traditional ATTIRE Molly Hamilton explains the difference between vintage and folk specialist sewing patterns and how these can work just as well now as they did in the past!
Folkwear designs sewing patterns that are authentic folkwear and vintage patterns – tell us a little about the company? Folkwear began in the mid-1970s by three women in California, who wanted to re-create the beautiful folk garments they saw on their travels. They saw that the large pattern companies didn’t carry anything even similar, and they saw a need in the market. The company quickly grew to include vintage and historic patterns
and was inspired a lot of fibre art and creativity. Folkwear has been through several different owners since that time but continued to offer high quality sewing patterns for clothing from around the world and through the decades. We have over 100 patterns in print, and available as PDFs, which are used by sewists for everyday wear, cosplay, history bounding and also by theatre and movie companies, reenactors, historic societies, and artto-wear enthusiasts. Can you explain the difference between ‘folkwear’ and ‘vintage’ for those of us that may not know? Folk wear is, generally, the clothing worn everyday by working people of any place in the world. They are the traditional clothes of the average person – and usually identified with a culture. The ‘folk’ part also includes the artistry that is brought
into these ‘working’ garments such as embroidery, smocking and dyeing. Folk wear also includes some garments that are used for special occasions or ‘dressing-up’ occasions and have the folk art aspect. While vintage is, in general, historic garments that designate a place in time such as Edwardian, Victorian, 1920s, etc. Vintage patterns are based on clothing from the past. What do you love most about these pattern styles, and do have favourites? I love that the patterns are classic. They are for garments that have not gone out of style for centuries, and they also speak to the creativity and artistry of people for clothing themselves and provide a canvas to continue that creativity. I have lots of favourite patterns, but my top three right now are the 211 Two Middies (two easy and flattering tops), 231 Big Sky Riding Skirt (a
