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Sunday, February 19, 2012

Sew Iconic by Liz Gregory

Sew Iconic by Liz Gregory
Great for movie fans and for sewing enthusiasts alike, Sew Iconic is a great addition to your personal bookshelf. Gregory explains in great detail how to make a look-alike dresses from ten famous movies. For each dress Gregory lists the materials that are needed, cutting instructions, a description of the sewing techniques, and layout diagrams.

Learn how to make Julia Robert's (Pretty Woman) brown-and-white polka dot dress, Audrey Hepburn's little black dress from Breakfast at Tiffany's, Jennifer Grey's pink mambo dress (Dirty Dancing), Marilyn Monroe's ivory dress (The Seven Year Itch), Kiera Knightley's green evening gown (Atonement), Catherine Zeta Jones' black showgirl dress (Chicago), Grace Kelly's blue chiffon gown (To Catch a Thief), Rita Hayworth's black sheath (Gilda), Faye Dunaway's Fawn Coat (The Thomas Crowne Affair), and Kate Winslet's lace evening gown (Titanic).

The author gives a brief history of each dress' history like how costumer designer, Marilyn Vance, found the fabric for Julia Robert brown and white polka dot dress from Pretty Woman.

A table gives you a quick look at which sewing techniques you will need to use for each iconic dress. Some techniques (e.g. pleating) are specific to a certain dress (e.g. the Marilyn Monroe dress) while other techniques are used for all of the dresses.

Overall, the book is nicely organized, with the simplest project (Julia's dress) appearing first. While beginners will have trouble with some of these outfits, the explanation of each technique will benefit them.

Finally, Gregory describes how to get the movie star "look" in your new dress and how to modernize the dress for a new audience.

The one quibble is with the green evening dress which does not look nearly as fabulous on the model as it does on Keira Knightly. Fabric choice is important and, in this case, the green fabric does not look nearly as lustrous on the model as it did on the big screen.

As a book blogger, I had the chance to preview the galley for this title at no charge at netgalley.com. I was not required to write a positive review.

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