notkevinbacon

OK, so this is going to be a major stab in the dark... but so far I have not been able to figure out which book this is. I am going off whatever information that's been available to me and well, so far... it's pretty standard fantasy novel stuff and limited, making the search even more difficult. Unsurprisingly, there are a lot of crappy fantasy novels out there that involve many of the elements I know about the story.

Ok, really all that is known...

likely was a young adult fantasy series

female protagonist

set in a fantasy world (not sci-fi, not "our time" or even Earth probably)

the female protagonist has/recieves a (blue?) invisibility robe, that gets a hole in it and she is taught by a witch (or something of the like) how to repair magical garments (this is the most specific thing I know, but even this is somewhat broad)

Book was read in the later 80s - early 90s and believed to have been written around that time... probably not written later than 1993.

Like I said, not much to go on here, I know... but on the off chance someone knows that would be awesome. Or even if anyone has any ideas of how I can further search for this, I'm open to suggestions. Thanks all!

Josh-da-man

Some of those descriptions made me think of Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality series, but I don't think that's it.

notkevinbacon

Yeah, I just stumbled onto that one right after posting this, then I got more excited when I saw that someone else suggested it as well, but nope, sadly not it.

Thanks for taking a shot!

benedict

My first search suggested Alexandra Bracken's "Brightly Woven" but that must be excluded not only on the grounds of only recently having been published but because invisibility wasn't mentioned on the Amazon summary! Its female protagonist, Sydelle, "has the ability to fix his magical cloaks" according to the site I visited.

I then included that title in a further search which threw up Diana Wynne Jones' 1986 "Howl's Moving Castle" as a book sharing some features with BW. DWJ's HMC features a female protagonist, Sophie Hatter, who "is very deft with the needle and makes the most beautiful hats and dresses [and] unknowingly talks life into objects". Unfortunately, I don't think that fits the bill, either!

However, I mention both in case they spark any memories in other BookTalkers of novels that do more closely fit the descrption.

benedict

1) Three years on I was wondering whether the OP or any other Book Talker had been able unearth an answer to the conundrum set out in the first post...

2) ... I found the thread when conducting a search to see whether there'd ever been any discussion of Andre Norton's Witchworld books. I remember being intrigued by one as a teen but never sought out any more and kind of wonder if I would only ever really have enjoyed them back then i.e. have they stood the test of time? Any fans out there?