The Folkwear Book Of Ethnic Clothing: Easy Ways To Sew & Embellish
Cultural History Fashion Design Ethnic Textiles Sewing & Pattern-Making World Dress Studies Costume Reference DIY Craft
The Folkwear Book of Ethnic Clothing: Easy Ways to Sew & Embellish is the 2003 illustrated paperback that vintage-pattern hunters, historical-costume lovers and textile travelers keep on their forever shelf. In 155 crisp pages, Mary S. Parker distills decades of Folkwear Patterns’ archival research into a visual reference that shows how to recreate—and authentically embellish—iconic garments from 23 cultures, including Moroccan djellaba, Tibetan chuba, Swedish bunad and Japanese hakama. Each project pairs a concise cultural history with clear cutting diagrams, hand-stitch tutorials and surface-design techniques (Baltic braid, Indian shisha, Hmong reverse appliqué), so even adventurous beginners can produce runway-level authenticity without drafting a single pattern from scratch.
What makes this copy special is its status as the last comprehensive, single-volume compilation of Folkwear’s out-of-print ethnic designs. Because individual Folkwear pattern envelopes now sell for $20–$35 each, owning this treasury is like acquiring the entire back-catalog for the price of two patterns. The heavy-duty paperback format lies flat at the sewing machine, while the 200+ line drawings and color photographs show construction details rarely visible in modern sewing manuals—ideal for cosplayers, reenactors, theater costumers and fashion students who need museum-quality results on a tight deadline.
Condition notes: exterior shows the gentle edge-wear of a book that has toured sewing rooms rather than bookcases; pages remain crisp and tightly bound, with only faint shelf marks on the final leaves that never intrude on the patterns themselves. A perfect working copy for creatives who want an affordable, search-engine-findable guide to world dress that doubles as a cultural history lesson and a practical sewing workbook.
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