I received a review copy of "Couture Sewing: The Couture Cardigan Jacket. Sewing secrets from a Chanel collector" by Claire B. Shaeffer (The Taunton Press) through NetGalley.com. It is one of several of Ms Shaeffer's Couture Sewing books published by Taunton.

I have not met Claire Shaeffer but I have met fanatical costumers and they sure are an obsessed bunch. If you are seriously serious about tailoring jackets, then this book is for you.

Ms Shaeffer collects Chanel jackets and has reverse engineered the tailoring techniques that make them look and feel so fantastic. She presents the "how to" in straightforward Taunton Press prose with loads of photos.

Although I appreciate the value of authentic Chanel pieces to the technician, I would have liked Ms Shaeffer to have included some modern examples of Chanel-inspired jackets for us. I find Chanel from the 50s and 60s unrelievedly unattractive. The fabrics and trim shown in the book represent an entirely different aesthetic from today's and I worry that the samples shown and the fabrics Ms Shaeffer works with in her demonstrations are so authentic that they are offputting. ( )

I can remember first learning about couture sewing and Chanel while in a college class. I was forever enthralled by the techniques used by Chanel and some of the knock off designers. I remember going into stores and looking at techniques first hand. The pictures in this book brought back the excitement of the early discovery.

This book is really for the advanced sewer that has learned some tailoring techniques because I believe the authors attempt is for you to go beyond the basic and use these more advance techniques to make a more refined Chanel type of jacket. The advice to make a muslin jacket and practice on extra fabric would make your project much more likely successful.

This book would make a great addition to any seamstress or advanced sewers bookshelf. ( )

This book is aimed at the expert seamstress or tailor.
While the jacket construction is based on a vogue pattern this is certainly not for the novice.
That point emphasized, this book does take you through each stage, step by step in the process of sewing your own "Chanel" style soft jacket.
This book was sent to me via the Netgalley website, in kindle format.
This version had many formatting errors which meant that most of the jacket pictures were sliced and diced, most annoying indeed! ( )