Stanley HostekMen's Custom Tailored Pants (The Stanley Hostek Tailoring Book Series)

I bought this recently to add to my workroom collection - I've had more interest lately in proper tailoring techniques and this make a solid addition to the basic and intermediate stuff I have for the folks who come up here.A few thoughts for those of you who may have heard of Hostek through sewing forums with regard to pants:This is essentially a long pamphlet or long published instructions of less than 50 pages. This is not a comprehensive book about tailoring trousers. There are specific techniques and details (especially concerning waistband/pocket finishing and waistband/zipper insertion) that you probably will not have come across if your only experience has been with big-4 patterning, but Hostek only walks you through the building of one pair of trousers with very little variation.This is fine, but it makes this a better book to act as a companion to something like David Page Coffin's "Making Trousers" rather than a competitor to it if you are new to sewing in general or pants making in particular. If you are a competent sewer who wants to go to the next level and you are willing to think things through, this is your book.That is going to be the value of it around here - it will be brought out and used when I have somebody who has already made a pair or two of pants and wants to up their game - I wouldn't introduce this right off the bat.The instructions themselves are really well thought out and clear *if* you already know the vocabulary or are willing to do a little googling. In fact, his instructions are very similar to the way I myself think, tailor, and sew, so I felt right at home with his sequencing. E.g. there is no "step 23" and then "step 24" but rather "step 23" that gets broken down into "23A, 23b, 23c, 23d..." This is great. I wish more sewing instructions in general were written this way.But don't buy this and think you will just jump in to the pants party; you are going to have to think and digest a little bit of information about it first from other sources.Still. Solid 5 stars. Buy this is you want to really dive into proper serious no-frills tailoring for men and women.And, just for non-professional folks who may be looking around for tailoring books:This book does not go into shrinking leg sections to get a better fit/drape, nor does it go into hand stitches for tailoring, fabric selection, tools, or theory... among other things.This is a VERY solid well-thought-out set of instructions, but only that.

Not for me. I'm a beginner pant maker. I just wanted to make myself a comfortable pair of jeans. This was a panflit, (NOT A BOOK) about how one guy makes his one style of pants.

Stanley Hostek is the man. Fills the void between amateur and aspirant tailors. Glad that he lived and shared his work with the world.

It was just whàt I expected. It is always difficult dealing with text and diagrams and trying to comprehend exactly what is being presented. I think that when i fully understand all the relavent terms used in tailoring i will be doing much better. That however is not related to how the material is prèsented, but to effort needed on my part.