Patterns (part 1)

WEBVTT
1
00:00:13.470 --> 00:00:16.519
Welcome back to Used to Sew, a podcast about vintage
2
00:00:16.559 --> 00:00:19.699
sewing machines, sewing history, and sewing culture in the past
3
00:00:19.780 --> 00:00:23.460
and present. I am your producer and co-host, Aradia, daughter
4
00:00:23.519 --> 00:00:25.899
of your main host, TR Kelly, who is here today
5
00:00:25.980 --> 00:00:29.969
to talk to you about The History of Patterns, Part 1,
6
00:00:29.969 --> 00:00:33.469
by request. We will start with a few letters, but
7
00:00:33.590 --> 00:00:36.049
after the first ad break, we get into TR's first
8
00:00:36.090 --> 00:00:39.259
memory of a pattern, and then the very origins of
9
00:00:39.579 --> 00:00:43.149
tailoring patterns. We will technically make it to the modern
10
00:00:43.189 --> 00:00:46.170
state of patterns, but not without missing the side tangents
11
00:00:46.210 --> 00:00:49.850
of several of Tiara's references, hence us calling this part one.
12
00:00:50.689 --> 00:00:53.609
This episode's purpose is to be reactive to requests from
13
00:00:53.689 --> 00:00:57.030
our audience. Patterns have fascinated Tiara since she was a
14
00:00:57.049 --> 00:01:00.289
little kid, and I personally really enjoyed learning about how
15
00:01:00.350 --> 00:01:03.469
the rise of sewing patterns was influenced by the rise
16
00:01:03.609 --> 00:01:07.879
of sewing machines in some startlingly parallel ways. We compare
17
00:01:07.939 --> 00:01:11.879
patterns to building drafts for buildings and food recipes, learn
18
00:01:11.900 --> 00:01:14.819
about which of the big four got started first and last,
19
00:01:15.260 --> 00:01:19.640
the evolving attitudes towards patterns from luxury items to virtue signaling,
20
00:01:20.260 --> 00:01:24.439
and the progression of paper printing being invented and then devalued.
21
00:01:24.859 --> 00:01:27.909
It is an interesting companion topic to sewing machines themselves,
22
00:01:28.329 --> 00:01:29.329
and we hope you enjoy it.
23
00:01:29.329 --> 00:01:36.620
So Well, it is still a beautiful warm autumn day
24
00:01:36.680 --> 00:01:38.519
here in Oregon. How's it over on that side of
25
00:01:38.540 --> 00:01:39.040
the mountain, right?
26
00:01:39.459 --> 00:01:42.579
Absolutely gorgeous. We expected some rain over the weekend and
27
00:01:42.609 --> 00:01:44.909
then all we got was partial clouds and it's still
28
00:01:44.969 --> 00:01:48.030
just fog in the morning and blue skies lighting up
29
00:01:48.069 --> 00:01:50.209
the different yellows and reds of the leaves.
30
00:01:50.409 --> 00:01:51.409
It's just perfect.
31
00:01:51.450 --> 00:01:54.010
You walk down by the creek and it's just crunchy
32
00:01:54.069 --> 00:01:58.640
maple leaves underfoot. We saw a giant fish jump yesterday.
33
00:01:59.099 --> 00:02:01.219
We went down there. The proper salmon runs I don't
34
00:02:01.280 --> 00:02:04.549
think have fully arrived, but the early adopters have definitely
35
00:02:04.569 --> 00:02:07.189
gotten here. And yesterday it was like the most quintessential
36
00:02:07.269 --> 00:02:11.120
large fish leaping out of the water broadside to the camera. Like,
37
00:02:11.189 --> 00:02:12.800
I mean, it was that moment.
38
00:02:12.819 --> 00:02:17.020
It was lovely. Oh, that's so Oregon. Man, as you're
39
00:02:17.039 --> 00:02:19.280
saying all those colors and things, all of a sudden
40
00:02:19.300 --> 00:02:23.409
I'm picturing a quilt, right? Oh, yeah. Beautiful colors. And
41
00:02:23.430 --> 00:02:25.889
the water this time of year is that real rich, dark,
42
00:02:25.990 --> 00:02:29.610
deep brown before the real rain comes. We're expecting a
43
00:02:29.770 --> 00:02:32.919
little rain over here this weekend, but mostly we've been getting...
44
00:02:33.400 --> 00:02:35.979
frost it's been getting down into the upper teens at
45
00:02:36.020 --> 00:02:39.460
night which makes me so happy that my big news
46
00:02:39.520 --> 00:02:43.530
today that relates even to sewing machines and irons as
47
00:02:43.610 --> 00:02:51.509
we now have grid electricity hell yes the guys in
48
00:02:51.530 --> 00:02:54.629
the big trucks came and they got out big tools
49
00:02:54.719 --> 00:02:59.689
and things and it went it's on wow So we
50
00:02:59.750 --> 00:03:03.060
still don't have the furnace working in the manufactured home yet.
51
00:03:03.099 --> 00:03:05.860
So I'm still out in the RV, but the solar
52
00:03:05.939 --> 00:03:10.770
gain here is amazing with just the south facing windows
53
00:03:10.969 --> 00:03:14.650
can get the house quite toasty. I peeled off the, uh,
54
00:03:15.400 --> 00:03:18.180
What's that sun reflective stuff? I'm like, wait, there's no
55
00:03:18.259 --> 00:03:21.379
warmth in this sunshine. Oh, well, they got the tinting
56
00:03:21.520 --> 00:03:24.280
on there. So I peeled that off. I'm sure we'll
57
00:03:24.740 --> 00:03:27.460
regret that when it's summer. But actually, I think that's
58
00:03:27.500 --> 00:03:31.979
what curtains are for. Curtains and awnings. Awnings are a
59
00:03:32.080 --> 00:03:35.310
neat thing that I might try to sew. Sort of like,
60
00:03:35.439 --> 00:03:37.490
you know, out of that sunbrella. You see them over
61
00:03:37.629 --> 00:03:41.590
downtown buildings sometimes, the fabric awnings. They've got like a
62
00:03:41.689 --> 00:03:44.129
frame and then a fabric thing stretched over the top.
63
00:03:44.169 --> 00:03:45.009
That looks pretty neat.
64
00:03:45.610 --> 00:03:46.069
Totally.
65
00:03:46.110 --> 00:03:48.789
But just having electricity, I mean, what's been putting me
66
00:03:48.870 --> 00:03:52.110
off from sewing is, yeah, I've got my VS3 hand crank,
67
00:03:52.229 --> 00:03:56.569
but I've had no way to press things. And pressing
68
00:03:56.680 --> 00:04:00.000
is just as important as the actual stitching on how
69
00:04:00.039 --> 00:04:03.740
your finished garment is going to look. And honestly, I
70
00:04:03.740 --> 00:04:06.479
just haven't had time for any sewing anyway, being here
71
00:04:06.560 --> 00:04:09.000
in the new place and trying to set everything up.
72
00:04:09.039 --> 00:04:12.389
But man, I've got, I've got a sewing room. Oh,
73
00:04:13.159 --> 00:04:15.419
It's not set up yet, but it's there. I know
74
00:04:15.439 --> 00:04:18.100
where things are. Here's a box of notions. Here's all
75
00:04:18.139 --> 00:04:22.850
my pretty quilt scraps. Here's my Benning, my VS3, and
76
00:04:22.879 --> 00:04:27.110
my trusty old Locomotive 301 that we found in the
77
00:04:27.149 --> 00:04:30.410
thrift store last year. And that one's going into my
78
00:04:30.509 --> 00:04:35.209
Model 48 Art Deco cabinet for now because it has
79
00:04:36.149 --> 00:04:39.279
a kind of a foot control I've never seen. The 48,
80
00:04:39.259 --> 00:04:43.180
Model 48, Singer 48 cabinet, the Art Deco cabinet, big one,
81
00:04:43.779 --> 00:04:47.050
right next to your right foot. Okay, this thing goes
82
00:04:47.230 --> 00:04:49.670
solid all the way to the floor. It's a solid
83
00:04:49.709 --> 00:04:54.689
piece of furniture, like a dresser. There's a little metal accelerator.
84
00:04:54.709 --> 00:04:58.540
It's just built right into the bottom of the cabinet,
85
00:04:58.560 --> 00:05:02.069
not a knee lever. It's down where your foot control
86
00:05:02.189 --> 00:05:04.949
would be, but it's just this neat little pedal that
87
00:05:05.009 --> 00:05:07.550
sticks out. So, of course, I flipped the cabinet over
88
00:05:07.569 --> 00:05:09.939
because I wanted to check out the wiring and like, hey,
89
00:05:09.959 --> 00:05:13.160
what's going on here? And it's a standard Singer ceramic,
90
00:05:13.220 --> 00:05:16.819
the white with the springs and all that, the old rheostat,
91
00:05:17.339 --> 00:05:19.959
like would be used even in a knee lever cabinet
92
00:05:20.139 --> 00:05:23.180
or a knee control portable. So it's the same basic guts,
93
00:05:23.259 --> 00:05:25.509
but it's in a framework to allow it to be
94
00:05:25.569 --> 00:05:27.709
mounted to the bottom of this cabinet with this little
95
00:05:27.850 --> 00:05:30.860
foot control thing. So I lubed up all the springs
96
00:05:30.920 --> 00:05:34.259
and blew out the spider webs. And there's a cable
97
00:05:34.339 --> 00:05:37.399
going from that up to where the machine sits. It's
98
00:05:37.439 --> 00:05:40.209
one of the two prong cables that hooks to the
99
00:05:40.329 --> 00:05:44.009
bottom of the machine. 301s and 401s. A lot of
100
00:05:44.029 --> 00:05:48.089
them had this. Oh my God, that's there. Where is
101
00:05:48.149 --> 00:05:51.970
the other half of the You know, what plugs the
102
00:05:51.990 --> 00:05:55.569
machine into the wall? Where's that? Oh, crikey. Is it here?
103
00:05:55.689 --> 00:05:57.649
Is it here at the cabin? Is it out in
104
00:05:57.689 --> 00:06:01.509
the other RV? So just getting all the pieces together. Yesterday,
105
00:06:01.569 --> 00:06:04.769
I actually found that other half of the Singer cord set.
106
00:06:05.350 --> 00:06:05.889
Yes!
107
00:06:07.069 --> 00:06:11.170
And so now, today, after we're done doing used to sew,
108
00:06:11.230 --> 00:06:14.730
and if I can escape being drafted into putting more
109
00:06:14.850 --> 00:06:17.870
outlets in, I want to escape to my sewing room
110
00:06:17.910 --> 00:06:20.670
and see if I can actually... Get something to sew.
111
00:06:21.269 --> 00:06:23.850
I've got all these naked dolls standing around. I've got
112
00:06:23.930 --> 00:06:27.189
curtains that need to be made. My winter clothes that
113
00:06:27.240 --> 00:06:30.180
need to be altered. So much, so much sewing to do.
114
00:06:30.660 --> 00:06:32.660
Have you done any sewing this week, dear?
115
00:06:33.680 --> 00:06:38.480
No, I've worked more on my cross stitch while eagerly
116
00:06:38.560 --> 00:06:42.990
anticipating a embroidery stand. I don't know if I mentioned.
117
00:06:42.649 --> 00:06:46.629
That on the podcast. No, what? Tell, tell. Tell, tell.
118
00:06:46.649 --> 00:06:50.889
So I was complaining about back pain, neck pain, eye pain,
119
00:06:51.009 --> 00:06:53.829
you know, just the whole problem with not having the
120
00:06:53.889 --> 00:06:57.860
correct tools to do needlepoint. And my spouse was like,
121
00:06:58.800 --> 00:07:01.180
why don't you go find yourself the correct stand on
122
00:07:01.220 --> 00:07:06.430
the interwebs to have hands-free stitching? And so I went
123
00:07:06.509 --> 00:07:11.269
and I found a quintessential blog post from a middle-aged
124
00:07:11.310 --> 00:07:14.230
white lady who has been crafting for longer than I've
125
00:07:14.269 --> 00:07:14.889
been alive.
