UPDATE: The book is out now! Hooray! Wherever you like to buy books! Lots of links for places to buy on our website here. Thanks so much for all your support and excitement about the book! Yay!
Sewing patterns are amazing, but there’s only so far they can go on their own. The whole point of most sewing patterns is to help you make a specific garment that will turn out a specific way. But, what about all the other ways you could sew something, all the other ideas that come to mind? We (Amelia and Amy) dreamed up the first Hacking Guide with the All Well Box Top sewing pattern simply because we both love to hack sewing patterns! We love endless possibilities, considering all the options, thinking about what we really want to make.
When you buy a ready-to-wear garment at the store, there’s no opportunity to customize. But, when you’re sewing, you have opportunities at every turn! Why not seize those opportunities! Take them and run! There are ordinary sorts of customizations. These are the type of thing that you might end up doing every time. For example, Amelia is quite tall and generally adds 3-4 inches (7-10 cm) to pant legs, makes the rise higher, and adjusts the waist and hip circumferences so it fits just right. For shirts with long sleeves, the sleeves get adjusted to be longer. She makes those type of adjustments to almost every pattern — you’ll probably find your own type of adjustments you like to do. Adjusting patterns to you is a super common, ordinary part of sewing, and also amazing — you get to have pants that truly fit, or a box top with just the right arm opening for how you like it. And that feels SO GOOD!
But there are things you might want to do beyond just adjusting the pattern: You might want to hack the pattern into something new. You can do that! Maybe after sewing the pattern once, you have the idea to add some fun pockets, or to change the sleeve. Or, you want a different kind of collar for your jacket. A lot of the time, if you come up with an idea for a hack, you’re sort of on your own, and you get to figure out how to do it. The patterns in this book are different: Our patterns are designed to be hacked into dozens of unique garments!
Unlimited ideas without guidance can quickly become overwhelming, especially when you’re learning to sew, and sometimes it feels good to be told exactly what to do, to be given specific instructions to follow. That’s why we decided to make hacking more simple — with fully fleshed-out and illustrated instructions and hand-drawn diagrams. There are prompts within the pattern’s sewing instructions that invite you to notice when there is a choice to be made and consider what it is you really want.
What if I finish the seams this way? Add a pocket here? The pattern says this, but I think I’d really like this. Do I want a little more room at the wrist, do I want it way longer or way more cropped? Here are some of the instructions in the book that you can mix and match:
split hem
high-low hem
box dress
belt
patch pockets
extra-deep hem
cut the sleeves separatelyshawl collar
crewneck-ish front
simple collar
curved hem
wrap closure
buttons and snaps
ties
hanging loop
flat-felled seams
make it reversible
special touches
pre-quilted fabric
thick or fluffy fabric tips
The hacks in the all well book, How to Sew Clothes, are really a possibility guide. It’s a collection of really good ideas for the Box Top and Cardigan Coat, and how to make them happen. It’s taking lots of the options (the ones we could fit in the book, though there are of course more) and laying them all out on the table. As you sew and hack, you’ll probably naturally find yourself learning more self drafting. Maybe you’ll find yourself looking up how to draft the poofy sleeve you dreamt of for the box top, and then you’ve already got your toe into designing your own patterns. There is something thrifty in hacking, with money and time and also mental energy. There’s a comfort in building on a base of knowledge, taking what you’ve already learned by sewing a pattern one way, and then making it again but hacked into something satisfyingly different.
Hacking, and sewing in general really, is ultimately about abundance and choice: out of everything in the world you could make, what will you make and how? The answer to those questions is entirely in your hands — we’re here to help you get to the bottom of it.
Event at White Whale in Pittsburgh!
Join Amy in conversation with special guest Emily Anderson at White Whale Bookstore in Pittsburgh for an in person event (and streamed virtually with live closed captioning/live transcription) on March 4, 2023 at 7pm EST. RSVP on Facebook here for all the details and the link. It will be posted at whitewhalebookstore.com/events!
—Amelia & Amy, ALL WELL
Find HOW TO SEW CLOTHES at Amazon, Bookshop, Powells, IndieBound, 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.
ALL WELL: allwellworkshop.com, @allwellworkshop, etsy, spotify, pinterest, youtube.
AMY: amybornman.com, @amybornman, her newsletter My Candle Burns.
AMELIA: ameliagreenhall.com, ANEMONE, @anemone.es, the ANEMONE newsletter.