This is a book for women of any age or shape who want to dress well but cannot always find what they want on the high street.

Designer Frances Tobin has taken the key shapes from some of the most enduring fashion trends, such as the stretch pencil skirt, the cigarette pants, the tie-neck blouse and the oversized t-shirt, and refined them into clear dressmaking patterns with easy-to-follow instructions. Frances has sourced the perfect fabrics to suit each garment and shows four alternative looks for each of the eight patterns to provide further technical know-how as well as style ideas to enable the home dressmaker to make their own capsule collection of garments unique to them. For example, the pencil skirt is shown in a taupe woven stretch gabardine to suit an elegant working wardrobe, but alternatively this skirt takes on an edgier look when made up in metallic copper stretch fabric with a raw hem.

With the 8 dressmaking patterns supplied in the pack alongside the book, and given in sizes UK 8 to 20, The Maker's Atelier: The Essential Collection makes it possible for all women - whether dressmaking novices or accomplished seamstresses - to own an enviable selection of timeless and adaptable staple garments.