New and Updated: This latest edition is a collection of three earlier classics published by Threads magazine and compiled here for easy, convenient referral. It provides a wealth of how-to instruction for sewers of all skill levels.

Covers All The Bases: Divided into sections that cover sewing tops, T-shirts, shirts, and pants, each section covers the following:

• choosing your pattern
• choosing your fabric
• getting the right fit and refining it
• construction guidelines
• stylizing your pattern

Fast, Simple Answers: You'll want to have this encyclopedic guide handy whenever you're sewing. It answers all questions sewers usually have on everything from working with knits to making kick pleats, to pin-fitting adjustments and even customizing patterns your way.

Great Results: Best of all, every technique is explained in simple language and step-by-step directions to help you improve your skills and ensure success.

Customer Reviews from Amazon

I am completely satisfied with the purchase of this book. It goes into great depth in each chapter, and while I have been sewing for many years (off/on),I quickly realized how lazy I had become in trying to cut time corners in sewing. This book is a must for new and intemediate sewers. Easy Guide to Sewing Tops & T-Shirts, Skirts and Pants

Marcy Tilton is a genius of a designer and writes great directions to make her designs. She has step by step lessons and you can follow along or take off from there. I have made several of her patterns and will now be able to make even more challenging outfits.

Given that the Taunton Sewing Companion Library has gone out of print, I have been picking up the titles as used books. So imagine my delight when Taunton published this new book "Easy Guide to Sewing Tops and T-Shirts, Skirts, and Pants." It's an excellent book, covering all I wanted to know about sewing t-shirts, skirts and pants at an intermediate/beginner level.

However it's a consolidated reprint of three books: "Easy Guide to Sewing Tops and T-Shirts", "Easy Guide to Sewing Skirts", and "Easy Guide to Sewing Pants." If you already have these three volumes you can skip this new offering from Taunton. If you don't, I highly recommend you invest your time and money on this sewing book.

My favorite things about this book are the comprehensive reference of general information that is included and the excellent organization of the material:
Selecting styles for your body and patterns
Choosing and preparing your fabric
Fitting advice for the garment and how to alter patterns for many fitting issues
Construction Guidelines ( it is totally worth the cost of the book to get this advice)
Ending each topic (tops, skirts, and pants) with a project that uses what you've learned

Well, I'm off to finish a t-shirt dress now that I have lots of information to help me get professional looking details. Have fun sewing, everyone!

I got this book mainly hoping for a good reference on making knit tops, and also as a general topic book for other wardrobe pieces in this combination of the Easy Guide books. The book itself looks impressive and authoritative from the outside.

Unfortunately it just doesn't deliver despite the title. For one thing,the author isn't much on using sergers. Knit tanks and t-shirts beg for serged seams and coverstitched hems and bindings. The notion that everyone doesn't have a serger is a poor excuse for leaving them out altogether. It would have been nice to have more techniques using the capabilities of newer machines.

The other failing is that almost no modern edge finishes are discussed. Instead the author recommends that you get some knit fabric and try to figure out how it's done on your own. In addition, she advises the reader to sneak around in RTW shops with a notepad in hopes of unlocking the secrets of commonly used construction techniques. Quite honestly, I can do that without paying twenty bucks for a sewing book.

This book is one of the best I've ever seen on making tops, skirts, pants and tees. It is extremely well illustrated and photographed. One of my favorite things in the book is how they enumerate the step by step order of sewing the various garments. Their "orders" are almost always better than the ones included with most pattern directions for the same kinds of garments. The perfectly adequate instructions and illustrations for adding a bust dart are for both the side seam dart as well as the armscye dart. Width alteration, as for the FBA adjustment, is another matter entirely since most women needing to add a dart do not need the FBA adjustment.

I'd recommend this book not only to beginning and intermediate sewers but to everyone who sews since there are new ideas and techniques included throughout the book. It's a fantastic reference and an excellent read for a very moderate price.

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