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The Handsewn Wardrobe

A Complete Guide to Making Your Own Clothes from Patternmaking to the Finishing Stitches

The Handsewn Wardrobe Open the full-size image

Contributors

By Louisa Owen Sonstroem

Formats and Prices

Price

$35.00

Price

$45.00 CAD

Format

Format:

  1. Hardcover $35.00 $45.00 CAD
  2. ebook $25.00 $32.99 CAD

Also available from:

Discover the slow, quiet joy of sewing clothes by hand in this one-of-kind guide. 

Featuring step-by-step, illustrated instructions, this hand-sewing course-in-a-book shows you how to create nine wardrobe staples, including a t-shirt, button-up, and jeans, using simple hand-sewing and hand-stitching techniques. Author Louisa Owen Sonstroem shares her sustainable, empowering, and portable craft with gentle encouragement and guidance. 

Sewists of all experience levels will learn how to: 
  • Draft a pattern to fit custom measurements. 
  • Select and cut fabric.
  • Make nine pieces of clothing with simple hand-sewing techniques.
  • Construct each garment without using a sewing machine. 

Genre:

  • The absolute best thing about making something yourself is the feeling of power and accomplishment you get, knowing this beautiful, useful thing you’ve made came from your own two hands. With The Handsewn Wardrobe you’ll develop the skills and the confidence to make one of our most basic essentials, clothing, from scratch. Celebrate the artistry and satisfaction of making clothing that’s not just wearable, but meaningful and enduring.
    Abby Glassenberg, Co-founder and President, Craft Industry Alliance
  • Louisa’s gentle encouragement and easy-to-follow, thorough instructions will empower sewists of all levels to slow down and experience the satisfaction of creating a handmade garment.
    Nina and Sonya Montenegro, author-illustrators of Mending Life and founders of The Far Woods
  • As someone who is already aboard the hand-sewing train, I am thrilled that The Handsewn Wardrobe now exists to inform those who seek the skills to sew clothes any time and place! Let us not be tethered to our sewing machines!
    Cal Patch, author of Design-It-Yourself Clothes

On Sale
Aug 5, 2025
Page Count
344 pages
Publisher
Storey Publishing, LLC
ISBN-13
9781635866261

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Louisa Owen Sonstroem

About the Author

Louisa Owen Sonstroem is a maker, illustrator, educator, and technical designer. She studied design and patternmaking at Fashion Institute of Technology and pattern drafting at RISD and MassArt. She has worked in the garment industry as a technical designer at Macy's and Eileen Fisher. She teaches hand sewing and patternmaking classes and is the founder of Patternmaking in Public Places (PIPP), a project seeking to democratize access to patternmaking skills. She is the author of the self-published book, Hand Sewing Clothing: A Guide.

Learn more about this author