lo and behold

i've seen a lot of laurence king japanese sewing books going round the blogisphere, and although i love the odd mix of cute/carefree/pulloutyourhairwithALLTHEMATH style on other peeps, it's not quite my thing.  so when the big LK got around to hollering at kalkatroona, i said yes please, but might i try something different?

out of their delicious catalog on fashion and textiles, i chose to review patternmaking, by dennic chunman lo.  ooh ooh OOOOOOOH.  i want to eat this book UP.  all those little red stickers were places in the book i just had to show you.

i do not have enough photo storage on this blog to show you alla them stickers.

in a 240 pager, you're expecting to be told how, but lo also tells you why.  so much why!  i love the why!  ruggy is used to this by now: i must always have an explanation, even if he has to make it up.  obviously, lo is not writing fiction--but he tells a story as entertaining as my ruggy's on-demand make believe.  and that's what keeps me awake through the math.  you feel like you're in a classroom with a teacher skilled to a surgical level, but with enough humanity left to make you feel at home.  if you were in his class at the london college of fashion, perhaps you'd be debating alongside with him on issues like designers vs patternmakers (he feels the best is a marriage of both, and i agree), uk vs us sizing, labor vs instinct (surprisingly, he advises that sometimes it's best to get the pattern drafted quickly as possible).

this feels like a full on college course in your home.  and my nerd ass loves me some school.

the nerdoona in me sang over every page.  no seriously i actually made up songs and warbled whilst reading.  this dress, "a piece of string", from lo and cabon's 1995 collection (yep, the author) was sung about quite a bit.  in chapter 6, lo takes you through inspirational patternmaking, using garments from his own collection.  AND HE TELLS YOU HOW TO MAKE THEM FROM START TO FINISH.

WHAT.

i'm getting ahead of myself.  sorry, i'm excited.  not to worry, you don't dive straight into the deep end. you get plenty of schooling on prep, tools, blocks, creating patterns, and manipulating them before you go haywire with string theory.

and lo speaks to both the professional and the home sewist as equals.  i'm in love. this is now one of my guru books, right up there with claire shaeffer.  and you know how i feel about claire.

this book was provided to me by Laurence King for the chance to honestly holler about this freaking awesome addition to my library. big thanks!