I'd like the book because I've kind of fallen into a sewing rut and need to get back into it, I'm totally new to sewing this year and haven't made much yet so I totally need the fundamentals while also having the awesome patterns that are totally my style. Retro/girly/pin-up/modernized victorian are all my style so I kinda like the retro flair to Collete patterns, while still maintaining modern elements as well. I'm having trouble affording the brands of clothes I like: Nanette Lepore, Alice and Olivia, Ana Sui, Rebecca Taylor, Red Valentino, Moschino Cheap & Chic, Akris, Alexander McQeen, etc, etc so I think the styles in here would be the kinds of things I'd like to learn how to make so I can stop drooling over the above as much and still like what I'm wearing every day.

I just wanted to say that I love watching Project Runway, but I do also wish for once there could be a focus on stuff you can actually wear, I guess in the fashion industry in general, I just think this runway stuff is often more about stuff that makes a great photo, but nobody is actually going to where that stuff unless maybe you are some big time celebrity, hence getting your photo taken. Most women don't look like models either so cannot pull off some type of extreme collar going up the neck and giant shoulder things and like the giant sleeves on some giant chunky sweater. Once in a while I see something and think wow, not only is it beautiful, but I could actually wear it and I'm just 104lbs, boyish figure not tall, not in shape, not like a model and I think finally someone has made something actually wearable on someone besides a perfect looking tall woman. I guess it is just a gripe with the whole industry of always modeling clothes on people that could wear a paper bag for clothing and look good simply because they are beautiful and there's almost nothing you can do to make them look bad, but most of us have flaws and clever designs in clothing construction, fabrics and colors are what makes us look good. So once in a while they do an episode with real women and then it shows how devastated the designers get at trying to make not so hot looking women look good in something, which to me is the true challenge of making clothing, making the not so perfect look better than they really are, than taking someone already beautiful and just keeping them that way. So when they get stuck with the real women competition they seem lost because they can't just make something artistic and avante garde because then they would make these ladies look ridiculous and I think the designers tend to do very poorly in those competitions and then are relieved the next week to dress their beautiful models again. And they never do women like me, the real women tend to be heavy women, they never do someone too skinny and petite/boyish in figure to find clothes, most clothes overwhelm a small figure so I'd love to see what they could come up with to make me look good. Then I think there should be away to buy the designs we did like, keep dreaming I know. But also they are always saying that some design is too old, they want the designers to only design for youth, which makes no sense to me since I think most of us are not youth and we probably make up most of the fashion dollars spent. I mean when you are young, do you have any money? I'm not getting the whole youth thing. Young girls wear crap from Forever 21 and old navy and alloy.com, unless they're like Paris Hilton or something. So I'm not sure when they say young, do they just mean like under 60 or under 50, what is young for them? Heidi herself has got to be near 40 so she wants them to make stuff even she's too old to wear? To what point would she wear something super duper short? I guess if you look as great as her you can stretch that out into your 40s I guess or if you look like Courtney Cox in Cougar Town, but I find it so insulting that like older woman are treated as not counting, as not having a place in fashion, when they finally have reached a point in their careers to maybe now have the time and money to spend on themselves, now they are too old to be important? I actually was impressed by the runway shows this time, I think there were a lot of garments that were not super short, that you wouldn't have to be that young to wear, but then again also a lot that were, like all the super shiney stuff from Althea, if you're not attractive and in your 20s what shiney leggins are you going to wear?? I agree like if Logan wants to make a mega zippers thing, he should be looking for a teen rebel market like Hot Topic to sell his clothes, not high fashion. So while I was not in love with Gordana's suit in construction, I think the idea of a suit was fine and nobody else attempted that, some people make dress after dress which is an easier route to take than making a suit jacket or trousers. At least she tried and I think something classic is great too, why do they always look for something to be over the top? So anyway ,they are just people with opinions I guess. I do often agree with them too on stuff they really liked. So I just think I'd like to see them forced to make more every day clothes, not just so much evening wear that most of us wear once or twice a year. How about what we wear every day as casual, business casual or more dressy work clothes? Too boring for them to film that? I would love to see cute work clothes to get more ideas. So honestly I partly watch to see what the designers themselves are actually WEARING, almost as much or more than what they're making. I often like their personal style and I even bought one of those leather obi type belts that I saw Carol Hannah wear a lot. I found it on ebay for cheap and it's gorgeous and looks exactly like what CH wears on the show all the time around t shirts, silk tunics, etc, great belt and was like $30 or so. Since they are usually dressed fairly casually, but with a lot of fashion flair, I just like to get ideas from their outfits. Even how they pair jewelry and boots and whatnot bec it is often more practical then the clothes they make for the competition. And I was sad about Louise Black, but she was the only one I actually heard of before the show and I was so excited for her. She was making sorta high end classy clothes for goth clubbing people, clothes that like an older woman still night clubbing could wear instead of the teen looking lip service designs so I was sorry that she got flustered in a competition where she got film noir, which should have been a field day for her and not disaster as it turned out to be. She should have knocked that out of the park having experience with dark and moody victorian-esque and retro 20s/40s clothes as her background. And she had never been in the bottom before she got tossed out, while then other designers (Chris) would squeak by week after week making as someone else said on here, one hot mess after another! And I was also tickled pink to see three WOMEN (YAY!) in the final 3. Women designing clothes for women, was hoping them to be more practical in realistic since it is women that know what it is like to actually wear women's clothes. I was glad it wasn't all a bunch of guys making wierd artsy stuff that is too impractical for women to really wear anywhere. There were still some out there things ,but still most stuff seemed actually wearable, even if mostly somewhere dressed up. I was just really proud of them too, they were also the youngest designers as well and so I could not believe how great they were at like 23 and 26.