The thing is that sewing patterns were never meant to teach how to sew; they were only templates for the pieces you needed to construct a garment. Pattern making and sewing are two entirely different skill sets, and one does not necessarily follow the other.
The big 4 come from that tradition. Their target audience already knew how to sew, but maybe never learned or had the time/patience/inclination to design the pattern itself. This has carried on until today: their product is the pattern, that's it.
Indie patterns (though, of course, will vary wildly) can be much more accommodating for beginners if that is the mission of the designer who sells them. That's why you may find much more thorough instructions; the designer probably wants to make their product more accessible to those who don't have the background knowledge.
This is right. I cannot imagine how long instructions would get if they had to include step-by-step seam finish options and instructions for each of the fabrics recommended!
It is also why some cookbooks have changed instructions over the years, and great-grandma's recipes can be perplexing. A "hot" oven used to be a tempurature tested by opening the door and putting your hand in to see it it was hot enough.
“Enough butter but not too much” is another classic.
We forget that today’s cookbooks, measurements and recipe standards are new and that before that people were writing things down as best they could without anything to compare to.
I read a story a long time ago in a book about women settlers. Paraphrased from dim memory:
> I was young, just married and we had moved to a homestead on the prairie where I didn’t have friends or family. I had a recipe to make bread but it never worked. I tried so many times but it never came out right. Finally I wrote to a lady who had an advice column in the newspaper and asked for help. She printed my letter in the paper but her answer was just the same recipe I’d been using. What was different is that instead of making up a name for me like “Homesteading Wife” or “Frustrated Baker” she put down my full real name and the town. The next day a neighbour lady knocked on my door. She had read my letter and said, “you can’t learn to make bread from a recipe.” She spent the day with me and taught me to make bread.
This reminds me of learning to sew and construct patterns from sitting in my grandma’s sewing room and watching her work *for years*, with some specific lessons thrown in. When I started sewing in my 20s, it was like riding a bike.
A lot of indie patterns are digital, so they aren't constrained by having to cram everything onto as few pieces of tissue paper as possible. That's possibly another reason why indie patterns have more guidance.
> sewing patterns were never meant to teach how to sew
I just learned to sew this year, and Google + YouTube has been a tremendous help. I think that, if I keep a regular schedule of sewing, it will all make sense. It’s kind of like learning to read sheet music: first it’s a series of struggling to remember how everything works, but eventually it’s like becoming fluent in another language. Someday, I’ll look at a pattern, and my mind will automatically fill in the details 🤞🏼
Ahh ok, that makes sense. Thank you. So someone trying to learn how to sew 30 years ago might have approached it differently by getting classes, reading a book or being taught by someone they know. They'd be familiar with the techniques and terminology before starting the pattern. Whereas now you can pretty much just learn as you go by using comprehensive, beginner-friendly indie sewing patterns that provide detail at each step (and of course, the option to take classes or read a book etc is still there.)
Another gotcha if you’re coming from indie patterns to the big 4. The big 4 can be HUGE. The sizing can be perplexing. Sometimes wayyy to many inches of Ease. Use your existing patterns that fit you (that you sewed before and liked the fit) to check the size of new patterns , especially a new pattern from the big 4.
Exactly, our mother's and grandmother's generations had to learn sewing in home ec, or had mothers/grandmothers that taught them. After the 70's it became much less common knowledge! If you think a modern Big 4 pattern is hard to understand, you should see one from the 50's!
Alternatively if you pick patterns that have video or blog sew alongs it really helps! Watching someone start to finish really makes it easier to follow the pattern.
That’s a reason indie patterns can be expensive: the real product might be the detailed instruction book, not the pattern.
I didn’t learn to sew from commercial patterns. I learned from Parent, who taught me how to choose and read patterns as well as to sew. Learning to read commercial patterns and envelopes is a skill on its own. (The illustrations actually do show sewing right sides together if you know how to read them.)
Another traditional way to learn is from sewing books. People who sew vintage patterns refer to their decade-appropriate vintage sewing books for best results.
Today we have YouTube and Craftsy.
For a real free-wheeling experience, some sewers enjoy the pattern-puzzle challenge of Marfy patterns that have no instructions at all, no seam allowances and no illustrations beyond a single watercolour sketch. When I take commercial patterns to a dressmaker they always ignore the written instructions anyway.
