Fabric Savvy: The Essential Guide for Every Sewer

I don't know how I lived without this book. It's a thorough discussion of how to pre-wash, mark, interface, and sew most of the fabrics a home sewer will encounter. It's organized dictionary-style, so that you can open the page (flat!) to "Silk Chiffon" and find immediately the appropriate thread, stitch length, needle, presser foot, and pre-treatment for your project, as well as the helpful advice to "Never sew silk chiffon in a hurry! It will always go wrong on you."Indispensable to even experienced seamstresses; I've been sewing on and off for thirty years, and this book had tips I didn't know, such as that some fabrics have incremental shrinkage, and must be washed and dried twice before you cut them out.

Excellent coverage of all types of fabrics and how to work with them, including type of needle, thread, presser foot to use. Lots of useful tips. Well organized -- a great reference

I've been sewing clothing - from baby layettes to wool suits to wedding dresses - for 20 years, and I found great new-to-me information in Fabric Savvy. I'd have saved incalculable time and money over those 20 years if I'd had this book next to my sewing machine. The format gives you everything you need to know about sewing specific types of fabric, but gives it to you concisely. Brava, Ms. Betzina!

Let me state my one request for a change and then proceed with my sincere, gushing praise: In the next edition, I hope Ms. Betzina will include a phonetic pronounciation next to the name of every type of fabric she talks about.Now, let's get started on what's right about this book, which is EVERYTHING. The binding shows this book is a workhorse. It's vinyl coated hardbound, with a covered spiral binding. In other words, it opens flat and won't fall apart with use.The format: a generous lower margin allows you to prop it open (flat!) in a stand to refer to as you work. Each type fabric is presented in alphabetical order and on two facing pages--it's all there when you're working, you don't have to skip around. An photograph of the garment made of the fabric is included--so you can see the subtle difference between silk dupioni and shantung...and an appropriate garment for the fabric. Under bold, clear headings are listed the recommended needle, closure, layout, marking, cutting, interfacing, thread, presser foot, closures, stitch length, preshrink, pressing, hem for the fabric. There are also fascinating tips to improve your sewing and interesting facts about the fabric. I'll never use the same old needle and thread again, and now know what would make some of my garments look couture perfect rather than homemade. This truly is an essential guide for EVERY sewer.

I second all the good things everyone else has said. This book is the instruction manual you wish came with each piece of fabric you buy: how do you wash it? How do you pretreat it? Are there any special tricks? Does it ravel? What seam treatments work best? It's all here and much more, in a compact (2 pages per fabric) presentation, everything from mudcloth to tercel. A great gift for any sewing friend (and one for yourself, of course!).