ATTIREtraditional

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?

Folkwear 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

fun and unique pattern for a split skirt), and 112 Japanese Field Clothing (a great set of simple and comfortable garments – some no-waste sewing there too).

How do go about designing patterns so that they’re historically and authentically representative of the original garment?

We often base our patterns on existing garments. We also do a lot of research on the garments when creating a pattern – the history, use, styles, and how, why, and whey they were created. Details about why a garment was created a certain way helps inform how the garment, and pattern, is designed. For instance, knowing that folk clothing was often made from hand-woven fabric means that there are very few curved seams and optimum use of the fabric was desired.

This leads to very simple shapes and little fabric waste when sewing.

Sometimes we make a few changes to garments to make them easier to construct for a home-sewer or to provide a better fit or to work better for modern fabrics.

Do you use traditional techniques too?

We often include traditional techniques in our patterns. The early days of Folkwear really focused on this and it has continued with many more recent patterns. Lots of our patterns teach techniques for traditional embroidery, smocking, dyeing, cutwork, and hand sewing. This is an important part of clothing and really makes a difference in the beauty of a garment – and it also inspires creativity and new sewing skills.

With size inclusivity being more important than ever to the home sewer, what have you done to support this?

We have been resizing many of our patterns up as they come up for re-printing. A challenge of an older pattern company like this is that many of our patterns are not digital. Often we have to digitize patterns then we have the chance to grade them up, and make them available as PDF patterns too. It’s important to us to preserve the patterns digitally, but also to make them available in larger sizes. We create tutorials for sizing up some of our folk patterns since the pattern shapes are so geometric. It is easy to change these patterns to include different sizes.

Can modern sewers use your patterns too?

Absolutely! I think most people who use our patterns are making everyday-wear items. They are unique everyday-wear items, but that is one of the draws of the patterns. These are classic designs that don’t really go out of style. Modern sewists also love to use them as a canvas for their sewing creativity, and we see some truly amazing garments.

Thanks to Molly Hamilton for chatting with us about Folkwear patterns.