Skip to main content
BookadvancedPaid

Couture Sewing Techniques, Revised and Updated

by Claire B. Shaeffer · The Taunton Press

Documents the hand construction methods used in Paris couture houses: underlining and interfacing, the core hand stitches, edge and hem finishes, closures, and shaping with padding, boning and weights, plus a chapter on difficult fabrics. Where the other books stop at machine finishing, this explains the hand techniques that determine how a garment hangs — shaping, support layers, invisible closures.

Visit resource

This link may earn us a small commission at no extra cost to you. Affiliate disclosure

More resources on Garment Construction

WebsiteFree

r/sewing Wiki

The subreddit's community-maintained index: machine buying advice, starter tool lists, recommended books and free tutorials, fabric glossaries, and answers to the questions asked most often. A useful map of what to acquire and read first.

WebsiteFree

Threads Magazine

Taunton Press's garment-sewing magazine, publishing since 1985, with a web archive of technique articles on fitting, tailoring, couture finishes, fabric behaviour and machine use. Readers pick up specific construction methods explained by professional sewers and instructors.

WebsiteFree

PatternReview.com

A member-written database of reviews covering commercial and indie sewing patterns, machines, and books, plus active forums. Useful for checking fit, sizing accuracy, and construction pitfalls of a specific pattern before you cut fabric.

WebsiteFree

Closet Core Patterns Sewalongs

Free multi-part walkthroughs for nine complete garments including jeans, a tailored coat, an anorak, a shirtdress and a swimsuit, photographing every step: fly zippers, topstitching, welt pockets, collar stands, hoods and bar tacks.

YouTubeFree

Made to Sew (YouTube)

Aneka Truman, a London College of Fashion graduate, demonstrates professional construction and finishing on camera — welt pockets, plackets, tailored collars, bound buttonholes, lining insertion, couture hems — filmed close enough to see needle placement.

YouTubeFree

Professor Pincushion (YouTube)

Tova Opatrny's library of more than 500 free tutorials covering machine threading and operation, reading commercial patterns, cutting, seam and dart construction, invisible zippers, hems and buttonholes, each shot in slow close-up.

See all Garment Construction resources →