Tomoko Nakamichi
Unless you are a professional tailor or fashion designer, there’s small chance you will actually make any of the clothing directly as is in these books. As the author says in the introduction, the point of these often wildly bizarre experiments with fabric is not to create everyday clothing, but to try new ideas. The average Jane is not likely to be walking down the street with fabric boxes all over her clothing or wear a bag/shirt combo on an everyday basis. But anyone interested in fashion, tailoring, or sewing can find an interesting idea in these books to apply to their own projects.
The patterns in the book are small and not particularly useful. You will likely need to build your own from scratch. However, the author does show how to build your own patterns to create three dimensional fabric pieces. These expanded and exploded diagrams make the most complex tailoring seem (relatively) clear, though they are often still very technically difficult to make. I can see many applications where a wave through some material, a tube, a sinusoidal hem or geometric bulge would add incredible interest to an art quilt, piece of clothing or costume.
Even if you don’t sew, these books are a fun and crazy read to flip through. Inventive, funny, inspiring, clever and weird.
Titles include: Pattern Magic 1, Pattern Magic 2, Pattern Magic 3, Pattern Magic: Stretch Fabrics, Pattern Magic: Draping