126
00:07:15.170 --> 00:07:15.550
Right.
127
00:07:15.610 --> 00:07:16.970
Older than middle-aged, actually, at that point.
128
00:07:16.990 --> 00:07:17.410
Right.
129
00:07:17.569 --> 00:07:19.699
I found a basic crafting blog where it was like,
130
00:07:19.740 --> 00:07:23.279
here's the four big embroidery stand systems that exist. And
131
00:07:23.319 --> 00:07:26.720
here's a multi-paragraph explanation of how each one works and
132
00:07:26.819 --> 00:07:29.480
how I enjoyed it and what the pros and cons were.
133
00:07:29.540 --> 00:07:32.540
And you know, the thing where a nerd has put
134
00:07:32.639 --> 00:07:36.120
hours into explaining their niche. So that way you don't
135
00:07:36.160 --> 00:07:37.759
have to like reinvent the wheel.
136
00:07:38.040 --> 00:07:41.790
Exactly. I love that. Oh, wow. So, so like, here's
137
00:07:41.939 --> 00:07:43.850
the like, okay, I know nothing. Tell me what I
138
00:07:43.889 --> 00:07:46.689
need to know to make an informed decision. Yeah, perfect.
139
00:07:46.810 --> 00:07:49.389
Exactly. Like I didn't know that there were four different
140
00:07:49.490 --> 00:07:52.689
kinds of embroidery frames that exist. I didn't know that
141
00:07:52.709 --> 00:07:54.990
there was one that's specific to cross-stitch.
142
00:07:55.449 --> 00:07:56.009
Wow. I didn't know.
143
00:07:56.149 --> 00:07:58.470
I just was like, oh, embroidery is embroidery is embroidery. No,
144
00:07:58.509 --> 00:08:02.319
there is a cross stitch frame called a Q-snap. Had
145
00:08:02.360 --> 00:08:06.480
no idea that that existed. Q-snap. This lovely blog post
146
00:08:06.519 --> 00:08:08.839
from this crafter, I probably should remember what it is
147
00:08:08.879 --> 00:08:11.370
and put it in the show notes, explained what the
148
00:08:11.410 --> 00:08:16.170
different kinds were. And the different materials. And again, I
149
00:08:16.209 --> 00:08:18.069
had never thought about the materials that they're built out of.
150
00:08:18.209 --> 00:08:20.920
But of course, quintessentially, way back in the day, once
151
00:08:20.980 --> 00:08:23.480
upon a time, wood was the only material you would
152
00:08:23.540 --> 00:08:26.300
use to make these things out of. It was all
153
00:08:26.420 --> 00:08:30.689
wood and steel, like wing nuts and bars. And this
154
00:08:30.730 --> 00:08:33.250
person was like, look, those are traditional and they're affordable
155
00:08:33.330 --> 00:08:36.750
and you can find them real cheap secondhand. But they
156
00:08:36.789 --> 00:08:42.289
are infinitely needing to be adjusted. Yes. They constantly will
157
00:08:42.309 --> 00:08:45.450
need to be adjusted. So maybe try getting one of
158
00:08:45.490 --> 00:08:47.870
these metal ones. The only problem with the metal ones
159
00:08:47.950 --> 00:08:51.159
is that they're really expensive. It's one of those you
160
00:08:51.200 --> 00:08:54.580
buy one per lifetime kind of investments. Like if you
161
00:08:54.659 --> 00:08:58.200
have hundreds of dollars to spend, this is a great investment.
162
00:08:58.279 --> 00:09:01.159
If you don't, it's not. And one of the ones
163
00:09:01.220 --> 00:09:06.399
that this person reviewed looked really cool. It looked really amazing.
164
00:09:07.200 --> 00:09:09.190
The little like, you know, two and a half minute
165
00:09:09.230 --> 00:09:12.110
video of a grandma handling it for shipping and all that.
166
00:09:12.669 --> 00:09:13.970
Oh, easy setup.
167
00:09:14.090 --> 00:09:16.870
Easy setup. Like the video did not involve a lot
168
00:09:16.889 --> 00:09:19.590
of like weird gimmicky cuts. You know, it was just
169
00:09:19.610 --> 00:09:22.509
like a very straight ahead. It wasn't even an infomercial.
170
00:09:22.549 --> 00:09:24.720
It was just information kind of demo.
171
00:09:24.740 --> 00:09:25.600
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
172
00:09:25.620 --> 00:09:28.700
And made in the USA, which I am a huge
173
00:09:28.740 --> 00:09:31.360
fan of trying to buy, especially if I'm going to
174
00:09:31.399 --> 00:09:35.909
buy myself a fancy crafting upgrade for a hobby. And
175
00:09:36.470 --> 00:09:38.710
if I can afford to invest in a toy for
176
00:09:38.750 --> 00:09:41.500
a hobby, is it possible for me to get the very,
177
00:09:41.549 --> 00:09:45.519
very best, most checks off all of my ethical checklists?
178
00:09:45.539 --> 00:09:47.679
If I need it for survival, if I need it
179
00:09:47.720 --> 00:09:51.299
for basic quality of life, I'm willing to make more compromises, right?
180
00:09:51.419 --> 00:09:54.889
But this is peak hobby. This is me at my
181
00:09:55.090 --> 00:09:59.730
most luxurious, I have all the resources. I found one
182
00:09:59.769 --> 00:10:02.129
that's made in the US and that made me very happy.
183
00:10:02.470 --> 00:10:03.879
It's the one that she reviewed, but yeah, it's made
184
00:10:03.889 --> 00:10:09.360
in the US. It's called the Needlecraft System. I'll put
185
00:10:09.379 --> 00:10:12.279
the link in the description. But it's like a brother
186
00:10:12.340 --> 00:10:18.350
and sister from the 90s in Florida. And it's just very,
187
00:10:18.470 --> 00:10:21.360
a cool company, a cool product, very expensive. But my
188
00:10:21.389 --> 00:10:23.370
spouse was like, I want to get you.
189
00:10:23.250 --> 00:10:23.879
A nice thing.
190
00:10:25.500 --> 00:10:27.259
So the stand is really cool. It's a floor stand.
191
00:10:27.360 --> 00:10:29.559
It literally sits on the floor and holds your work
192
00:10:29.580 --> 00:10:30.120
in front of you.
193
00:10:30.440 --> 00:10:32.419
Okay. Yeah. I was wondering like, how does this work?
194
00:10:32.440 --> 00:10:33.980
Yeah. So there'll be the frame. You have to buy
195
00:10:34.000 --> 00:10:36.519
the frame separately, right? So there's a floor stand that
196
00:10:36.559 --> 00:10:38.399
they sell. They also have a table stand and a
197
00:10:38.440 --> 00:10:40.899
lap stand, and then they have four different frames. So
198
00:10:40.919 --> 00:10:43.600
it's all modular and interchangeable, right? So you buy the
199
00:10:43.620 --> 00:10:46.679
stand and the frame as separate components. So I could
200
00:10:46.700 --> 00:10:49.919
put Any one of their frames into the same stand.
201
00:10:50.000 --> 00:10:50.419
Nice.
202
00:10:50.740 --> 00:10:52.940
And then they also sell like, you know, a little
203
00:10:53.240 --> 00:10:56.120
attachment tray and a light. And I was like, oh,
204
00:10:56.200 --> 00:10:57.120
a light would be cool.
205
00:10:57.320 --> 00:10:59.080
A light would be good. Yeah. Yeah.
206
00:10:59.320 --> 00:11:02.070
The light that they sell costs more than the stand.
207
00:11:02.529 --> 00:11:03.730
No shit.
208
00:11:03.750 --> 00:11:07.090
Yeah. And I was like, mm. No, I will be
209
00:11:07.149 --> 00:11:10.450
supplying my own light, actually. I will find a different
210
00:11:10.470 --> 00:11:12.429
way to illuminate my work. I do not need the
211
00:11:12.480 --> 00:11:14.720
light to be the most expensive part of the setup.
212
00:11:15.039 --> 00:11:18.480
Yeah, because light, that's something you can find or build
213
00:11:18.519 --> 00:11:21.639
or whatever. But the stand is like this specific tool
214
00:11:21.679 --> 00:11:23.440
that you had to get. So I see that. Yeah.
215
00:11:23.500 --> 00:11:26.019
Yeah. And the company is small enough that they're like, oh,
216
00:11:26.720 --> 00:11:28.580
so these stands are really popular. So you're going to
217
00:11:28.620 --> 00:11:30.700
have to preorder it. We won't be able to send
218
00:11:30.779 --> 00:11:33.399
it till like next month because they're very popular. Yeah.
219
00:11:34.019 --> 00:11:36.330
Oh, and they can only build so many, right? That's
220
00:11:36.350 --> 00:11:38.269
the thing with a small shop. That's cool.
221
00:11:38.509 --> 00:11:41.909
Totally. So, yeah, I have not done much sewing, but
222
00:11:41.970 --> 00:11:46.399
I have done the research and emotional labor of being like, OK,
223
00:11:46.460 --> 00:11:48.480
this is the price tag of the thing you said
224
00:11:48.500 --> 00:11:51.220
you wanted to buy me. OK, I guess we're hitting purchase.
225
00:11:51.320 --> 00:11:52.830
OK, I got to like make sure to.
226
00:11:53.750 --> 00:11:55.629
Know when the package will arrive so I can open
227
00:11:55.679 --> 00:11:57.720
the gate. You know, it's just, that's been kind of
228
00:11:57.740 --> 00:12:00.100
where my sewing energy has gone is just being like,
229
00:12:00.299 --> 00:12:02.559
I'm going to not have all this shoulder pain when
230
00:12:02.639 --> 00:12:03.879
I work on my fairies.
231
00:12:04.120 --> 00:12:06.820
It's going to be great. That is such, such the thing,
232
00:12:07.100 --> 00:12:10.090
you know, having the right, like when we did the
233
00:12:10.289 --> 00:12:14.529
episode about cabinets, you know, having your machine, your sewing machine, no,
234
00:12:15.090 --> 00:12:17.629
at the right height. So you're, you don't get that
235
00:12:17.750 --> 00:12:20.860
upper back and shoulder pain from hunching over it. or
236
00:12:21.000 --> 00:12:25.460
elbow pain because it's too high. You know, there's an
237
00:12:25.600 --> 00:12:29.210
ergonomic sweet spot for every hobby, you know, and our
238
00:12:29.250 --> 00:12:33.049
needle hobbies too, especially since a lot of times, especially
239
00:12:33.070 --> 00:12:35.169
with needlework, you're holding still. You don't have to get
240
00:12:35.230 --> 00:12:38.690
up and press or, you know, go root around for
241
00:12:38.710 --> 00:12:42.250
elastic or whatever, you know? So yeah, having your ergonomics
242
00:12:42.289 --> 00:12:50.200
just perfect is... Thank you, Mr... Mr. Aradia. Yeah, yeah.
243
00:12:50.240 --> 00:12:53.269
So that's my fun sewing news. I think that the
244
00:12:53.289 --> 00:12:55.529
frame will probably be arriving this week, so I can
245
00:12:55.570 --> 00:12:59.129
probably start using the frame by hand just to have
246
00:12:59.190 --> 00:13:01.980
the cross-stitch fabric in the right frame. But then, yeah.
247
00:13:02.419 --> 00:13:04.700
I won't probably get the floor stamped until, you know,
248
00:13:04.759 --> 00:13:06.340
first week of November at the earliest.
249
00:13:06.519 --> 00:13:10.159
Right, right. Well, right at the beginning of the holidays.
250
00:13:10.179 --> 00:13:12.000
Yeah, I'm like, really? Am I already like in the
251
00:13:12.059 --> 00:13:15.059
holiday like backlog? Is that why they're already pre-ordered? Or
252
00:13:15.100 --> 00:13:18.210
is it just that everything manufacturing and shipping is hard
253
00:13:18.250 --> 00:13:18.549
right now?
