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Clothing Construction, Alteration, and Tailoring

This page offers resources for basic and advanced clothing construction techniques, including tailoring and alterations.

Learning about clothing construction

SewingThe FIT Library has been collecting manuals for sewing techniques since it opened. We have everything from reprints of 19th Century magazines with instructions for Victorian accessories to the latest online publications that discuss zero-waste cutting techniques and smart textiles. We encourage you to look at different sewing guides because among the repetition there are often creative new ways to solve the same design problems.

This page offers the guides to basic construction methods. For more advanced or specific help, see subsequent pages on this guide.

EMc/MS 11/2021, Icon made by smalllikeart from www.flaticon.com

Our go-to sewing manuals

The Basics: Seam finishes

Former FIT student Emily Keller presents the seam finishes project she completed in her FIT Beginning Apparel Construction course here at FIT.

More Useful Sewing Books

Sewing Ebooks from Fairchild Books

Have a question or comment about these guides? Contact: libraryreference@fitnyc.edu