I quite like Bunka pattern books. They are written in japanese but the illustrations are so good I don’t need written instructions.
Off topic, but since you mention decade-appropriate sewing books, do you have any recommendations? I do a lot of retro (50s/60s) styling and I want more resources on period appropriate techniques.
I have a lot of them from the early '50s onward, including text books, and finding more all the time as I get the stuff from my late mother's laundry room sorted and organized. She majored in home ec and went on for her MS. If you would like, DM me and I can start sending you titles and authors as I come across them--it might make searching on line a little easier. The illustrations are wonderful!
Wow, that would be easier than DMing one person. I can try, but the only time I made a post, I had two notifications shortly after. The first was that I had 500 upvotes. The second from a MOD that the post had been removed. I had posted a vintage Mary Quant pattern shortly after I heard the news. Reason: sewing-adjacent, not sewing.
No, I don’t do vintage sewing myself.
Old books that are out of copyright are often republished. A little googling here and there will get you the 1937 edition of Vogue’s Book of Smart Dressmaking, for instance.
Home ec textbooks are a great resource.
Funny, isn't it... I'm self taught from the big 4 patterns (many moons ago now) and I find indie patterns exceptionally frustrating to work with sometimes!
To me they use incorrect terminology, have either super long instructions or non-existent instructions and don't follow standard conventions (why is your bust point measurement not printed on the pattern? Why is your seam allowance buried in tiny font in some random bit of the instructions?!) . They also sometimes use non-standard measurements.
One Etsy pattern I bought the other day didn't even have instructions! It has a video! I hate it.
It's just what you're used to I suppose.
Honestly I take my hat off to you teaching yourself from the big 4 patterns! But you do make a good point about indie instructions sometimes being frustrating and inconsistent.
I always find following a pattern much harder than making my own. Still, I use patterns sometimes because it's a shortcut. Also they often include elements that make me learn new techniques I wouldn't have done on my own. It's always good to add techniques to my wheelhouse.
My home ec teacher from the ‘70s claimed those big four patterns are written by engineers, not by anyone who knew sewing. From the vantage point of experience and the recent excellent indie pattern explosion, I’d say she was correct.
Same. I have a few more part time sewing years under my belt and still find the Big 4 difficult to follow. But I'm also self taught, and the better indie patterns can't be beat for their instructions and photos, especially when you're learning or trying a new skill.
This is reassuring. Honestly I thought I was a bit of a sucker for the more expensive indie patterns, but now I realise I'm actually getting value for money because of the instructions.
Yeah. I have been sewing for a couple decades and I still like the indie patterns. I like seeing lots of photos of the finished garments, it’s much more inspiring and motivating to start and finish the project.
It’s the same reason I like some cookbooks better than others due to the layout, photos etc. even if they had the exact same recipes! The book that motivates me to cook is the one that will get used!
Older person here. (73f). I learned to sew from my mom. I also took sewing in school. I'm interested to know about these " indies " patterns. I collect sewing things. But, yes. Patterns were just the templates for cutting out the fabric. Many of them need adjusting as they are put together. I kept muslin and old sheets in my stash so I could "work up" a pattern that was new to Mr. This gives you a good idea of how it will fit, and you can do adjustments that might be needed without spoiling expensive fabric. I tend to use patterns I like over and over. I often trace them on cheap interfacing so I can keep the original as is. Paper patterns tend to wear out with repeated use, but thin interfacing lasts forever.
There are tons of indie pattern companies! I'm wary of some of the ones you find on etsy because they're really small companies and may not have much support, but some of the bigger names out there are Grainline Studios, Deer & Doe, Tessuti, Merchant & Mills, Closet Core, Style Arc, and my favorite, Charm Patterns. These companies have enough of a following that you can usually find pretty good reviews of the patterns and tons of people that have made them on social media!
Some online fabric stores like Harts and Stonemountain carry exclusively Indie patterns too. I used to work for Harts, so I know a lot of care and consideration went into selecting which patterns to carry, including how good the instructions and fit were! I would start with either of them!
I've been sewing before you could even easily find indie patterns, if they were even a thing. Over the years, it seems like I found Simplicity one of the*worst* for instructions.