254
00:13:18.970 --> 00:13:23.330
That is probably one of those sort of unspoken deals
255
00:13:23.669 --> 00:13:26.850
is all the supply chain disruptions still. And then the
256
00:13:26.929 --> 00:13:31.570
price of moving things around, which is diesel. You know,
257
00:13:31.870 --> 00:13:34.450
I don't drive a diesel car, but pretty much everything
258
00:13:34.490 --> 00:13:36.750
that comes to this town comes on a truck. We
259
00:13:36.789 --> 00:13:41.429
don't have railroads here. So we've been noticing basic prices
260
00:13:41.519 --> 00:13:44.100
going up. Gas is $ 5 and diesel is $ 7 right now.
261
00:13:44.159 --> 00:13:44.440
Yeah.
262
00:13:44.620 --> 00:13:44.820
Yeah.
263
00:13:47.549 --> 00:13:51.090
But yeah, otherwise, I had some friends over for the
264
00:13:51.129 --> 00:13:53.570
weekend and they, you know, stayed in the sewing room
265
00:13:53.769 --> 00:13:55.700
as per usual. That's the guest room. And I had
266
00:13:55.740 --> 00:13:57.879
to be like, oh, guys, I hope that my like
267
00:13:57.919 --> 00:14:01.659
headless mannequins staring down at you wasn't too weird. And
268
00:14:02.200 --> 00:14:04.600
they were both fine because they both are crafters themselves
269
00:14:04.639 --> 00:14:07.340
and also have headless mannequins in their workspaces. So it
270
00:14:07.379 --> 00:14:09.940
was fine. I was like, I hope that wasn't creepy.
271
00:14:09.960 --> 00:14:12.169
Sorry. Oh, my God. Put a hat on it.
272
00:14:12.179 --> 00:14:14.059
I'm still creeped out by it because it looks like me.
273
00:14:14.289 --> 00:14:15.990
It's not just a generic mannequin.
274
00:14:16.029 --> 00:14:16.750
It's me.
275
00:14:17.370 --> 00:14:18.950
So it freaks me out more. But they were like,
276
00:14:18.970 --> 00:14:19.950
it's fine. We don't care.
277
00:14:22.450 --> 00:14:42.399
Today, we're going to talk about The History of Patterns,
278
00:14:43.000 --> 00:14:48.330
which was suggested to us by Lolly, who is a listener,
279
00:14:48.350 --> 00:14:51.529
a fairly new listener, one of those, oh my God,
280
00:14:51.590 --> 00:14:53.090
I just found you guys and had to listen to
281
00:14:53.149 --> 00:14:59.250
every episode. So with that, she, you know, we love
282
00:14:59.289 --> 00:15:01.240
it when you guys set us off on a topic.
283
00:15:01.399 --> 00:15:04.440
Tell us about this. Tell us about that. It's just
284
00:15:04.500 --> 00:15:07.110
more fun to have us read you all the snippets
285
00:15:07.490 --> 00:15:10.029
than you have to, like, go look at YouTube or
286
00:15:10.669 --> 00:15:11.610
Wikipedia or whatever, right?
287
00:15:12.769 --> 00:15:15.500
Yeah, we're pop crafters. We're just telling you what other
288
00:15:15.529 --> 00:15:18.360
people have said. It's fun. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
289
00:15:18.679 --> 00:15:22.100
But before we get to that, here is another letter.
290
00:15:22.120 --> 00:15:26.210
This is so weird. Okay. You've heard of the cat
291
00:15:26.269 --> 00:15:28.690
distribution system, right? Cats appear.
292
00:15:28.730 --> 00:15:30.730
Yes, the universal cat distribution system.
293
00:15:30.769 --> 00:15:32.429
You know, all of a sudden, hey, you have a cat,
294
00:15:32.490 --> 00:15:34.450
you know. Well, I kind of think it's kind of
295
00:15:34.470 --> 00:15:37.000
the same thing with sewing machines. And once you open
296
00:15:37.379 --> 00:15:41.759
the slide plate of your heart to the larger sewing reality,
297
00:15:42.679 --> 00:15:45.360
all of a sudden, as we know, they start showing up.
298
00:15:45.419 --> 00:15:48.360
People bring them. You just find them in stores. All
299
00:15:48.379 --> 00:15:51.210
of a sudden, there's one sitting out on somebody's, you know,
300
00:15:51.590 --> 00:15:54.639
free pile or next to the bin or whatever. So
301
00:15:54.820 --> 00:15:57.799
here is another letter from our new buddy, Mike Malone,
302
00:15:57.990 --> 00:16:02.570
down in Balch Springs, Texas, USA. He's the guy who
303
00:16:02.610 --> 00:16:07.889
found the 201-3 a few weeks ago. Now, that's the
304
00:16:07.970 --> 00:16:11.360
one that has the external motor. It's still a 201,
305
00:16:11.360 --> 00:16:13.259
but it's not the pod motor, okay? And it didn't
306
00:16:13.299 --> 00:16:15.580
even have the right motor on it. It had some
307
00:16:15.919 --> 00:16:18.759
other one bolted on. Okay, so here's Mike again. crazy
308
00:16:18.850 --> 00:16:22.009
thing heard the new podcast on the way to work
309
00:16:22.129 --> 00:16:27.190
and no sooner than i get to work a 201-2
310
00:16:28.269 --> 00:16:31.529
that's the pod motor one in a number 40 cabinet
311
00:16:31.549 --> 00:16:36.220
with straight legs was listed for 60 dollars i went
312
00:16:36.299 --> 00:16:41.659
on lunch and picked it up This thing is pristine
313
00:16:41.700 --> 00:16:44.720
and beautiful. We'll oil and check on the gear drive.
314
00:16:44.899 --> 00:16:47.700
Even the wiring is like new and the knee lever
315
00:16:47.759 --> 00:16:50.419
is functional. All I have to do is wax the table.
316
00:16:50.740 --> 00:16:54.399
You can tell this machine was probably maintained by a
317
00:16:54.450 --> 00:16:58.529
local dealer. Sometimes it feels like the universe just opens
318
00:16:58.669 --> 00:17:02.110
up and says, hey, dude, I got something for you.
319
00:17:03.190 --> 00:17:03.690
It's true.
320
00:17:03.769 --> 00:17:09.309
The ad claimed it was a 1965 Singer 66. I
321
00:17:09.529 --> 00:17:14.359
don't think the 66 was being made. This is, hmm. But,
322
00:17:14.460 --> 00:17:18.819
Mike says, I have learned to ID all the classic
323
00:17:19.019 --> 00:17:23.180
tethered singers on site, meaning the ones with electricity.
324
00:17:23.220 --> 00:17:24.319
Right, tethers, yeah, yeah.
325
00:17:24.740 --> 00:17:30.349
Having just finished the $ 50 201-3, I have learned a
326
00:17:30.509 --> 00:17:34.829
new lesson. Patience, and don't assume a part will be
327
00:17:35.029 --> 00:17:39.970
easy to get. Okay. Bobbin's slide plate covers for a
328
00:17:39.970 --> 00:17:44.170
99 or a 66, same thing, are a dime a dozen.
329
00:17:44.789 --> 00:17:48.980
But those curse words, those are $ 20.
330
00:17:48.539 --> 00:17:49.940
$ 20 to $ 30 plus shipping for a 201.
331
00:17:49.920 --> 00:18:02.089
Mike. Try finding one for a 101. I had to
332
00:18:02.150 --> 00:18:05.730
have one. The $ 60 machine needs a bobbin tire and
333
00:18:05.769 --> 00:18:10.039
a bit of CLA. That's clean lubricate adjust. We used
334
00:18:10.059 --> 00:18:13.650
to call that a COA back when I was a singer.
335
00:18:14.779 --> 00:18:17.700
This one's just a COA. Clean all adjust. Lube is
336
00:18:17.799 --> 00:18:22.029
more accurate. I don't feel like I got taught too
337
00:18:22.089 --> 00:18:25.390
bad a lesson but patience and knowing what you're looking
338
00:18:25.789 --> 00:18:31.630
at sure make for a better experience that 201-3 will
339
00:18:31.710 --> 00:18:34.069
stay in my life though i think i will put
340
00:18:34.109 --> 00:18:36.690
it in a treadle downstairs so the first one that
341
00:18:36.710 --> 00:18:38.779
he found the motored one that is going to make
342
00:18:38.819 --> 00:18:43.180
a great treadle okay his cats will dig it and
343
00:18:43.200 --> 00:18:46.480
around here treadle cabinets can be had for free well
344
00:18:46.660 --> 00:18:51.640
that's my tale of a happy monday Mike Malone, Bald Springs, Texas.
345
00:18:51.740 --> 00:18:54.440
Fantastic. Thank you for sharing.
346
00:18:54.559 --> 00:18:58.890
The 201 distribution system. Now he's going to see those.
347
00:18:59.309 --> 00:19:01.170
Yeah, the red car bias thing now.
348
00:19:01.670 --> 00:19:06.569
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then this is something related
349
00:19:06.609 --> 00:19:10.299
to your dress form. This is another letter from our
350
00:19:10.319 --> 00:19:13.640
buddy Patricia Mae Anthony up in Albany, Oregon.
351
00:19:13.660 --> 00:19:14.920
Oh, yeah.
352
00:19:15.960 --> 00:19:19.660
She has been annoyed by recent social media claims that
353
00:19:19.700 --> 00:19:22.930
a woman, I forget her name, invented a draping and
354
00:19:23.069 --> 00:19:25.890
fitting method, blah, blah, blah. This is not true. It's
355
00:19:26.509 --> 00:19:29.809
been around for many years. So then she goes and
356
00:19:29.869 --> 00:19:33.190
talks about the late Roberta Carr, who is someone else
357
00:19:33.230 --> 00:19:37.190
who was an icon of sewing and fitting in California.
358
00:19:37.990 --> 00:19:41.440
So Patricia May took a classroom and private instructions for
359
00:19:41.500 --> 00:19:45.640
making a sloper by draping a body. We used one
360
00:19:45.680 --> 00:19:49.759
inch checked gingham that was marked with horizontal and vertical
361
00:19:49.859 --> 00:19:53.880
plumb lines. Talking about checking every adjustment of the drape,
362
00:19:53.960 --> 00:19:58.230
keeping the lines plumb, horizontal lines, same distance from the floor.
363
00:19:58.250 --> 00:20:02.950
So she's talking about all these Actually, how to make
364
00:20:03.089 --> 00:20:03.809
a sloper.
365
00:20:04.329 --> 00:20:07.490
Using checkered fabric. That makes so much sense.
366
00:20:07.670 --> 00:20:09.710
That's always been a thing. Like, if you go buy
367
00:20:09.730 --> 00:20:12.240
a sloper pattern and they'll say, make it out of this.
368
00:20:12.259 --> 00:20:16.160
Because gingham is woven that way. It's not printed. Right.
369
00:20:16.180 --> 00:20:19.500
It won't distort in a weird, like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.
370
00:20:20.119 --> 00:20:22.500
This is the part I found really interesting about this letter.
371
00:20:23.180 --> 00:20:26.660
Often it would make more than one sloper, each fitted
372
00:20:26.720 --> 00:20:30.599
with different foundation garments and shoes or different combinations.
373
00:20:31.000 --> 00:20:31.059
Oh.
374
00:20:31.799 --> 00:20:34.960
And also, Ms. Carr taught us that a human body
375
00:20:35.029 --> 00:20:37.529
has an axis that is on a slight angle, not
376
00:20:37.569 --> 00:20:40.730
at right angles to the earth. She emphasized the importance
377
00:20:40.750 --> 00:20:44.710
of locating the bones of your skeleton, especially the shoulders
378
00:20:44.799 --> 00:20:46.519
from which all garments hang.
379
00:20:47.349 --> 00:20:51.349
Oh, yeah. Yeah. If you pull your shoulders back or
380
00:20:51.390 --> 00:20:53.730
pull them forward, that's going to change everything.
