. It is clearer that the pattern instructions, and the photos are much better than the pattern drawings. There are quite a few projects, easy to more involved - tea towel, pillowcases, apron, nightgown, ladies blouse (pattern included) which can be embellished as you wish. This book is actually quite open-ended - you can embellish the items however you want, using the techniques you've learned once you've read it cover to cover, but there are of course the pictures, to find inspiration. Materials (fabrics, laces, galloon, etc) are discussed, Techniques are of course sewing lace to lace, lace to entredeux, lace to gathered fabric, puffing strips, and pin tucks. Dying laces is discussed also. I recommend the coffee and vinegar dying instead of tea - i have done this and it works great!