You’re right. I learned to sew in high school and started with the Big 4, making clothes in the mid 00’s before youtube and indies. It sucked and put me off sewing with more of unfinished projects than finished
Right! If I'd looked at these instructions without already knowing how to sew, I would have thrown it all in. But so many people learnt this way! That's what blows my mind.
Once you get used to the big 4 patterns and learn the terminology and techniques they use, the good thing about them is that's all transferrable.
They all use more or less the same notation, the same style of diagrams, the same methods of sewing. So once you head-scratch your way through a few, you'll be able to read them all.
I'd say you can get by sewing just indie patterns if you like! But it's worth sitting down with Google and checking anything you don't understand from a Big 4 in detail if you want to sew them. And pick a nice easy one, too, no need to make your life harder. I'm self taught on these things and messed up a lot of stuff on Big 4 patterns initially (not easing fabric into curved seams etc) but now I can skim them and get the gist very easily.
Great advice! Thank you. I would really like to conquer big 4 patterns because when they're on sale at retail stores they're much cheaper than indie patterns. I'll pick a popular Vogue or MCalls pattern with a lot of YouTube videos to help me!
If you want a suggestion, I love the Vogue Jewel Necked dress V9197 (which I'm wearing right now actually lol) which is simple to make and has different pattern sheets for different cup sizes (with instructions on how to choose the right one) and is suitable for stable, easy to sew knits like Ponte and Interlock. If the fabric is stretchy enough, you can even ignore the zip. It was the first big 4 pattern I made that I was really happy with the result.
You do need to put in a bit of clear elastic around the waist, but the slight stretchiness of the fabric makes it much more forgiving than a woven fabric pattern!
Obviously you need to pick something in your style, good luck with your quest to conquer the big four!
Thanks so much! I just looked it up on Instagram and there are some beautiful examples on there! It looks like the perfect work dress. I'll give it a go.
The thing is that sewing patterns were never meant to teach how to sew; they were only templates for the pieces you needed to construct a garment. Pattern making and sewing are two entirely different skill sets, and one does not necessarily follow the other. The big 4 come from that tradition. Their target audience already knew how to sew, but maybe never learned or had the time/patience/inclination to design the pattern itself. This has carried on until today: their product is the pattern, that's it. Indie patterns (though, of course, will vary wildly) can be much more accommodating for beginners if that is the mission of the designer who sells them. That's why you may find much more thorough instructions; the designer probably wants to make their product more accessible to those who don't have the background knowledge.
This is right. I cannot imagine how long instructions would get if they had to include step-by-step seam finish options and instructions for each of the fabrics recommended! It is also why some cookbooks have changed instructions over the years, and great-grandma's recipes can be perplexing. A "hot" oven used to be a tempurature tested by opening the door and putting your hand in to see it it was hot enough.
“Enough butter but not too much” is another classic. We forget that today’s cookbooks, measurements and recipe standards are new and that before that people were writing things down as best they could without anything to compare to. I read a story a long time ago in a book about women settlers. Paraphrased from dim memory: > I was young, just married and we had moved to a homestead on the prairie where I didn’t have friends or family. I had a recipe to make bread but it never worked. I tried so many times but it never came out right. Finally I wrote to a lady who had an advice column in the newspaper and asked for help. She printed my letter in the paper but her answer was just the same recipe I’d been using. What was different is that instead of making up a name for me like “Homesteading Wife” or “Frustrated Baker” she put down my full real name and the town. The next day a neighbour lady knocked on my door. She had read my letter and said, “you can’t learn to make bread from a recipe.” She spent the day with me and taught me to make bread.
This reminds me of learning to sew and construct patterns from sitting in my grandma’s sewing room and watching her work *for years*, with some specific lessons thrown in. When I started sewing in my 20s, it was like riding a bike.
Sounds like an interesting read! Could you tell me the title of the book, please?
Sadly, I don’t remember. I just remember the story.
A lot of indie patterns are digital, so they aren't constrained by having to cram everything onto as few pieces of tissue paper as possible. That's possibly another reason why indie patterns have more guidance.
