Sew Your Own
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Review
`Leading journalist Flintoff makes a strong case... very funny, but makes a serious point that is extremely relevant to today.' --The Lady
Book Description
What happens when a man, dazzled like most of us by hi-tech, happy to have his suits made by robots in New York, sets out to find the meaning of life? John-Paul Flintoff's improbable and very funny book charts a journey through call centres and allotments, rat-catching and Savile Row tailors, to some kind of enlightenment. It is also a book about a man who learns how to crochet - in public.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
It grew on me,
By Mrs. K. A. Wheatley "katywheatley" (Leicester, UK) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER) (VINE VOICE) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Sew Your Own: Man finds happiness and meaning of life - making clothes (Hardcover)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Programme (What's this?)
When I started reading this book I found it really frustrating. Flintoff, who is a journalist, seemed to be just putting together a whole load of disparate articles under a very loose banner, i.e. 'how I changed the world by making my own clothes', and marketing it as a finished, well rounded thing. Trying to read it like this, with some sense of continuity, it totally doesn't work. The thread that ties the articles together is just too tenuous, and I found myself reading a chapter and then really not understanding why it made its way into the book.
About half way through I abandoned the idea of trying to read it as a coherent whole and got on much, much better. Flintoff's writing is quite dry and self-deprecating. At times, particularly in the sections where he is trying to find himself through exploring religions I found him a little too Jon Ronson'esque. I love Jon Ronson's writing, but if I want it I'll read Ronson's own work. Where Flintoff shines is when he really engages with the subject and sticks to the main premise of the book, i.e. the idea of making his own clothes. I loved the sections where he talks about craftsmanship and what it means to make things and how that gives him spiritual succour. I believed it when he wrote it, and that sense of authenticity really touched me. I also thoroughly enjoyed reading about his encounter with the artist Billy Childish. By the end of the book I was much more in tune with what Flintoff was trying to do, whereas at the beginning I didn't care. So I guess it works. It hasn't made me want to make my own underpants, but it has certainly got me thinking about production and waste in the clothing industry and hopefully making better (as in better for the planet) buying decisions in future. The bibliography at the back of the book was very helpful if any of the issues Flintoff raises interest you further, and I liked the way he had annotated the bibliography with his own findings and ideas.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
One long yawn,
By
This review is from: Sew Your Own: Man finds happiness and meaning of life - making clothes (Hardcover)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Programme (What's this?)
What looked like an entertaining take on consumerism turned out to be an ill thought out collection of articles, wandering from recycling clothing to exploring different religions. Maybe the problem is that the author lives in a city, whereas I'm out in the sticks: a car can drive through the village where I live in the space of a single yawn. Many of the recycling/re-use/repair ideas presented here are just part of normal life here, although we don't get quite the same opportunities to drop names. It's a shame that the author doesn't give directions for his clothing projects: instead we simply learn that he made this, he mended that. It's the sort of book I'd expect to find in a doctor's waiting room - short chapters, saying very little, merely passing time.
And the challenge of crocheting in public! How revolutionary! I've been knitting and crocheting in public for thirty years now...
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Charming, irritatiing, skipped bits, fun non-reference book,
By
This review is from: Sew Your Own: Man finds happiness and meaning of life - making clothes (Hardcover)
I hoped for explanation of nettle weaving, a subject on which this journalist has made himself well-informed. He can make trousers. He knows where to get nettle yarn and knows something about research at de Montfort University in Leicester as well as early 20th century work in Vienna.
All the above was from the man's article in The Ecologist online, which doesn't give any info about how to make trousers or detail to help find the college research. Nor does the book. It's a charming, irritatating, chapter by chapter set of thoughtful feelings about the world, & action taken in response. Rather like a Prince Charles speech with a more relaxed voice & better dress-sense. Peak oil comes into it. Clothes come into it. I skipped the bits on religon but would enjoy reading a book like this again. Just don't expect a reference book.
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