How to Sew Clothes
by Amelia Greenhall and Amy Bornman with photography by Christine Armbruster and Tara Bennett. Published February 28, 2023 by Abrams.
How to Sew Clothes will help you start from scratch or reignite your excitement for sewing—so you can make clothes that are personal, well-fitted, and versatile.
Set up your studio, gather your tools, learn some simple techniques, and explore your sewing machine. Using the envelope full of patterns (bust circumferences 32-62” / 81-157 cm) and the instructions included in this book, start sewing bags, plus a box top, a dress, and a cardigan coat or jacket that will fit you exactly right. We’ll tell you everything you need to know to sew your own clothes and bags— and how to have fun in the process.
Find it in the bookstore! Find it in the library! Or scroll down for links to many more places to purchase!
Get a copy of How to Sew Clothes!
get your copy at a bookstore, or online, or from ALMOST anywhere books are sold!
Finding How to Sew Clothes outside of the U.S. is totally possible! You can get the book through Amazon (for example, the UK, Canada, and Australia) as well as other major retailers with international reach. Book Depository, Waterstones, and Bookshop ship internationally. Or try asking at your local bookstore! They should be able to get a copy for you. (The ISBN is 9781419762024!) Measurements in the book are given in inches and metric.
Learn to Sew Clothes!
How to Sew Clothes can help you get your studio set up, choose a sewing machine, sew your first stitches, find fabric you love, and gather all the tools you need!
What kind of clothes do you like to wear? Those are the kinds of clothes you can learn to sew! Start with your wardrobe, find what you love and what you need more of, and sew your way toward that! We like simple clothes, so our patterns are simple — but simple can very quickly become complex, even secretly, even in little ways!
The book also has lots of writing about how it feels to sew, and about continuing your sewing practice for a long time once you get started!
The Box Top
If you’re looking for a place to start, the Box Top is a good one. It’s a true building block, a pattern to learn and grow with — a really great first sewing project or hundredth sewing project. The box top is a sort of blank canvas for beautiful fabric to shine. Sew one for yourself, customize it to your body and style, and wear it until it’s threadbare.
BOX TOP
The original all well box top! This easy-wearing boxy top is breezy and comfortable, perfect for summer days or layering. Tuck it in, or wear it cropped with high-waisted pants. Works great with a variety of fabrics.
RUFFLE TOP
Sometimes you need some flounce! Perfect proportions and so many opportunities for color-blocking and creativity. Easy to hack into a ruffle dress too!
LONG SLEEVE BOX TOP
This will be your chilly weather uniform! The same box top silhouette with a perfectly tapered sleeve for a comfortable but polished look. A perfect layering piece!
BOX DRESS
The simplest dress paired with the simplest belt for effortless style! We love the box dress because it’s easy and comfortable and looks incredible! Wear it to work! Wear it to brunch!
The Box Top Hacks
The book comes with a fully illustrated chapter full of ideas and techniques you can mix and match into dozens of additional variations.
French seams
split hem
high-low hem
box dress
belt
patch pockets
extra-deep hem
The Cardigan Coat or Jacket
The all well cardigan coat is a foundational sewing pattern for a simple and versatile layering piece that can fill any wardrobe hole you throw at it! This pattern is appropriate for beginners and advanced sewists and everyone in between, as it’s an opportunity to experiment and make choices as you sew to make a completely unique garment each time you pick up the pattern. You can also make a quilt coat! There’s a whole chapter about it!
The Cardigan COat Hacks
The book comes with a fully illustrated chapter full of ideas and techniques you can mix and match into dozens of additional variations on the cardigan coat.
belts
hanging loop
flat-felled seams
make it reversible
special touches
prequilted fabric
thick or fluffy fabric tips
cut the sleeves separately
shawl collar
crewneck-ish front
simple collar
curved hem
wrap closure
buttons and snaps
ties
And BAGS!
Our favorite bags go with us everywhere. Inside, you’ll find seven new bag patterns developed just for How to Sew Clothes! (Plus our classic Half Moon Zip is in the book too—with a fun new size!) Sew the bags that will become daily companions, essential parts of your carefully-sewn outfit.
We love simple bags—lots of them. A bag for every object! Bags to go inside other bags! The simpler the better in our opinion—utility and form meeting, with durable materials and perfect proportions. A bag can be a daily companion in a way that a garment can’t quite be. You don’t typically wear the same clothes every single day, but you can use the same bag every day! So we want to make bags worthy of daily use, that are up to the challenge of whatever you need to carry. We love canvas, we love pouches made of scraps. We love snaps and straps, we love nice zippers, we love bags! Let’s make some!
