Sew Iconic

I really wanted to love this book. Patterns for iconic Hollywood dresses, info about what the dresses and their designers, plus details about the stars who wore them? Sign me up! And so, sign myself up I did.When the book arrived, I quickly flipped to the section for Marilyn Monroe's white subway dress, made famous in "The Seven Year Itch." The author nailed this dress, right down to the fabric, infinite sunburst pleats, and waist ties. Having never seen Monroe's original dress in person, I think Gregory nailed it. Her replica (or reincarnation?) looks sublime It is absolute perfection.I was deeply disappointed by the models wearing her patterns, compared to the pictures of the actual icons wearing the dresses: the dresses lacked fitting and just hung off the models. All of the dresses featured in this book need to be tailored to take in the excess ease for best appearance and representation of the real iconic garments. Vintage garments don't look right when they aren't shaped and tailored for the individual wearer.For instance, her version of Grace Kelly's ethereal blue gown. The film still in the book shows Kelly wearing it like a goddess, with it well-fitted around her waist and bust. The model wearing Gregory's version shows a loose waist with little fitting, and excess ease and fabric in the bust area, making it look like the model was swimming in fabric, and that it could fall off at any minute. I also thought the flapper dress from "Chicago" lacked compared to the original. Even though it's a flapper dress and not meant to be fitted around the waist, it just didn't look as good on the model as the original does worn by Catherine Zeta-Jones. Again, I think it would be solved with extra fitting and tailoring.I also didn't care for the dress representing Audrey Hepburn in "Breakfast at Tiffany's." It wasn't the Givenchy dress she wore in the opening Tiffany's window scene, but one she wore later in the film for her visit to Sing-Sing. It's a great dress, and I think the author did a nice job with it. But to me, Audrey's iconic dress is that dress worn during the first scene, right down to the tiara, coffee, and pastry.Pages 112-130 were missing, and pages from an earlier section of the book were in their place. This is a printing flaw and is not something I hold against Gregory. Nonetheless, it was irritating to find out I was missing those pages.Gregory has obviously done her homework, and put a lot of hard work and time into this book. (See my comments about her version of Monroe's dress.) She gets many of the iconic details correct, and offers excellent advice for fabric choices and sewing tips. Just make sure you take plenty of time to correctly fit the gown and you'll look iconic in it.

There will only be one M. M. and that special picture! That said a lot of women young and old would love to think they too could wear her dress. Information given in book makes for a very interesting read.

nice book with great info. patterns hard to decide where to cut..just takes alot more time...but the beauty of the recreations are worth it

Parts of this book are really cute. I like the pictures of the original dresses and the brief biography of the actress wearing it, the movie, the designer of the dress and the dress itself. That part was interesting and well done. Unfortunately the recreated dresses (presumably the main point of the book) are terrible. They look only a little like the original dresses (sometimes the style is similar but is different in construction, sometimes its a simplified version) and they're not very attractive either. They'd probably look better if they fit the models better but it's difficult to tell. Even so, I wanted to make dresses like the originals, not dresses inspired by the originals.I haven't made any of the dresses as the photographed versions are uninspiring so I can't comment as to the patterns themselves or the instructions.

The book is very detailed and you may not wanna put it down. The only thing that I disliked was that the patterns aren't on separate sheets. :O( but otherwise a good by and read..

There are great descriptions of the 'iconic' dresses reproduced in this book, however, it is a big disappointment if you actually want to make the simplified versions of the dresses. The patterns are all on two sheets of paper in only one size thus you must be a great pattern maker to get the one size to your size. Then again, the simplified versions of the dresses not well fitted in the first place. My recommendation would be to buy the book for the descriptions and construction discussion but to use a commercially available pattern as the basis of your look.

The instructions for this product were easy to follow and the book takes you through every skill and technique one needs to complete every dress it has to offer.

I found this book to be very hard to use. I have been sewing since I was 12 ( a long time ago) and felt I had to interpret many of the instructions. Also, I was never able to make the Marilyn Monroe dress based on the pattern piece for the skirt. There does not seem to be enough material to make 1 in pleats around the waist as specified by the pattern. I was very disappointed.

I bought this book for my wife, as she really liked that famous Marilyn Monroe dress. That pattern and other iconic dresses can be found within.

Nicely, presented, more likely to give you ideas, as using patterns would be a nightmare. some of the clothes did'nt look that good on the models,let alone me