381
00:20:53.970 --> 00:20:57.630
It changes the bust, the armholes, the waist goes up
382
00:20:57.670 --> 00:21:00.279
and down. OK, so so she said, I found over
383
00:21:00.339 --> 00:21:03.819
time that while I could mark horizontal, horizontal and vertical
384
00:21:03.859 --> 00:21:08.160
lines on sheeting, one inch checked gingham was more useful,
385
00:21:08.319 --> 00:21:11.359
more helpful visuals when draping on a body or a
386
00:21:11.420 --> 00:21:14.960
dress for him. They also were able to compare slopers
387
00:21:15.079 --> 00:21:18.440
made on the person's actual body. This is in the class.
388
00:21:19.180 --> 00:21:22.369
And a sloper made from that person's dress form.
389
00:21:23.109 --> 00:21:23.309
Right?
390
00:21:23.329 --> 00:21:26.339
So you have the actual human body. And the form,
391
00:21:26.519 --> 00:21:29.799
a duct tape form, because it does add a minute
392
00:21:29.839 --> 00:21:33.500
amount to body measurements and it has slight pressure and
393
00:21:33.640 --> 00:21:38.019
can redistribute the body's fluffy parts. We found that out, right?
394
00:21:38.420 --> 00:21:38.779
Oh, yes.
395
00:21:39.019 --> 00:21:41.279
Your boobs are getting too flat here. What are we doing?
396
00:21:41.299 --> 00:21:42.339
We're pulling this too tight.
397
00:21:42.359 --> 00:21:43.619
Right, right. Yeah, we had to make sure to keep
398
00:21:43.640 --> 00:21:45.920
the lines of force even so that way I didn't
399
00:21:45.960 --> 00:21:46.859
end up squashed.
400
00:21:47.180 --> 00:21:50.299
Yeah. And so this part here. Patricia says, I have
401
00:21:50.339 --> 00:21:53.180
found over the years that muscle and fluffy parts move
402
00:21:53.220 --> 00:21:56.900
and expand differently. So aside from just a simple drape
403
00:21:56.980 --> 00:21:59.650
on a body or dress form, it can be helpful
404
00:21:59.769 --> 00:22:03.970
in determining fitting ease in the sloper to direct your
405
00:22:03.990 --> 00:22:08.450
subject to sit in various positions and check the natural
406
00:22:08.509 --> 00:22:12.359
expansion and movement that occurs. There is an assumed amount
407
00:22:12.420 --> 00:22:15.809
of fitting ease in pattern making methods. So then she
408
00:22:15.829 --> 00:22:18.789
goes on to say she makes custom Western shirts, including
409
00:22:18.869 --> 00:22:23.690
Mexican chowder shirts for Mexican rodeo riders. Those guys are fit.
410
00:22:24.309 --> 00:22:27.970
So standard ease is easier. However, there were several men
411
00:22:28.019 --> 00:22:31.319
who wanted those shirts to fit their generous bodies. And
412
00:22:31.339 --> 00:22:33.519
I found it helpful to ask them to sit and
413
00:22:33.599 --> 00:22:37.099
stand and bend in various ways to see how fitting
414
00:22:37.220 --> 00:22:40.599
ease would work with their slopers. These fellows didn't always
415
00:22:40.700 --> 00:22:45.430
sit straight and often slouched with the tummy forward. Right, right, yeah.
416
00:22:45.450 --> 00:22:47.269
You know, and then she goes on and talks a
417
00:22:47.289 --> 00:22:50.430
little bit more about fitting different bodies. The whole thing
418
00:22:50.490 --> 00:22:56.160
about moving around, having a person move, that is really, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, okay,
419
00:22:56.200 --> 00:22:59.480
that is my post-podcast rant for today. I have an
420
00:22:59.579 --> 00:23:02.420
ongoing rant about the bra market, but we'll save that
421
00:23:02.500 --> 00:23:03.839
for some other time.
422
00:23:04.099 --> 00:23:05.839
That is definitely a topic unto itself.
423
00:23:06.539 --> 00:23:09.140
Oh, we'll talk about making lingerie. That's one of the
424
00:23:09.180 --> 00:23:12.920
things that Sergers really opened up for people. Best Patricia May,
425
00:23:13.029 --> 00:23:24.329
keeping Albany weird. That's right. And threaded. Hell yeah. So, yeah, forms, bodies, slopers.
426
00:23:25.059 --> 00:23:27.460
Oh my God, this sounds tough. Can I just go
427
00:23:27.539 --> 00:23:28.759
clean the bobbin case?
428
00:23:28.779 --> 00:23:32.619
Can I just follow some instructions and not have to
429
00:23:32.660 --> 00:23:35.799
do math? I don't want to do geometry.
430
00:23:36.200 --> 00:23:38.299
And that's what we're going to talk about today because
431
00:23:39.119 --> 00:23:44.049
Lolly said at one point, hey guys, what's the history
432
00:23:44.069 --> 00:23:47.650
of patterns? I've tried sewing a vintage pattern and it
433
00:23:47.869 --> 00:23:51.910
is confusing as, right? That was the basic gist of
434
00:23:51.970 --> 00:23:57.569
the letter. So How did patterns go from that to
435
00:23:58.569 --> 00:24:01.329
now we're printing them out and taping them together? And
436
00:24:01.650 --> 00:24:05.730
what happened in the middle? And why doesn't Berta have
437
00:24:05.769 --> 00:24:09.880
a seam allowance? All this and more coming up.
438
00:24:10.430 --> 00:24:13.240
After the ads. After our ad break, a word from
439
00:24:13.299 --> 00:24:13.759
our sponsors.
440
00:24:25.640 --> 00:24:30.359
I still haven't watched the Great British Sewing Bee yet.
441
00:24:30.720 --> 00:24:33.140
That's one of the things I'm so excited to do
442
00:24:33.200 --> 00:24:36.829
in my new sewing room because I went ahead and decided, yes,
443
00:24:36.990 --> 00:24:39.789
I do want a great big screen in there so
444
00:24:39.849 --> 00:24:44.069
I can watch sewing videos and other nonsense. I made
445
00:24:44.089 --> 00:24:47.109
that decision. It's not hooked up to anything but a computer,
446
00:24:47.130 --> 00:24:50.480
but the Great British Sewing Bee is is something that
447
00:24:50.619 --> 00:24:56.200
is on my list to watch. Now, let's talk about patterns.
448
00:24:57.019 --> 00:25:04.109
One of my first memories of sewing stuff was being
449
00:25:04.269 --> 00:25:07.990
five years old, and mom has decided we're going to
450
00:25:08.170 --> 00:25:12.950
have an entry in the local Pioneer Parade Festival thing,
451
00:25:13.069 --> 00:25:19.680
Applegate Trail Days, 1966. So, of course, it's a pioneer
452
00:25:19.799 --> 00:25:22.460
Oregon Trail kind of thing. So we need to dress
453
00:25:22.500 --> 00:25:26.730
like Oregon Trail pioneers. So as y'all know, my mom
454
00:25:26.769 --> 00:25:30.210
hated sewing, doesn't sew. We had a neighbor, Mrs. Haynes,
455
00:25:30.289 --> 00:25:32.710
and she did sew and she sewed well and she
456
00:25:32.750 --> 00:25:35.930
had a beautiful, I think it was a Kenmore because
457
00:25:35.970 --> 00:25:39.900
it was green. Anyway, so we're going down to the
458
00:25:39.980 --> 00:25:44.319
local variety store in our little tiny Oregon town. They
459
00:25:44.359 --> 00:25:47.259
have a fabric section and And we go in there
460
00:25:47.319 --> 00:25:50.059
and I'm sitting down with mom and Mrs. Haynes and
461
00:25:50.079 --> 00:25:53.579
we're looking through the big, big pattern books. These things
462
00:25:53.599 --> 00:25:56.579
were huge. They're bigger than the family Bible. Oh my gosh.
463
00:25:56.720 --> 00:25:59.990
I know, right? And there's all these pictures and all
464
00:26:00.029 --> 00:26:02.630
these charts of things. And I'm just looking at the
465
00:26:02.690 --> 00:26:05.730
pictures and we get to the costume section, which is
466
00:26:05.769 --> 00:26:07.930
where these kind of things were. And there was the
467
00:26:07.970 --> 00:26:13.359
classic little sun bonnet and little pinafore and dress and Oh, no.
468
00:26:13.400 --> 00:26:14.400
What do you think, Tracy?
469
00:26:14.420 --> 00:26:16.099
Does that? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
470
00:26:16.220 --> 00:26:19.000
I'm down, right? I'm looking at that. I'm thinking, yeah, man. Yeah.
471
00:26:19.180 --> 00:26:21.089
Little house on the prairie chic. Yeah.
472
00:26:21.140 --> 00:26:25.210
Dad's turning the lawn tractor trailer, the little trailer that
473
00:26:25.230 --> 00:26:27.829
the tractor rides on. He's turning that into a covered wagon.
474
00:26:27.910 --> 00:26:28.269
Oh, boy.
475
00:26:28.309 --> 00:26:33.900
Oh, boy. Oh, boy. So they buy. I couldn't get this. So.
476
00:26:34.750 --> 00:26:37.559
So Mrs. Haynes goes, oh, well, this is a McCall's number,
477
00:26:37.630 --> 00:26:39.519
you know, one, two, three, four. And my mom goes
478
00:26:39.599 --> 00:26:42.519
and pulls open the big drawer on the pattern cabinet
479
00:26:42.559 --> 00:26:44.660
and flips through and picks out the one. I mean,
480
00:26:44.700 --> 00:26:46.660
she knew how the whole thing worked, even though she
481
00:26:46.680 --> 00:26:49.859
didn't like selling. So here's this envelope with a picture
482
00:26:49.880 --> 00:26:54.240
of these dresses and it's squishy. And little kid me
483
00:26:54.319 --> 00:26:56.480
somehow thinks the dress is in there.
484
00:26:58.849 --> 00:26:59.190
Uh-huh.
485
00:26:59.529 --> 00:27:03.430
Uh-huh. When Mrs. Haynes opened it and took out all
486
00:27:03.470 --> 00:27:09.529
this weird tissue paper, I burst into tears. I thought
487
00:27:10.230 --> 00:27:12.380
I was going to have to wear the paper. I
488
00:27:12.420 --> 00:27:15.200
didn't understand how it worked.
489
00:27:15.220 --> 00:27:17.859
This is like me being disappointed that my fairy wings
490
00:27:17.880 --> 00:27:20.940
wouldn't make me fly. Very much. I didn't know how
491
00:27:21.059 --> 00:27:21.960
costumes worked.
492
00:27:22.799 --> 00:27:26.119
I had just turned five. I was still, you know, Santa's. Oh,
493
00:27:26.140 --> 00:27:28.500
that's adorable. And so the missus, hey, so what's.
494
00:27:28.380 --> 00:27:29.220
Wrong, Tracy?
495
00:27:29.380 --> 00:27:33.819
I don't want to wear that. She figured out, well, oh, no,
496
00:27:33.900 --> 00:27:36.500
now we get to pick out the fabric.
497
00:27:36.559 --> 00:27:38.849
And now there's fabric. Oh, right.
498
00:27:38.880 --> 00:27:41.609
Well, I wanted the same colors as, it had to
499
00:27:41.640 --> 00:27:44.089
be just like the picture, okay? Oh, sure, sure, sure. Yeah, yeah.
500
00:27:44.470 --> 00:27:46.970
Reds and yellows. It was real pretty. It was really
501
00:27:47.009 --> 00:27:49.789
Laura Ingalls. And I just loved that little dress. I
502
00:27:49.829 --> 00:27:52.369
wanted to wear it to school and mom wouldn't let me.
503
00:27:54.180 --> 00:27:55.940
There was a dress code and it was like go-go
504
00:27:55.980 --> 00:27:57.960
boots and miniskirts. Anyway.
505
00:27:58.049 --> 00:27:59.910
I don't think that's what it was when you were five.
506
00:28:00.490 --> 00:28:04.630
No, it wasn't. But really little slender rabbit hole here.