Some Basic Skills to Take You Far
Things to Use Over and Over
This chapter is full of sewing staples: techniques that we use so often that we wanted to really go into detail about them—like bias binding a neckline, or making bound hems, and seam-finishing techniques like French, flat-felled, and bound seams. These sewing techniques are beautiful and durable, making a garment that will last for years. There are also ideas for hems: split hems, high-low hems, making hems extra deep. Plus, ideas for pockets, closures, and tags. Lots of things that you can use over and over!
patch pockets
belts
ties and straps
hanging loop
sewing a buttonhole
installing snaps
the joy of tags
bias binding a neckline or armhole
bound edges or seams on a quilt coat (or on a quilt)
make your own binding strips
French seams
flat-felled seams
split hem
high-low hem
extra-deep hem
Things That Will Serve You
A sewing practice, like any other creative endeavor, is the sort of thing to develop slowly and very personally. You’ll find the rhythms and patterns of working that feel best for you and the way your mind works, the way your life is. There are as many ways to sew as there are people—you will find yours! There’s a whole chapter of the things we’ve learned over the years of sewing as our lives and needs and goals have shifted and changed.
INCLUDING: Tracking your projects, and keeping a sewing notebook—how to save a project—how to slowly work, and sew smarter—indie patterns—how to tile together a PDF pattern—tracing patterns from existing garments—double-checking your patterns with a ruler—speeding things up with a serger—pink serger thread
How To Continue
If you ever feel like you’re adrift, here’s a point to return to: Sew what feels really exciting first. Use the beautiful fabric, the pattern you’ve been looking forward to trying. Sew the item you really want to wear. Sewing is emotional! It’s not just a craft, or a hobby. It might start out feeling like something you just do for fun, something lighthearted, but sooner or later, you will feel your stuff coming up. Comparison, perfectionism, feelings about your body, hopes and dreams that feel far or close, exhaustion, fear, ambition, loneliness, lack of resources or recognition, disillusionment. All of this is normal, and par for the course for any endeavor that matters to you, but it’s hard! So hard, that you might feel like quitting. After the initial excitement wears off, and the feelings come up, you will find your way through the deeper layers of building a practice in sewing, to the extent that you want to, that fits into your life and your hunger, your goals. This chapter shares some of the things we’ve thought about and learned, some of the ways we’ve found new energy and excitement for sewing and have overcome the tough feelings as we’ve worked our way through, slowly, surely.
INCLUDING: Prioritize by excitement—a note on beginner projects and what to do with them as you grow in your sewing skills—how to avoid making things you don’t love—permission to not love everything you’ve ever made—how to find sewing books you like, and an ode to the sewing sections of the library—sewing friends—taking classes—finding the ways you work and learn best—clothes are never perfect—refining your work—ebbs and flows—little secrets
About Us
About Amelia
Amelia Greenhall (ameliagreenhall.com) is an artist and writer. She likes to be in the mountains, ride her bike, cook, and read lots of books. She has a studio called ANEMONE (anemone.studio) and lives in Seattle, Washington, with her husband, Adam.
About Amy
Amy Bornman (amybornman.com) is a poet, designer, and artist. She is the author of There Is a Future (Paraclete Press Poetry, 2020). Amy began All Well in 2018 as a (very!) slow-fashion made-to-order clothing business, then shifted the focus of the project, in collaboration with Amelia, to teaching sewing and designing sewing patterns. She lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with her husband, son, and big dog, Bobo.
About All Well
All Well is a creative sewing studio producing simple, intuitive, and super-hackable sewing patterns written with sewists of all skill levels, from never-sewn-before to super-advanced, in mind. We make the kinds of sewing patterns that can be sewn over and over without feeling redundant—often releasing Hacking Guides with our patterns to create room for lots of creativity as sewists approach the pattern. You can see this approach in action in our bestselling patterns and hacking guides for the All Well Box Top and the All Well Cardigan Coat, both included in this book.
All Well is also committed to helping sewists at all levels learn and stay curious about the craft, making sewing skills feel approachable, modern, playful and useful. Besides patterns, we’re making creative and beautiful learning resources like zines, prints, tutorials, and other learning tools like videos and blog posts and newsletters.
PHOTOGRAPHY and CONTRIBUTORS
Photography: Christine Armbruster and Tara Bennett. Technical advice: Sarah Stephens ABRAMS team — Editor: Shawna Mullen; Design Manager: Jenice Kim; Managing Editor: Glenn Ramirez; Production Manager: Kathleen Gaffney; Cover and Design: Sebit Min. Thank you to everyone who has sewn All Well patterns!
A peek inside…
Have questions about the book? Read the help+FAQ!
Find HOW TO SEW CLOTHES at Amazon, Bookshop, Powells, Books-A-Million, Barnes & Noble, Waterstones, Book Depository, Indigo and bookstores near you.
Finding How to Sew Clothes outside of the U.S. is totally possible! You can get the book through Amazon (for example, the UK and Australia) as well as other major retailers with international reach. Book Depository, Waterstones, and Bookshop ship internationally. Or try asking at your local bookstore! They should be able to get a copy for you. (The ISBN is 9781419762024!) Measurements in the book are given in inches and metric.
©️ Amelia Greenhall, Amy Bornman, All Well Workshop. All rights reserved.