Make It , Own It , Love It by Matt Chapple - Book Review

Recently I was lucky enough to win a copy of Matt Chapples debut book, Make it , Own It, Love It on an english girl at homes youtube channel. 

And after I had read it myself I thought it might be nice to do a little review.

So obviously the book is about dressmaking. Its got clear chapter and the whole tone is very simple and no nonsense, everything is explained very clearly and Matt does a good job of explaining various techniques and tools.

There are some beautiful illustration in the front which gives a bit of an idea of some of the projects in the book.

The photography is ON POINT! Seriously whoever took the pictures for this book deserves a turner prize. They are clear you can see everything but at the same time they are just soooooooo beautiful! I would genuinely have these as prints in my own home!

There's a huge chunk on altering existing clothes to shorten them or make them fit better. I think this is a really nice touch as it eases beginner sewers into things [however it was a bit wasted on me] But one thing I really do like is that he covers three different types of hem, most beginners books only do a double fold hem and Matt covers a blind hem and a rolled hem as well which is really lovely.

The one thing that really gutted me is that the dress below isnt a pattern or a download, its just used as an example for putting in bust darts.....sobs.

Now down to the knitty gritty, the projects!

Some like this skirt and the Sunday sweater are patternless projects so Matt talks you through how to draft them yourself using your own measurements. I love this kind of project because its nice to make something that made just for your measurements! Plus that Sunday sweater looks amazing!

It also includes instructions for sewing the collette sorbetto [which is a free online pattern] and for the dress below which can be downloaded for a website that takes your measurements and creates the pattern based on that. [you do have to pay for this pattern but its nice to know there are websites out there that create patterns that fit your measurements.]

I also really liked the parts about making clothes last longer and polishing shoes!

So here's my final round up!

Good Points:

Photography

clear and concise

Sunday Sweatshirt

The section that talks about types of fabric

Less Good Points:

No paper patterns included

I could imagine it would be outgrown fairly quickly.

So would I recommend it?

So I probably wouldn't recommend it to someone who wanted to seriously start sewing, however I have already recommended it to one mum at school who enjoys knitting and said she wanted to do some simple sewing and too another mum who was asking about clothing alterations and easy ways to make kids costumes and make kids clothes last longer.

In fact I'd say this is a brilliant book to give to anyone who's setting up a home, Its got a lot of advice on fixing clothes and hemming trousers and shining shoes which is stuff I get asked about all the time!

It sounds like I hate it but I did enjoy reading it! I just think its more suited to casual sewers rather than us more hardcore bunch!

Anyway if you wish to purchase a copy you can find it here [Fyi if you want to save some pennies you could buy the kindle version! you don't need a hard copy for the project!]

and you can find Matts Blog here!

If you do buy it let me know what you think!!!

Much Love

Frankie 

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