507
00:28:04.670 --> 00:28:09.230
It was about 1969 or 70. And we shared the
508
00:28:09.279 --> 00:28:11.339
bus route with the high school kids. And they were
509
00:28:11.380 --> 00:28:13.950
starting to turn into clowns. hippies. We didn't know what
510
00:28:14.009 --> 00:28:16.130
hippies was, but all I knew was all the bigger
511
00:28:16.170 --> 00:28:18.450
kids got to wear cool costumes to school. And I
512
00:28:18.490 --> 00:28:22.910
wanted to do that. They were dressing like freaks and
513
00:28:22.950 --> 00:28:28.460
probably smoking marijuana. Anyway, back to the fabric store. So
514
00:28:28.500 --> 00:28:32.259
we picked out the fabric, the thread, the interfacing for
515
00:28:32.299 --> 00:28:35.140
the brim of the sun bonnet to make it stiff.
516
00:28:35.200 --> 00:28:38.619
And there were some little buttons and oh my gosh.
517
00:28:38.900 --> 00:28:40.589
And I was just like, well, how is this going
518
00:28:40.630 --> 00:28:44.380
to turn into a dress? How does that happen? Right.
519
00:28:44.519 --> 00:28:48.680
Flat paper, flat fabric. How does this become a three-dimensional garment?
520
00:28:48.960 --> 00:28:51.900
I didn't know. But a week later, here's the dress.
521
00:28:51.940 --> 00:28:52.440
Here's Mrs.
522
00:28:52.519 --> 00:28:52.799
Haynes.
523
00:28:52.819 --> 00:28:54.900
Here we go, honey. I tried it on and it was,
524
00:28:54.940 --> 00:28:57.950
of course, perfect because she'd measured how tall I was,
525
00:28:58.029 --> 00:29:00.630
how big I was around the armpits. This is before boobs.
526
00:29:00.910 --> 00:29:02.289
You know, little kids are tubular.
527
00:29:02.410 --> 00:29:04.250
Right. You're just a series of sticks put together.
528
00:29:04.410 --> 00:29:08.380
Yeah. Back then, the kid patterns would take breast measurement,
529
00:29:08.710 --> 00:29:10.599
you know, because the breast was a part of the body.
530
00:29:10.619 --> 00:29:14.799
It wasn't a flappy thing. Oh, I just loved it. So,
531
00:29:14.980 --> 00:29:18.740
but the mystery of patterns was like, oh, now I
532
00:29:18.799 --> 00:29:22.359
see how it works. You buy the plans for it.
533
00:29:22.460 --> 00:29:25.720
And I kind of, my dad was really into designing
534
00:29:25.799 --> 00:29:29.480
houses and drawing architectural plans for the place he really
535
00:29:29.529 --> 00:29:31.769
wanted to build after he moved out of the little
536
00:29:31.950 --> 00:29:36.990
1920s shack. So I kind of tied it together to, okay,
537
00:29:37.049 --> 00:29:39.529
dad's doing house patterns.
538
00:29:39.549 --> 00:29:39.970
Sure.
539
00:29:40.619 --> 00:29:45.119
Yeah. Right. So this is, so that's, I understood that.
540
00:29:45.160 --> 00:29:49.619
And it's like, okay, so there's clothes patterns. Okay. Okay.
541
00:29:50.369 --> 00:29:55.069
The hidden history behind every sewing pattern you've ever used
542
00:29:55.250 --> 00:29:57.670
from tailoring books to the rise and fall of the
543
00:29:57.690 --> 00:30:01.380
big four. There's a lot going on. This is from
544
00:30:01.500 --> 00:30:06.769
a really cool, it's called The Weekend Project, substack.com. So
545
00:30:06.789 --> 00:30:10.250
there's no ads. It's really cool. By a person called
546
00:30:10.509 --> 00:30:14.990
Sarah Gulley. And this was written this year, 2026. And
547
00:30:15.450 --> 00:30:19.519
as always, there's links to everything in the show notes. Okay. Okay.
548
00:30:19.839 --> 00:30:22.539
If you've ever handled a paper sewing pattern, you'll know
549
00:30:22.599 --> 00:30:25.900
how flimsy they are. They're tissue thin and prone to
550
00:30:25.980 --> 00:30:28.279
crumpling or tearing as soon as you take them out
551
00:30:28.299 --> 00:30:31.720
of their envelope. However, the ephemeral nature of paper sewing
552
00:30:31.779 --> 00:30:35.640
patterns make it easy to overlook its importance because without
553
00:30:35.720 --> 00:30:39.029
paper patterns, it's arguable that none of us would be
554
00:30:39.089 --> 00:30:44.650
here today, asterisk, talking, reading, and sewing at home. That's
555
00:30:44.690 --> 00:30:49.170
because paper patterns were revolutionary for the home sewing industry.
556
00:30:49.390 --> 00:30:52.630
They opened the door to ordinary people who, with the
557
00:30:52.670 --> 00:30:56.200
purchase of a sewing pattern, could now sew fashionable clothing
558
00:30:56.859 --> 00:31:03.259
without the need for years of training and elite technical expertise. Okay,
559
00:31:03.299 --> 00:31:07.559
so how does that work? Before paper patterns, tailors had books.
560
00:31:07.940 --> 00:31:10.440
Patterns have existed a lot longer than you might imagine,
561
00:31:10.579 --> 00:31:14.359
however not in the format most modern home sewists would
562
00:31:14.380 --> 00:31:18.099
be used to. That's because the earliest recorded patterns were
563
00:31:18.240 --> 00:31:23.619
created by and for professional tailors. The earliest surviving example
564
00:31:23.660 --> 00:31:26.569
of a sewing pattern is contained within the book Libro
565
00:31:27.029 --> 00:31:35.200
di Geometrica Practica e Tracca from 1580. Oh, wow. By
566
00:31:35.240 --> 00:31:39.500
Spanish tailor Juan de Alqueya. The book was a technical
567
00:31:39.539 --> 00:31:43.880
manual intended for trained craftspeople. Its purpose was to teach
568
00:31:43.940 --> 00:31:47.099
tailors how to cut pattern pieces in ways that produced
569
00:31:47.339 --> 00:31:50.920
the most garments possible from the least amount of fabric.
570
00:31:51.269 --> 00:31:54.089
Very important at a time when cloth was woven by
571
00:31:54.150 --> 00:31:58.450
hand and very expensive. 1580. This is way before the
572
00:31:58.470 --> 00:32:00.559
Industrial Revolution, right? Right, right.
573
00:32:00.579 --> 00:32:03.059
The Industrial Revolution is not a glimmer in anyone's eye
574
00:32:03.099 --> 00:32:03.660
at that point.
575
00:32:03.839 --> 00:32:07.700
No, no. So fabric is like, so tailoring at this
576
00:32:07.740 --> 00:32:09.839
point is how can we get the most stuff out
577
00:32:09.880 --> 00:32:14.769
of the, okay. L'euro di geometrica contains small diagrams of
578
00:32:14.849 --> 00:32:18.950
pattern pieces, very few measurements, and almost no written instructions.
579
00:32:19.549 --> 00:32:23.650
Without training, it would have been impossible to use. Similar
580
00:32:23.710 --> 00:32:27.609
texts followed across Europe over the next century. France had
581
00:32:27.670 --> 00:32:33.369
L'Italien Sincere in 1671, and England had The Tailor's Complete
582
00:32:33.490 --> 00:32:39.150
Guide in 1769. We're getting up to the Industrial Revolution here.
583
00:32:39.839 --> 00:32:44.079
All were written by tailors for tailors and assumed knowledge
584
00:32:44.539 --> 00:32:47.180
that could only be gained from years of making clothes.
585
00:32:47.710 --> 00:32:51.410
It's nothing but shorthand. Well, you know how when you
586
00:32:51.430 --> 00:32:53.579
do the one fancy thing, but if you actually do
587
00:32:53.630 --> 00:32:55.980
a little schmookey schmookey schmooey over here in the corner,
588
00:32:56.039 --> 00:32:59.500
then poof, and that's gibberish to a non-professional.
589
00:32:59.859 --> 00:33:02.900
Yeah. You know, it's... Okay, take it... I'm going to
590
00:33:02.940 --> 00:33:06.289
compare this to a chart at a jazz gig, which
591
00:33:06.349 --> 00:33:10.529
is basically just lists of chord names with slashes in
592
00:33:10.549 --> 00:33:15.170
between them. You know? Yeah. It assumes you know what...
593
00:33:15.799 --> 00:33:16.900
C minor seven is.
594
00:33:17.319 --> 00:33:20.240
This is, when you first proposed this topic, it made
595
00:33:20.279 --> 00:33:22.480
me think of recipes or even when Lolly first wrote
596
00:33:22.509 --> 00:33:24.589
to us, it made me think of looking at old
597
00:33:24.650 --> 00:33:26.950
timey recipes. And the farther back in time you go,
598
00:33:27.069 --> 00:33:30.130
the less instructions there are. Even if you go to
599
00:33:30.190 --> 00:33:32.089
like a good, like right now, if you look up
600
00:33:32.130 --> 00:33:34.130
a recipe on the internet, first of all, you have
601
00:33:34.150 --> 00:33:36.829
to read the person's entire life story before you get
602
00:33:36.849 --> 00:33:39.549
to the instructions. But then the instructions will include like
603
00:33:40.089 --> 00:33:43.529
every little detail, every little explanation. Here's why you do this.
604
00:33:43.569 --> 00:33:45.539
Here's why you do that. If you go back even
605
00:33:45.619 --> 00:33:49.000
like 50, 60 years to like good housekeeping, there are
606
00:33:49.039 --> 00:33:52.420
certain things they just assume you know. You go back
607
00:33:52.460 --> 00:33:55.440
like another 100 years to like an 1850s recipe. There's
608
00:33:55.480 --> 00:33:58.200
a great YouTube channel I love watching where they do–
609
00:33:58.539 --> 00:34:01.680
it's called Townsend Eats, I think. But they do like
610
00:34:02.579 --> 00:34:07.200
colonial era cooking, like Revolutionary War style cooking. And the
611
00:34:07.259 --> 00:34:12.530
recipes that they have to work from are so– vague
612
00:34:13.530 --> 00:34:16.409
they're just so damn vague they don't it'll just be
613
00:34:16.449 --> 00:34:19.840
a list of ingredients and then like two cooking instructions
614
00:34:19.900 --> 00:34:25.019
and like every other wash power boil shred this is
615
00:34:25.059 --> 00:34:27.539
the temperature like all the here's how long it goes
616
00:34:27.619 --> 00:34:31.780
like that stuff is either very vague or entirely non-existent
617
00:34:31.900 --> 00:34:34.599
the farther back you go it's like people used to
618
00:34:34.659 --> 00:34:37.519
just know how to cook and so a recipe was
619
00:34:37.559 --> 00:34:40.809
just here's how you twist the thing you already know.
620
00:34:40.829 --> 00:34:43.769
Whereas nowadays it's like, so you've decided to stop eating
621
00:34:43.869 --> 00:34:47.570
out of a microwave. Here's how to make rice, you know? Right.
622
00:34:47.630 --> 00:34:50.489
Here's what rice looks like. Here's how you buy it,
623
00:34:50.550 --> 00:34:50.820
you know?
624
00:34:50.909 --> 00:34:53.139
Did you know you have to wash your rice, right?
625
00:34:53.179 --> 00:34:55.719
This is like innovative information now where it used to
626
00:34:55.739 --> 00:34:58.820
just be assumed. So kind of the same deal. All
627
00:34:58.840 --> 00:35:02.400
of these things get more refined the deeper towards the
628
00:35:02.440 --> 00:35:03.239
present day you get.
629
00:35:03.719 --> 00:35:08.820
That's really true because- There's yeah, there's this bedrock of
630
00:35:08.920 --> 00:35:12.280
skills that gets lost. And then the more it gets lost,
631
00:35:12.320 --> 00:35:14.309
the more instruction we need for people that might want
632
00:35:14.329 --> 00:35:15.309
to pick it up later.
633
00:35:15.329 --> 00:35:18.889
Like some people know what sauteing onions means. Other people
634
00:35:18.929 --> 00:35:20.949
have no idea what it means to saute an onion.