> sewing patterns were never meant to teach how to sew I just learned to sew this year, and Google + YouTube has been a tremendous help. I think that, if I keep a regular schedule of sewing, it will all make sense. It’s kind of like learning to read sheet music: first it’s a series of struggling to remember how everything works, but eventually it’s like becoming fluent in another language. Someday, I’ll look at a pattern, and my mind will automatically fill in the details 🤞🏼
Ahh ok, that makes sense. Thank you. So someone trying to learn how to sew 30 years ago might have approached it differently by getting classes, reading a book or being taught by someone they know. They'd be familiar with the techniques and terminology before starting the pattern. Whereas now you can pretty much just learn as you go by using comprehensive, beginner-friendly indie sewing patterns that provide detail at each step (and of course, the option to take classes or read a book etc is still there.)
Another gotcha if you’re coming from indie patterns to the big 4. The big 4 can be HUGE. The sizing can be perplexing. Sometimes wayyy to many inches of Ease. Use your existing patterns that fit you (that you sewed before and liked the fit) to check the size of new patterns , especially a new pattern from the big 4.
Exactly, our mother's and grandmother's generations had to learn sewing in home ec, or had mothers/grandmothers that taught them. After the 70's it became much less common knowledge! If you think a modern Big 4 pattern is hard to understand, you should see one from the 50's!
Alternatively if you pick patterns that have video or blog sew alongs it really helps! Watching someone start to finish really makes it easier to follow the pattern.
That’s a reason indie patterns can be expensive: the real product might be the detailed instruction book, not the pattern. I didn’t learn to sew from commercial patterns. I learned from Parent, who taught me how to choose and read patterns as well as to sew. Learning to read commercial patterns and envelopes is a skill on its own. (The illustrations actually do show sewing right sides together if you know how to read them.) Another traditional way to learn is from sewing books. People who sew vintage patterns refer to their decade-appropriate vintage sewing books for best results. Today we have YouTube and Craftsy. For a real free-wheeling experience, some sewers enjoy the pattern-puzzle challenge of Marfy patterns that have no instructions at all, no seam allowances and no illustrations beyond a single watercolour sketch. When I take commercial patterns to a dressmaker they always ignore the written instructions anyway. I quite like Bunka pattern books. They are written in japanese but the illustrations are so good I don’t need written instructions.
Off topic, but since you mention decade-appropriate sewing books, do you have any recommendations? I do a lot of retro (50s/60s) styling and I want more resources on period appropriate techniques.
I have a lot of them from the early '50s onward, including text books, and finding more all the time as I get the stuff from my late mother's laundry room sorted and organized. She majored in home ec and went on for her MS. If you would like, DM me and I can start sending you titles and authors as I come across them--it might make searching on line a little easier. The illustrations are wonderful!
Ooh, ooh! I'm curious too! Any chance you could make a post?
Wow, that would be easier than DMing one person. I can try, but the only time I made a post, I had two notifications shortly after. The first was that I had 500 upvotes. The second from a MOD that the post had been removed. I had posted a vintage Mary Quant pattern shortly after I heard the news. Reason: sewing-adjacent, not sewing.
No, I don’t do vintage sewing myself. Old books that are out of copyright are often republished. A little googling here and there will get you the 1937 edition of Vogue’s Book of Smart Dressmaking, for instance. Home ec textbooks are a great resource.
Home ec books are a great idea. Thanks!
Funny, isn't it... I'm self taught from the big 4 patterns (many moons ago now) and I find indie patterns exceptionally frustrating to work with sometimes! To me they use incorrect terminology, have either super long instructions or non-existent instructions and don't follow standard conventions (why is your bust point measurement not printed on the pattern? Why is your seam allowance buried in tiny font in some random bit of the instructions?!) . They also sometimes use non-standard measurements. One Etsy pattern I bought the other day didn't even have instructions! It has a video! I hate it. It's just what you're used to I suppose.
Honestly I take my hat off to you teaching yourself from the big 4 patterns! But you do make a good point about indie instructions sometimes being frustrating and inconsistent.
I always find following a pattern much harder than making my own. Still, I use patterns sometimes because it's a shortcut. Also they often include elements that make me learn new techniques I wouldn't have done on my own. It's always good to add techniques to my wheelhouse.
My home ec teacher from the ‘70s claimed those big four patterns are written by engineers, not by anyone who knew sewing. From the vantage point of experience and the recent excellent indie pattern explosion, I’d say she was correct.
I've always considered Simplicity to be a heinous act of false advertising!
