Book Review: First Time Garment Fitting, The Absolute Beginner's Guide by Sarah Veblen

In First Time Garment Fitting, sewing and design expert Sarah Veblen takes you by the hand and teaches you everything you need to know to adapt patterns so you can sew garments that fit just right.

With detailed descriptions of essential tools and techniques, the easy step-by-step instructions will have you altering patterns and sewing tops, pants, and skirts that fit you to a T in no time. The projects introduce key skills you’ll use again and again for all your garment sewing.

With First Time Garment Fitting, you’ll soon be sewing amazing clothing with confidence.

Sarah Veblen is a custom fashion designer who focuses on creating clothing for her clientele and on teaching and writing to promote the craft of garment-making. For more than 25 years, Sarah has been designing and making clothing for her private clientele, specializing in fit, innovative pattern design, and quality construction. Her focus is on helping women create a wardrobe that is comfortable and compatible with their lifestyle. Dedicated to promoting sewing at all levels, Sarah enjoys immersing herself into her students’ learning process. She teaches in her studio and other classroom venues, as well as online through PatternReview.com. She is also a frequent guest lecturer and regularly holds workshops for sewing groups and organizations across the country. 

Sarah has authored many articles and publications on sewing and design, including her books First Time Garment Fitting and The Complete Photo Guide to Perfect Fitting and writes her own blog. She has also made a series of instructional fitting DVDs, produced by Threads magazine, on skirt and bodice fitting and on making stylistic changes to a pattern. Sarah has a Certificate in Fashion Design from Baltimore City Community College and a BA from Stanford University. She is an active member of both the Association of Sewing and Design Professionals (ASDP) and the American Sewing Guild (ASG). She lives in Sparks, Maryland. See more of her work at sarahveblen.com.

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First Time Garment Fitting

Our Thoughts

As far as clothing goes, I can follow a pattern, or make simple alterations to a purchased garment (like hemming a pair of pants, or taking in a seam here and there) but there is much more I haven't yet done. 

I learned how to use a sewing machine at my mother's knee, designed and sell online my own style of cloth diapers, and more recently have taken a bigger interest in quilting.  My mother often made us dresses, and my (maternal) grandmother could often be found elbow deep into a sewing project, ranging from clothing to quilts to household items.  I have a lot of her sewing tools, including the antique wire dress form my mom dubbed "Bendy Wendy". (There's a story there of how Bendy Wendy came to live at my house, but I digress.) 

I wouldn't call myself a beginning sewist, but as far as First Time Garment Fitting goes, oh boy, yes I AM a beginner. Beyond the above-mentioned hemming pants, taking in seams, & cloth diapers, I've never created a clothing pattern nor made major alterations to a pattern.  First off, I feel like I need to take a class just to learn how to use the various tools.  Ha.  The closest I've ever come to a major alteration was frantically done the night before a friend's wedding for my bridesmaid dress the dress shop owner insisted ordering a size too big and failed to make adequate alterations nor fix the issue - no, really my bust doesn't rest that close to my chin! 

First Time Garment Fitting is full of fabulous information and lots of it. It emphasizes that all bodies are different; therefore fitting is a very individual thing.  Pre-made patterns are pretty average and to get your own good fit, you're likely going to need to do some alterations. 

There are excellent step-by-step instructions with photos on not only fit, but how to alter a pre-made pattern. Which is what I needed!  A lot of times, I can see a fit issue, but I don't know how to fix it. Some of it was simple (like shortening/lengthening) and other fitting issues are much more complex.

Sarah highly recommends working with a test fabric, similar in kind to the intended fabric of your finished garment, to test your pattern and make adjustments.  She shows how to fit the garment on the body, and transfer those changes to your paper pattern so you can make a new test garment when necessary.  Be warned, you may go through several test garments before you get the right fit.  

Shortly before reading First Time Garment Fitting I altered 3 summer dresses - removed the bra-strap style shoulder straps and replaced them with the useless-but-pretty waist ties, and shortened the hem of one dress considerably. The fit isn't perfect - the dresses are designed to be much more low-cut than they comfortably sit on me, so the horizontal balance line (HBL) isn't exactly horizontal.  I could adjust it, but I tried holding the fabric in place and honestly preferred the overall look of the dress with the slanted HBL.  

Shortly after I started reading First Time Garment Fitting I purchased a $7 dress on clearance.  Not a style I normally wear and it didn't fit me well at all, but I could see it had great potential to be a cute dress once several alterations were made.  It had a shirred elastic waist (well, right below the bust) which was way too long for this short-waisted gal.  And the whole top was too big. Normally I don't care much for ruffles, either, but I thought, if I could shorten up the waist by getting rid of the shirred part and bring the ruffles on either end together . . . then reduce the top . . . well, it's only $7 so if I fail, I'm not out much.  

I didn't remember to take a photo of the shirred elastic waist before I began (sorry!) BUT I did take some during/after the fitting process.  I am glad I have Bendy Wendy, and that I long ago shaped her to my body. My right shoulder differs in height from my left by approximately 1", so fitting that part was made considerably easier than trying to fit and pin it solely on my body (BTDT!).

Here I also pinned the front pieces together as they were only attached at the under-bust seam. (This was after cutting out the shirring and sewing the bottom & top sections back together.)

Once the alterations were complete, I was rather pleased with the fit.

Admittedly, I didn't do the greatest job on the under-bust waist seam but the ruffles hide it well enough it doesn't concern me.

First Time Garment Fitting has given me more confidence in making more/bigger alterations to pre-made clothing. I'm not sure I'll ever get to the level of creating my own clothing patterns, but that's a thought for another day.