635
00:35:21.010 --> 00:35:23.250
Like you need to tell me the temperature. What am
636
00:35:23.289 --> 00:35:25.630
I aiming for? Other people it's like, well, you prepare
637
00:35:25.650 --> 00:35:27.090
an onion for the soup. You don't even need to
638
00:35:27.389 --> 00:35:30.199
specify it's chopped and sauteed. You just know that that's
639
00:35:30.219 --> 00:35:30.900
what you do for soup.
640
00:35:31.139 --> 00:35:33.070
And he was like, people like me, I'm to cooking
641
00:35:33.110 --> 00:35:36.269
like my mom was to sewing. Pay somebody else to
642
00:35:36.289 --> 00:35:39.230
do it. So I'd be hung up on which color
643
00:35:39.250 --> 00:35:41.269
of onion should I get? Right.
644
00:35:41.389 --> 00:35:45.130
Exactly. Exactly. And, you know, like a hundred years ago,
645
00:35:45.190 --> 00:35:46.809
it's like, what do you mean? What color onion? They're
646
00:35:46.829 --> 00:35:48.550
all yellow. Right.
647
00:35:48.889 --> 00:35:51.090
That's true. Way less choices.
648
00:35:51.210 --> 00:35:51.570
Wow.
649
00:35:51.610 --> 00:35:55.769
This is getting deep. And all this ties back, I'm sure,
650
00:35:55.949 --> 00:36:00.929
into rural electrification and Louise and Mamre and the electric
651
00:36:01.010 --> 00:36:04.090
circus because they were teaching people how to cook with
652
00:36:04.190 --> 00:36:07.659
electric appliances, right? I remember I've got a cookbook that
653
00:36:07.699 --> 00:36:10.679
I inherited from my mom and it doesn't give oven temperatures.
654
00:36:11.309 --> 00:36:12.489
It says in a hot oven.
655
00:36:12.780 --> 00:36:15.090
Right. You're supposed to know what kind of hot oven
656
00:36:15.110 --> 00:36:18.039
does a casserole versus a chicken versus a pizza.
657
00:36:18.119 --> 00:36:22.699
Yeah? Yeah. Or a slow oven. They say a slow
658
00:36:22.760 --> 00:36:24.900
oven a lot. And this is like, I know as
659
00:36:24.940 --> 00:36:27.000
a person who has cooked with wood a lot, that
660
00:36:27.039 --> 00:36:29.440
that's going to be after your coals are down and
661
00:36:29.460 --> 00:36:33.730
there's no visible flame. So- You know, the crossover and
662
00:36:33.769 --> 00:36:37.090
some of the old sewing books that got added on
663
00:36:37.150 --> 00:36:40.460
to year after year without changing the fundamental stuff still
664
00:36:40.519 --> 00:36:43.519
start with treadles. Right, right, right.
665
00:36:43.940 --> 00:36:45.739
Yeah, that's like the cast iron of cookware.
666
00:36:46.500 --> 00:36:46.840
Yeah.
667
00:36:46.860 --> 00:36:49.409
Because cooking with cast iron, very different from cooking with steel.
668
00:36:49.429 --> 00:37:09.170
Yeah. Okay, back to patterns. Additionally, patterns were often trade secrets.
669
00:37:09.750 --> 00:37:13.809
Good patterns were sometimes written into apprenticeship contracts or passed
670
00:37:13.849 --> 00:37:17.579
down from father to son like heirlooms. Well-fitting patterns were
671
00:37:17.679 --> 00:37:22.139
so enormously valuable because tailors and dressmakers had no standardized
672
00:37:22.260 --> 00:37:26.869
body measurements for drafting technique. Most tailors and dressmakers relied
673
00:37:26.969 --> 00:37:31.349
on methods like rock-of-eye drafting. This technique required them to
674
00:37:31.429 --> 00:37:35.650
draw pattern shapes freehand with chalk, mentally calculating proportions as
675
00:37:35.690 --> 00:37:40.610
they worked. Dang! This helps explain why tailors began training
676
00:37:40.730 --> 00:37:43.469
as apprentices as early as age 10.
677
00:37:43.469 --> 00:37:47.090
Yeah, that's a really intense set of layers to build
678
00:37:47.550 --> 00:37:47.949
in your brain.
679
00:37:48.460 --> 00:37:50.460
I mean, think about learning how to build a house
680
00:37:50.539 --> 00:37:53.559
or something back then, you know? Like, my dad was
681
00:37:53.579 --> 00:37:55.889
drawing houseplants. Nobody drew that. They would sit down and
682
00:37:55.909 --> 00:37:58.610
make some marks on the rock and, okay, this looks good.
683
00:37:58.670 --> 00:38:01.510
And then they'd build these great cathedrals and shit. Okay.
684
00:38:02.030 --> 00:38:05.269
In other words, patterns were knowledge and knowledge is power.
685
00:38:05.929 --> 00:38:10.369
Next part. From trade secret to teachable skill. By the
686
00:38:10.409 --> 00:38:14.199
late 18th century, tailoring knowledge began to loosen its grip.
687
00:38:14.699 --> 00:38:19.340
Some tailors started publishing drafting systems and teaching cutting techniques
688
00:38:19.519 --> 00:38:22.929
outside traditional apprenticeships, often to anyone who could pay. A
689
00:38:24.389 --> 00:38:29.090
London tailor named Diedrichson reportedly sold pattern sets throughout England
690
00:38:29.150 --> 00:38:34.590
for the hefty price of five pounds, around 600 today. Okay,
691
00:38:34.639 --> 00:38:41.079
alongside this period, drafting methods became more formalized. Proportional drafting emerged,
692
00:38:41.300 --> 00:38:45.420
which uses ratios based on key body measurements. Also, the
693
00:38:45.500 --> 00:38:49.800
direct measure system, which relies on specific measurements taken from
694
00:38:49.860 --> 00:38:54.300
an individual's body. Whoa, what a concept. These approaches made
695
00:38:54.340 --> 00:38:58.679
pattern drafting more systematic, more teachable, and that opened the
696
00:38:58.780 --> 00:39:03.599
door to non-tailors to draft their own clothes. This was
697
00:39:03.639 --> 00:39:07.679
still a world centered on professional men. There were no
698
00:39:07.780 --> 00:39:12.320
real commercialized home sewing market yet. Right? No sewing machines yet.
699
00:39:12.639 --> 00:39:17.820
Late 18th century. No reason to simplify patterns for untrained users.
700
00:39:18.659 --> 00:39:22.489
This would change in the 19th century. The first dressmaking
701
00:39:22.510 --> 00:39:28.670
patterns intended for non-professionals didn't appear as fashion items. Instead,
702
00:39:28.730 --> 00:39:34.639
they arrived through change. and moral publications. Books like Instructions
703
00:39:34.739 --> 00:39:41.320
for Cutting Apparel for the Poor, 1789, and The Lady's
704
00:39:41.469 --> 00:39:47.760
Economic Assistant, 1808. provided patterns for basic garments, shirts, shifts,
705
00:39:47.840 --> 00:39:51.380
and children's clothing aimed at women sewing for their families
706
00:39:51.460 --> 00:39:54.960
or for those in need. Those early patterns reveal an
707
00:39:55.000 --> 00:39:59.530
assumption that would persist for generations, that women already knew
708
00:39:59.670 --> 00:40:00.630
how to sew.
709
00:40:01.469 --> 00:40:05.489
Ironic, given that men were dominating tailoring for so many centuries.
710
00:40:06.989 --> 00:40:09.489
Only for men, though, right? Because we might have to
711
00:40:09.530 --> 00:40:12.650
put our, you know, because bodies, you can't touch each
712
00:40:12.710 --> 00:40:15.929
other's bodies back then. You know, women sew for women,
713
00:40:15.969 --> 00:40:18.750
men sew for men. Okay. And men are the ones
714
00:40:18.769 --> 00:40:22.409
that are out there doing stuff, so they need special clothes, blah, blah, blah.
715
00:40:22.610 --> 00:40:25.630
The genderization of clothes. We'll talk about that at some point. Okay.
716
00:40:25.929 --> 00:40:31.010
Instructions were sparse and often baffling by modern standards. Patterns
717
00:40:31.030 --> 00:40:35.510
were usually given in a singled size, sometimes labeled by age.
718
00:40:36.110 --> 00:40:39.840
Details like linings, facings, and fastenings were left out. The
719
00:40:39.900 --> 00:40:43.440
expectation being that a competent seamstress would fill in the gaps.
720
00:40:43.800 --> 00:40:45.840
Right, you know that there's going to be buttons down
721
00:40:45.900 --> 00:40:47.429
the back. Why would we mark them for you?
722
00:40:48.989 --> 00:40:53.230
Importantly, these publications framed sewing as a moral good.
723
00:40:53.789 --> 00:40:55.349
Idle hands are the devil's work.
724
00:40:56.949 --> 00:41:02.780
Making clothes was positioned as thrift, charity, and virtue. Butterick
725
00:41:02.960 --> 00:41:08.460
Pattern Company continued pushing this narrative in their advertising, advising
726
00:41:08.760 --> 00:41:13.050
new brides in the 1860s, that have a dollar to
727
00:41:13.090 --> 00:41:17.159
spend to invest 50 cents in a Bible and 50
728
00:41:17.159 --> 00:41:20.199
cents towards a good sewing machine. Wow.
729
00:41:22.900 --> 00:41:26.239
Your church, your faith, and also your craft at home
730
00:41:26.400 --> 00:41:26.960
with the sewing.
731
00:41:27.619 --> 00:41:33.349
Here's another thing from Butterick's catalog, 1869. Young men and
732
00:41:33.409 --> 00:41:37.929
ladies who are just now sipping the sweets of connubial felicity.
733
00:41:39.590 --> 00:41:40.570
Talk dirty to me.
734
00:41:40.670 --> 00:41:45.239
Yeah. Before you get a bedstead, purchase a sewing machine.
735
00:41:45.960 --> 00:41:49.260
If you can't have both, sleep on the floor until
736
00:41:49.300 --> 00:41:52.679
you can earn enough with your sewing machine to pay
737
00:41:52.800 --> 00:41:57.530
for a bedstead. Oh, okay.
738
00:41:57.530 --> 00:41:57.590
1869.
739
00:41:57.570 --> 00:41:58.309
This is like.
740
00:41:58.590 --> 00:42:00.710
Oh, sure. This is pitching people on the concept that
741
00:42:00.730 --> 00:42:01.610
they need a sewing machine.
742
00:42:02.269 --> 00:42:04.710
Fundamentally yeah because this is this is like oh my
743
00:42:04.750 --> 00:42:05.949
god yeah.
744
00:42:05.730 --> 00:42:08.059
You don't need a bed you need a sewing.
745
00:42:07.679 --> 00:42:24.699
Machine because sewing is takes time technology changes everything The
746
00:42:24.820 --> 00:42:29.530
mid-19th century brought a perfect storm of changes that transformed
747
00:42:29.730 --> 00:42:36.110
sewing into a mass consumer activity. First, the sewing machine
748
00:42:36.409 --> 00:42:41.090
dramatically reduced the time it took to make garments. Second,
749
00:42:41.789 --> 00:42:47.530
steam-driven paper-making machines began producing paper from wood pulp, making
750
00:42:47.650 --> 00:42:53.230
printing far cheaper. Improvements in the postal service and printing
751
00:42:53.269 --> 00:42:58.610
technology meant magazines and paper inserts could be distributed widely
752
00:42:58.650 --> 00:43:08.750
and affordably. By the 1850s, fashion publications were booming. In 1854,
753
00:43:08.750 --> 00:43:14.320
Frank Leslie's Gazette of Fashions began including fold-out patterns designed
754
00:43:14.400 --> 00:43:19.900
by Madame Demarest. While other publications had included patterns before,
755
00:43:20.590 --> 00:43:25.230
Madame Demarest was the first to truly brand herself as
756
00:43:25.269 --> 00:43:29.769
a pattern maker and sell patterns as individual products. She
757
00:43:29.829 --> 00:43:33.780
also ended up launching her own fashion magazine, Madame Demarest's
758
00:43:33.940 --> 00:43:38.139
Mirror of Fashions, to promote and sell her patterns. So
759
00:43:38.280 --> 00:43:43.159
she basically came up with the idea of selling patterns,
760
00:43:43.239 --> 00:43:44.820
like the actual ones.