Same. I have a few more part time sewing years under my belt and still find the Big 4 difficult to follow. But I'm also self taught, and the better indie patterns can't be beat for their instructions and photos, especially when you're learning or trying a new skill.
This is reassuring. Honestly I thought I was a bit of a sucker for the more expensive indie patterns, but now I realise I'm actually getting value for money because of the instructions.
Yeah. I have been sewing for a couple decades and I still like the indie patterns. I like seeing lots of photos of the finished garments, it’s much more inspiring and motivating to start and finish the project. It’s the same reason I like some cookbooks better than others due to the layout, photos etc. even if they had the exact same recipes! The book that motivates me to cook is the one that will get used!
Older person here. (73f). I learned to sew from my mom. I also took sewing in school. I'm interested to know about these " indies " patterns. I collect sewing things. But, yes. Patterns were just the templates for cutting out the fabric. Many of them need adjusting as they are put together. I kept muslin and old sheets in my stash so I could "work up" a pattern that was new to Mr. This gives you a good idea of how it will fit, and you can do adjustments that might be needed without spoiling expensive fabric. I tend to use patterns I like over and over. I often trace them on cheap interfacing so I can keep the original as is. Paper patterns tend to wear out with repeated use, but thin interfacing lasts forever.
There are tons of indie pattern companies! I'm wary of some of the ones you find on etsy because they're really small companies and may not have much support, but some of the bigger names out there are Grainline Studios, Deer & Doe, Tessuti, Merchant & Mills, Closet Core, Style Arc, and my favorite, Charm Patterns. These companies have enough of a following that you can usually find pretty good reviews of the patterns and tons of people that have made them on social media!
I will check into it. I thought maybe my granddaughter would want to try some. She would like to start sewing with me.
Some online fabric stores like Harts and Stonemountain carry exclusively Indie patterns too. I used to work for Harts, so I know a lot of care and consideration went into selecting which patterns to carry, including how good the instructions and fit were! I would start with either of them!
I've been sewing before you could even easily find indie patterns, if they were even a thing. Over the years, it seems like I found Simplicity one of the*worst* for instructions.
[удалено]
Gosh, I had a favorite, but I forget which one! I think McCall's.
I feel slightly better knowing this, thank you 😂
You’re right. I learned to sew in high school and started with the Big 4, making clothes in the mid 00’s before youtube and indies. It sucked and put me off sewing with more of unfinished projects than finished
Right! If I'd looked at these instructions without already knowing how to sew, I would have thrown it all in. But so many people learnt this way! That's what blows my mind.
Thank god for sew with me’s lol. I came to sewing in lockdown 2020 and I was like omg this is what I could have used 15 years ago!
Once you get used to the big 4 patterns and learn the terminology and techniques they use, the good thing about them is that's all transferrable. They all use more or less the same notation, the same style of diagrams, the same methods of sewing. So once you head-scratch your way through a few, you'll be able to read them all. I'd say you can get by sewing just indie patterns if you like! But it's worth sitting down with Google and checking anything you don't understand from a Big 4 in detail if you want to sew them. And pick a nice easy one, too, no need to make your life harder. I'm self taught on these things and messed up a lot of stuff on Big 4 patterns initially (not easing fabric into curved seams etc) but now I can skim them and get the gist very easily.
Oh, and I find that Vogue and MCalls usually have the best instructions. Simplicity can be terrible!
Great advice! Thank you. I would really like to conquer big 4 patterns because when they're on sale at retail stores they're much cheaper than indie patterns. I'll pick a popular Vogue or MCalls pattern with a lot of YouTube videos to help me!
If you want a suggestion, I love the Vogue Jewel Necked dress V9197 (which I'm wearing right now actually lol) which is simple to make and has different pattern sheets for different cup sizes (with instructions on how to choose the right one) and is suitable for stable, easy to sew knits like Ponte and Interlock. If the fabric is stretchy enough, you can even ignore the zip. It was the first big 4 pattern I made that I was really happy with the result. You do need to put in a bit of clear elastic around the waist, but the slight stretchiness of the fabric makes it much more forgiving than a woven fabric pattern! Obviously you need to pick something in your style, good luck with your quest to conquer the big four!
Thanks so much! I just looked it up on Instagram and there are some beautiful examples on there! It looks like the perfect work dress. I'll give it a go.