Freehand Fashion and Sew Chinelo by Chinelo Bally: A Duo book review (with humour)

Good day ladies and gentleman, one and all. Yes, you are reading correctly, I have emerged from the depths of thread, paper, scraps, pins sweaty soup of the sewing room to write a blog post! I know! Its been a while. I know that the book reviews are not setting the world on fire but I enjoy writing them, and, honestly, that's all that counts. I could have done a video but really I feel more ME by writing in a way I can't be on camera. I am more sarcastic for a start.

I remember when the first of Chinelo Bally's books came out, it seemed to be EVERYWHERE and it looked so much fun. Of course, I got the book (twice actually as I have a copy on Kindle too). I thought that the idea of no patterns, your measurement not making a difference was just such a RELIEF. Wear what you want on your terms and the designs nearly made me pee my pants with excitement. Then I opened up the book, started to read it and I freaked the heck out.

Mark directly onto the fabric.....waaaaat, no, scary. There was a lot of focus on creating blocks, which I thought was really the point of the book to avoid and it really put me off. I recently revisited the book for the #frugalfrocks2021 challenge as a bonus project. I still need to finish it off but I found the process to be way easier than I thought and that gave me a delightful fission of "let's get it on".

I not just want some of the projects out of the the book, I positively NEED them as you will soon see why.

As it was my birthday last week, I decided to crack open that voucher that my boss gave me for christmas and treat myself to a new book. I requested the new Named Building the Pattern book from the lovely Ann, so an another one of these duo reviews is planned shortly. I decided to do Chinolo first simply because everyone else is bound to do the Named book first and you know me by now....Rebel without a clue....and I thought it might make some interesting reading. Until Amazon recommended the book to me, I had no idea that Chinelo Bally even had a new book out. So, I'm betting, it might have slipped you by as well. So let's revisit the Freehand Fashion book and drool over the designs. Get a glass of water, baby, because you will have forgotten how freaking amazing these designs are. The following are some of my favourites out the the book

FREEHAND FASHION

The skirt is so full of DRAMA, I am a slut for a dramatic, swishy skirt. I like the idea of being able to hide a hunky, misunderstood and innocent of crime, man on the run heavy breathing beneath my regions while I pull an oscar winning "No officer". I have to see people again, so I stop having these flights of fancy. What I really like about this is that the design is dramatic but ultimately classic. However, the width requirements of this skirt is kind of crazy "width = second radius + 91.5 cms" if you are generously proportioned it would be a struggle to find the width I would have thought....

This is the Batwing Top, the project I was trying to replicate for the frugal frock challenge. I can tell you this is a VERY easy project. This is photographed with a lot of attitude from the model, probably, again because the width of the fabric is key to get that amazing dramatic sleeve.

This classic shaped jacket with a bit of flare is one of the last projects in the book and again, this is a classic shape, with enough pizzazz to keep the project interesting. This could be a especially good project for colour blocking and I think you could get some really interesting effects. In my head, the sleeves have a lot of print and colour, with a plainer middle section and a picking up the more interesting fabric for the peplum.

Honestly I could just put projects in from the entire book as I love them all. Still. This is what sewing should be, it should fire your imagination and you fall in love with the lines and all the possibilities that design gives you. The only thing with this is that I do feel that I am not at the level to take on these projects. I am still intimated looking through it and I would appreciate QR codes to tutorial videos as I do not feel that the language is particularly good at hand holding a novice to the technique. However, if I do not give it a proper go, I never will get good at it, I suppose. I need to block out some time to really give this the go that the projects deserve. If any of you have used this book, I really would appreciate you making yourself available for the plethora of questions that I have.

Sew Chinelo

First, if you are expecting Freehand Fashion part Duex from this book, you will be disappointed. This book is a bit of a different beast, in both good and bad ways. Let's tackle the good, then get onto the confusing and then the bad.

The good, well the difficulties regarding the technicality of the first book has been tackled here. The book is visually smaller and is about 2/3rds the size as the previous book.

The only block for you to draft is a sleeve block, which makes the reader a little bit more willing to jump in and give the projects a go. The projects still have those signature Chinolo architectural elements but the effect is more paired down. Less power dressing and more classical elements with interest design elements. It feels like this book should have been the first book out of the two. A introductory book for novices and I appreciate that.

Ok, the confusing. Namely, the shoe-horning of thrift flips into the book. Its a worthy subject to be sure and worth its own book, but it doesnt feel like it belongs to the intent of the book and the projects are hit and miss. A hit is adorable jeans to baby playsuit. Super cute. But then there is this

I am trying to Imagine walking down the street where I live in this skirt. I fear for my health and safety in wearing such an item. I can see what it is trying to be, but I am sorry, its just...... ewww. I think you have to be Chinolo to be able to wear this with confidence.

And finally the bad, apart from the above, there is nothing particular bad apart from the horror-light title fonts which annoy me more than they should. Its just not very consistent and it doesnt fire the imagination in the same way as the first book. However, I might be more inclined to try some these projects as it seems a little bit more accessible than book one but I am still struggling with the some of the language but this might become more clear once I decide what Im going to try. As always, when I do give it a go, I'll give you feedback.

Hopefully will be back again shortly as I have actually made something from the Named Breaking the Pattern book and I'm starting to plot what to make out of the Building the Pattern book