761
00:43:45.800 --> 00:43:50.710
So moving from Sewing is a charitable, virtuous act to
762
00:43:50.789 --> 00:43:53.210
sewing as a way to own your style and be
763
00:43:53.369 --> 00:43:55.590
fashionable and be fancy.
764
00:43:56.469 --> 00:44:00.519
A brief interlude about Ellen Louise Curtis Demarest, a pioneer
765
00:44:00.559 --> 00:44:04.679
in pattern making and champion of women's rights. Oh, hell yeah.
766
00:44:04.900 --> 00:44:09.619
Madame Demarest was actually a husband and wife team. William J.
767
00:44:09.820 --> 00:44:15.889
and Ellen Louise Curtis Demarest. However, Ellen wasn't just Madame Demarest.
768
00:44:16.269 --> 00:44:19.289
She was an incredibly active part of the business, having
769
00:44:19.369 --> 00:44:23.920
come up with the idea to sell patterns. She was
770
00:44:24.139 --> 00:44:30.639
also a champion of women's rights, including African-American women. At
771
00:44:30.820 --> 00:44:34.500
one point, she entered into a heated letter-writing exchange with
772
00:44:34.539 --> 00:44:38.190
the New York Times about women's work and wages.
773
00:44:39.070 --> 00:44:40.369
Oh, tell me more.
774
00:44:40.389 --> 00:44:44.389
We like her. Her first letter to the editor opened
775
00:44:44.429 --> 00:44:47.670
with these pointed words. In so much as you are
776
00:44:47.730 --> 00:44:51.130
not a woman and do not, to any extent, employ women,
777
00:44:51.630 --> 00:44:54.369
allow one who is and does to reply.
778
00:44:56.329 --> 00:44:56.889
Snap.
779
00:44:57.909 --> 00:45:02.989
Wow. Ellen also used her Demarest magazine to publish writing
780
00:45:03.050 --> 00:45:06.679
by Louisa May Alcott. Julia Ward Howe, and journalist Jane
781
00:45:06.739 --> 00:45:11.039
Cunningham Crowley, who used her column to champion women's accomplishments
782
00:45:11.199 --> 00:45:16.699
and causes. Additionally, Ellen Demarest founded the first professional women's
783
00:45:16.820 --> 00:45:20.670
club in New York called Sorosis. At one of their meetings,
784
00:45:20.769 --> 00:45:24.389
she outlined how women's lives were entirely dictated by their
785
00:45:24.429 --> 00:45:27.690
relationship to the men in their lives. Women are controlled
786
00:45:27.710 --> 00:45:30.610
by their fathers and then their husbands, who have claimed
787
00:45:30.630 --> 00:45:35.650
the monopoly of all money, personal property, marriage, professedly makes
788
00:45:35.710 --> 00:45:39.750
a joint ownership. Before concluding in words as provocative as
789
00:45:39.809 --> 00:45:44.530
they were self-serving, why wonder that she yearns to smile
790
00:45:44.590 --> 00:45:48.309
at suggestions of extravagance in dress and adds another yard
791
00:45:48.369 --> 00:45:51.130
to her train, or buys a more expensive set of
792
00:45:51.170 --> 00:45:54.369
lace for the next party and sprinkles gold dust over
793
00:45:54.409 --> 00:45:59.250
her glossy hair? She is none the poorer for the outlay. Ordinarily,
794
00:45:59.389 --> 00:46:04.980
a wife owns only her wardrobes. So if I own it,
795
00:46:05.039 --> 00:46:06.179
I'm going to make it fancy.
796
00:46:07.130 --> 00:46:11.050
Man, that turn of the century turn of phraseology. Man,
797
00:46:11.070 --> 00:46:13.369
we just don't write like we used to. We just don't.
798
00:46:13.769 --> 00:46:17.119
Uh-huh. Ellen Demarest was far more than a pattern maker.
799
00:46:17.179 --> 00:46:20.380
She was a trailblazing businesswoman who used her position and
800
00:46:20.460 --> 00:46:23.840
privilege to champion not only other white women, but also
801
00:46:23.880 --> 00:46:26.559
the people of color that she employed. Then as now,
802
00:46:26.619 --> 00:46:29.989
the upper ranks of the fashion world were largely dominated
803
00:46:30.050 --> 00:46:32.650
by men. That makes her presence at the very beginning
804
00:46:32.690 --> 00:46:36.909
of the home sewing industry all the more remarkable. So
805
00:46:37.110 --> 00:46:40.510
that's another woman we can add to our pantheon of
806
00:46:40.789 --> 00:46:44.989
awesome foremothers in sewing, along with the electric lady and
807
00:46:45.030 --> 00:46:48.309
the person who invented zigzag and space astronauts.
808
00:46:49.090 --> 00:46:53.179
It's interesting that her husband was willing to play second
809
00:46:53.219 --> 00:46:55.929
fiddle to help that be a thing that was a
810
00:46:55.969 --> 00:46:56.949
husband and wife team.
811
00:46:57.489 --> 00:46:59.730
He was a smart guy. He goes, whoa, she's got
812
00:47:00.010 --> 00:47:01.590
the women's market. I'll just help.
813
00:47:01.670 --> 00:47:04.070
That's brilliant. I love that. I love that from him.
814
00:47:04.090 --> 00:47:05.469
Not all men.
815
00:47:05.510 --> 00:47:09.159
Yeah, exactly. Sometimes men are happy to just be part
816
00:47:09.199 --> 00:47:11.090
of something successful. You can do it.
817
00:47:11.320 --> 00:47:13.420
You know, if she's got, I mean, your dad was
818
00:47:13.460 --> 00:47:15.940
like that. He really supported the fact that I was
819
00:47:15.960 --> 00:47:18.840
a part-time rock star. He stayed home and changed dieties
820
00:47:19.300 --> 00:47:23.210
and made spaghetti. He tells a All right. Yeah, totally.
821
00:47:23.429 --> 00:47:25.510
It's just lovely to know that those men have existed
822
00:47:25.550 --> 00:47:28.969
in every generation. However rare, they do exist.
823
00:47:29.489 --> 00:47:34.210
Clear back into the 1870s. They do exist. Sensitive new
824
00:47:34.349 --> 00:47:38.840
age guys. It's a great song from the 80s. Anyhow,
825
00:47:39.159 --> 00:47:43.940
the next guy in pattern making history, graded sizes and
826
00:47:43.960 --> 00:47:48.239
the birth of the home sewing market. The real breakthrough
827
00:47:48.260 --> 00:47:52.119
in pattern making came in the 1860s. Okay, so we
828
00:47:52.159 --> 00:47:57.039
have sewing machines. With Ebenezer Butterick. Butterick's key innovation was
829
00:47:57.099 --> 00:48:03.480
deceptively simple. He sold sewing patterns in sizes. He began
830
00:48:03.519 --> 00:48:06.480
with children's clothing, then expanded to women's wear using a
831
00:48:06.500 --> 00:48:11.920
proportional system based on bust measurements. It might sound obvious now,
832
00:48:11.980 --> 00:48:16.699
but offering the same design... In multiple sizes was revolutionary. Remember,
833
00:48:16.739 --> 00:48:19.480
they expected you to just, oh, here's how it looks.
834
00:48:19.539 --> 00:48:21.300
I can grade this to my own size. Right.
835
00:48:21.380 --> 00:48:24.150
This guy is saying, what if I skipped a lot
836
00:48:24.190 --> 00:48:26.070
of that mental work for you and got you into
837
00:48:26.110 --> 00:48:27.590
the right ballpark, at least?
838
00:48:28.010 --> 00:48:34.699
Yeah. So. Butterick's success sparked fierce competition. Remember, this is
839
00:48:34.719 --> 00:48:36.880
the age of invention and big mustaches. Right.
840
00:48:36.920 --> 00:48:40.699
This is patent pool war, dust has not settled yet
841
00:48:40.880 --> 00:48:41.960
kind of time.
842
00:48:42.019 --> 00:48:48.159
Right. Okay. James McCall founded McCall's Pattern Company in 1870,
843
00:48:48.159 --> 00:48:52.170
drawing on his experience as a tailor and sewing machine salesman.
844
00:48:53.050 --> 00:48:58.239
Despite naming his pattern company McCall's, By 1871, he was
845
00:48:58.460 --> 00:49:04.260
advertising bizarre cut paper patterns, later changed to bizarre glove
846
00:49:04.320 --> 00:49:10.250
fitting patterns in Harper's Bazaar. The theory was that this
847
00:49:10.289 --> 00:49:13.949
was to take advantage of the name recognition associated with
848
00:49:13.989 --> 00:49:19.969
two popular fashion periodicals, Der Bazaar of Berlin and its imitator,
849
00:49:20.219 --> 00:49:24.199
Harper's Bazaar of New York. Okay, I don't know if
850
00:49:24.280 --> 00:49:27.119
I say bizarre and bazaar differently enough. We're talking about
851
00:49:27.159 --> 00:49:27.940
the shopping thing.
852
00:49:28.440 --> 00:49:31.750
Just don't say brassiere and we'll be fine. I had
853
00:49:31.769 --> 00:49:34.289
some friends do that. They were narrating an audiobook and
854
00:49:34.309 --> 00:49:39.599
were saying brazier as brassiere. and had to go back
855
00:49:39.639 --> 00:49:41.219
and redo some stuff. Yes.
856
00:49:41.480 --> 00:49:45.929
No, that's different, and yeah. By the early 1870s, the
857
00:49:46.110 --> 00:49:53.469
paper pattern field was crowded. Demarest, Butterick, McCall's, Harper's, and S.T.
858
00:49:53.550 --> 00:49:58.550
Taylor were all producing patterns. Most were graded to size,
859
00:49:58.860 --> 00:50:03.920
and production numbers were enormous. Pattern companies typically released 30
860
00:50:03.920 --> 00:50:08.510
to 40 new designs each month, which Butterick producing up
861
00:50:08.550 --> 00:50:12.690
to a thousand styles a year by the 1890s. Clearly
862
00:50:12.750 --> 00:50:17.210
the demand for sewing patterns was very much there. Holy crap.
863
00:50:17.269 --> 00:50:19.260
I had no idea. No idea.
864
00:50:19.429 --> 00:50:23.260
That is like precursor to fast fashion in a lot
865
00:50:23.320 --> 00:50:27.739
of ways. That was fast fashion design, not fast fashion execution.
866
00:50:27.800 --> 00:50:29.820
But it's like, no, what if everyone could have their
867
00:50:30.019 --> 00:50:32.059
own very unique mix and match?
868
00:50:32.800 --> 00:50:32.929
Yeah.
869
00:50:32.949 --> 00:50:35.369
You need a lot of patterns to give people that
870
00:50:35.389 --> 00:50:39.460
kind of range. I wonder how many of them were awful, though,
871
00:50:39.519 --> 00:50:42.699
like 1950s jello cake kind of just throwing stuff at
872
00:50:42.739 --> 00:50:45.360
the wall and like this isn't actually a good idea.
873
00:50:45.409 --> 00:50:47.809
But we did pay someone whacked out on Benzo's to
874
00:50:47.849 --> 00:50:49.230
design it, so it's fine.
875
00:50:52.090 --> 00:50:55.010
Okay, so it would have been somebody nodding off on
876
00:50:55.090 --> 00:50:57.289
Laden designing these things.
877
00:50:57.349 --> 00:50:59.969
I just wonder how many of these patterns anyone would
878
00:51:00.030 --> 00:51:01.989
make in the modern day versus it would just be
879
00:51:02.030 --> 00:51:02.449
a nightmare.
880
00:51:02.469 --> 00:51:06.400
Yeah. I did not even know they were making patterns
881
00:51:06.460 --> 00:51:08.300
that many back then. That's so many. I knew there
882
00:51:08.320 --> 00:51:11.619
was like Godey's Lady's book with all the things you
883
00:51:11.659 --> 00:51:15.820
could trace off and grade up. Okay. The rise of
884
00:51:15.880 --> 00:51:16.739
the big four.
