I am writing this blog post as a cautionary tale for people that have found heirloom sewing in the last 7 - 8 years. While I love to sew, I also spend time reading sewing books and magazines and watching sewing videos on social media sites. Many of the videos I see are a satisfactory distraction but I have found a few that are truly exemplary. This is important for later, I promise.
Like many people who love to sew, my collection of fabric is rivaled only by my collection of patterns. My husband and I used to thrift shop and frequent garage sales, and we still do on occasion. I found that I would run across some wonderful patterns for children's clothing, and more often than you would expect, they are uncut. Getting patterns on sale is a rush, and $1 patterns (or less) feels great when you buy them.
Lately, I've been busting out some of these patterns and I am finding that a certain set are proving problematic. At first I thought it was just me. I was reading them wrong, missing something or had made a mistake. That was where I was tonight. I was happily sewing away on a pattern from 2011 and got to a point where I read the next step in the instructions. All of a sudden, it didn't make sense. I went back and re-read it and took a look at my cut fabric and realized that their instructions were the basic equivalent of 1 + 1 = 3!
My initial reaction was to thank those people who wrote the pattern instructions, raise my voice, and inform both them and my ceiling that there is a special place for those who write pattern instructions incorrectly. All that work, USELESS! Well, nearly so. I will be able to salvage the garment but will have to sacrifice a bit of skirt to do it.
This is where my husband chimed in. He reminded me that the really good YouTube channel I love to watch posts corrected instructions, ones that she has written herself, for a number of patterns that she uses for the garments she sews on YouTube. He's downloaded them for me. At this, I breathed a sign of relief. It's NOT ME! This genre from that time, say late 1990s through about 2010 have a NUMBER of patterns that are just plain confusing.
So, what to do. Well, more modern patterns appear to have more thought behind their instructions and I don't have nearly the problems with them that I do the ones from "that certain time." I find that web searches can turn up free copies of corrected pattern instructions. That was the case this evening and now I have the right instructions for the dress I am making.
Where am I going? I guess it's a nickel's worth of free advice. If you buy heirloom clothing patterns from "that certain genre and time" go look for updated instructions, and look beyond the author as the sewing community will post on blogs telling others how they solved these problems. It's either that or simply steer clear completely and avoid the stress.
As for that YouTube channel, check out Oxford Heirlooms, she's great.
Happy sewing.
P.S. The cover picture is from a cutter's guide for an Inverness Cape, and it dates to the early 1900s. If you ever have the time, go learn how these work. They have a lot to teach and can result in some very well fitting garments if you can figure out how to modernize the look.
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