885
00:51:17.239 --> 00:51:19.639
You've mentioned two of the big four so far. I
886
00:51:19.699 --> 00:51:20.800
haven't gotten to the other two yet.
887
00:51:21.820 --> 00:51:26.940
Okay. So Vogue entered the scene slightly differently. That's because
888
00:51:27.000 --> 00:51:32.559
the periodical Vogue magazine existed before a pattern division was formed.
889
00:51:32.900 --> 00:51:36.280
So they already had a brand, basically. Vogue started publishing
890
00:51:36.320 --> 00:51:40.960
in 1892 as a Society Weekly. Their first pattern, a
891
00:51:41.519 --> 00:51:46.250
Louis XV jacket, was introduced in 1899. So they were
892
00:51:46.309 --> 00:51:49.590
like a magazine that expanded to patterns.
893
00:51:49.650 --> 00:51:50.989
Because they were already fashion.
894
00:51:51.070 --> 00:51:51.630
Right.
895
00:51:51.670 --> 00:51:54.969
They just were expanding a little step. Because they're like, no, no, no,
896
00:51:55.030 --> 00:51:59.670
fashion's already our jam. Now we're getting into making fashion. Well,
897
00:51:59.750 --> 00:52:02.309
and they always had that reputation, you know.
898
00:52:02.889 --> 00:52:07.090
Okay. By the early 20th century, a few major players
899
00:52:07.130 --> 00:52:11.849
dominated the market. Butterick had expanded aggressively, acquiring other companies
900
00:52:12.070 --> 00:52:15.019
and merging publications. Sounds like sewing machines, right?
901
00:52:15.079 --> 00:52:15.500
Big time.
902
00:52:15.920 --> 00:52:21.099
McCall's and Vogue grew steadily. Meanwhile, some earlier competitors faded away.
903
00:52:21.719 --> 00:52:25.699
Demarest stopped producing patterns when Ellen Demarest retired in 1887,
904
00:52:25.699 --> 00:52:29.559
and others followed. So all the ones that had been
905
00:52:29.599 --> 00:52:31.159
started by one person, right?
906
00:52:31.280 --> 00:52:34.880
Where there's like a distinct, this person's aesthetic, this person's
907
00:52:34.940 --> 00:52:37.719
business acumen, like that's out of the picture. It's either
908
00:52:37.739 --> 00:52:39.360
going to be acquired or it's going to go away.
909
00:52:39.800 --> 00:52:44.269
Okay. Then Simplicity entered the market in 1927, founded by
910
00:52:45.869 --> 00:52:49.409
Joseph M. Shapiro with the goal of offering the most
911
00:52:49.510 --> 00:52:54.510
affordable patterns possible, priced at just 15 cents. When the
912
00:52:54.550 --> 00:52:58.130
Wall Street crash of 1929 left many people with little
913
00:52:58.190 --> 00:53:04.679
money to spare, this low-cost approach proved especially effective. The
914
00:53:04.760 --> 00:53:09.699
brand's affordability helped it thrive during difficult economic times, attracting
915
00:53:09.739 --> 00:53:12.159
customers who needed to be careful with their spending. And
916
00:53:12.340 --> 00:53:14.329
that was still true. I mean, when I was in
917
00:53:14.369 --> 00:53:17.590
fabric biz, we sold the big four right off the bat.
918
00:53:18.230 --> 00:53:22.710
Vogue was fancy. Simplicity was for beginners and McCall's and
919
00:53:22.750 --> 00:53:25.690
Butterick just had a whole lot right in the middle. Right.
920
00:53:25.710 --> 00:53:29.349
It was like Vogue didn't do costumes. Sure.
921
00:53:29.590 --> 00:53:35.530
Right. Whereas simplicity is like their tagline. So easy. It's simplicity.
922
00:53:35.750 --> 00:53:40.590
Right. And we also, right when I got done, started
923
00:53:40.639 --> 00:53:45.420
carrying new look and style, which were European, I think.
924
00:53:45.679 --> 00:53:48.599
I'm not actually sure, but they had just some different designs.
925
00:53:49.460 --> 00:53:53.250
Simplicity also used clever marketing to present its patterns as
926
00:53:53.610 --> 00:53:57.449
easier to use than those of its competitors. Although this
927
00:53:57.510 --> 00:54:01.239
claim was not entirely accurate, Vogue was the only pattern
928
00:54:01.280 --> 00:54:07.039
company with consistently intricate patterns. It made simplicity particularly appealing
929
00:54:07.079 --> 00:54:10.559
to beginners and helped it grow in both size and influence.
930
00:54:10.980 --> 00:54:16.989
Another development was the legitimization of copying designs. This became large.
931
00:54:17.230 --> 00:54:22.010
Pattern companies had long sent representatives to Paris to sneakily
932
00:54:22.170 --> 00:54:28.730
sketch couture collections. But in 1925, McCall's began licensing designs
933
00:54:28.889 --> 00:54:33.320
from the couture houses. This licensing trend continued into our
934
00:54:33.380 --> 00:54:37.389
modern area. That's why you can buy Project Runway or
935
00:54:37.530 --> 00:54:42.789
Disney Princess patterns from Simplicity. Laura Ashley from McCall's, Diane
936
00:54:42.849 --> 00:54:48.289
Furstenberg from Vogue. So clothing designers would actually pair now
937
00:54:48.610 --> 00:54:52.510
with pattern companies for some of their designs. I remember
938
00:54:52.710 --> 00:54:56.489
in the 80s, Issey Miyake and Ralph Lauren. I mean,
939
00:54:56.510 --> 00:54:59.170
there were some top designers and the patterns were not easy.
940
00:54:59.210 --> 00:55:01.750
They would even say this is for advanced sewers.
941
00:55:02.219 --> 00:55:05.840
But we're willing to sell them to you above board.
942
00:55:05.860 --> 00:55:08.239
You don't have to reverse engineer it or worry about
943
00:55:08.260 --> 00:55:12.570
a copyright infringement. We will sell this IP to you, Seamstress.
944
00:55:13.289 --> 00:55:16.670
And those ones, I remember selling a few Issey Miyake ones,
945
00:55:16.889 --> 00:55:21.190
were like the older patterns, assumed a basis of knowledge.
946
00:55:21.409 --> 00:55:23.099
They didn't lead you by the hand through it.
947
00:55:23.309 --> 00:55:25.070
You must be the skilled to enter. None of this,
948
00:55:25.170 --> 00:55:27.130
it's going to be an hour and you don't need
949
00:55:27.190 --> 00:55:29.010
any experience. No, no, no. You need experience.
950
00:55:29.489 --> 00:55:32.030
After you smock the front and apply all the zippers,
951
00:55:32.289 --> 00:55:34.750
they don't tell you how. You do that. You do
952
00:55:34.769 --> 00:55:38.789
the thing. And then this. By 2001, the landscape shifted
953
00:55:38.849 --> 00:55:46.639
again when McCall's acquired Butterick and Vogue. Right? Singers eating everybody. Right, right.
954
00:55:46.679 --> 00:55:48.960
Big fish chomping up all the little fish.
955
00:55:49.300 --> 00:55:54.960
The brands were repositioned with Butterick as classical, McCall's as contemporary,
956
00:55:55.119 --> 00:55:59.940
and Vogue as couture. Alongside them, companies like Berta and
957
00:56:00.059 --> 00:56:03.619
Quixo continued to operate, and the internet opened the door
958
00:56:03.679 --> 00:56:08.250
to independent pattern designers. In 2017, the Big Four were
959
00:56:08.349 --> 00:56:16.769
finally consolidated under one owner. No! So they acquired this guy.
960
00:56:16.869 --> 00:56:21.469
All this chat about mergers and acquisitions might seem dreadfully dull,
961
00:56:22.030 --> 00:56:27.219
but they were incredibly significant to what happened in 2025.
962
00:56:37.989 --> 00:56:42.530
the current paper pattern landscape. Today, the sewing pattern industry
963
00:56:42.570 --> 00:56:46.269
is evolving once again. Independent designers have emerged as the
964
00:56:46.429 --> 00:56:51.090
most significant competition to the big four, while the internet
965
00:56:51.139 --> 00:56:54.400
has made sewing more accessible than any point in the past.
966
00:56:55.260 --> 00:57:00.739
Beginners can now turn to free tutorials, blogs, online communities,
967
00:57:01.079 --> 00:57:07.739
and podcasts. And the rise of PDF patterns means that
968
00:57:07.949 --> 00:57:12.659
access is no longer limited by proximity to a physical shop.
969
00:57:13.360 --> 00:57:16.179
At the same time, indie designers are using social media
970
00:57:16.219 --> 00:57:20.139
to build genuine relationships with their audiences, often shaping their
971
00:57:20.159 --> 00:57:24.219
designs in response to preferences and feedback from people who
972
00:57:24.280 --> 00:57:27.289
sew them. We take questions from our listeners and we'll
973
00:57:27.349 --> 00:57:28.210
answer them, right?
974
00:57:28.550 --> 00:57:31.429
And it's no longer like a six-year design cycle because
975
00:57:31.630 --> 00:57:33.769
ships are how you get letters back and forth. Now
976
00:57:33.829 --> 00:57:35.710
it can be an email exchange over a weekend.
977
00:57:36.469 --> 00:57:39.230
Meanwhile, the traditional pattern giants have had a tougher time
978
00:57:39.289 --> 00:57:43.050
keeping up. As Vogue, Butterick, McCall's, and Simplicity were all
979
00:57:43.090 --> 00:57:47.440
brought under one corporate umbrella, the paper pattern model began
980
00:57:47.480 --> 00:57:52.590
to feel a bit bloated. Constant sales made the envelope
981
00:57:52.630 --> 00:57:57.119
price seem almost meaningless, and selling mainly through physical stores
982
00:57:57.179 --> 00:58:01.079
put distance between the companies and people actually sewing their patterns.
983
00:58:01.480 --> 00:58:04.639
The Big Four were also slow to adapt to changing needs,
984
00:58:05.260 --> 00:58:08.550
especially around sizing and new technology, which opened the door
985
00:58:08.610 --> 00:58:11.309
for indie designers to step in and serve a wider
986
00:58:11.409 --> 00:58:14.610
range of bodies and skill levels. Things came to a
987
00:58:14.650 --> 00:58:18.269
head in May 2025 when IG Design Group, who owned
988
00:58:18.289 --> 00:58:21.440
them all, announced that they were selling the big four
989
00:58:21.480 --> 00:58:25.440
brands to a liquidator for $ 1. I do.
990
00:58:26.929 --> 00:58:30.889
Vaguely, vaguely remember this. That $ 1 number triggered a whole like,
991
00:58:31.630 --> 00:58:34.030
oh yeah, I do remember this news story.
992
00:58:34.389 --> 00:58:39.050
This decision came following a mix of pressures, including tariffs,
993
00:58:39.949 --> 00:58:44.550
a slowing market, And the bankruptcy of Joanne's, who, remember,
994
00:58:44.590 --> 00:58:46.909
was the last fabric store. Right, right.
995
00:58:46.949 --> 00:58:49.619
It's all collapsing in on itself. Yeah.
996
00:58:49.719 --> 00:58:52.559
Yeah. For a moment, it looked like the end of
997
00:58:52.619 --> 00:58:54.760
an era. But the big four were saved at the
998
00:58:54.780 --> 00:59:01.159
last minute by former Simplicity executive Abby Smalls. She was
999
00:59:01.219 --> 00:59:05.449
able to buy Simplicity Creative Group by securing funding from
1000
00:59:05.530 --> 00:59:09.809
a different private equity firm. So her plan now is...
1001
00:59:10.489 --> 00:59:14.909
to invest in growth, including newer formats like projector patterns,
1002
00:59:15.769 --> 00:59:20.590
while continuing to produce the paper patterns that many sewists
1003
00:59:21.070 --> 00:59:25.019
still rely on. While doing research for this essay, says
1004
00:59:25.059 --> 00:59:27.769
the person who wrote it, I came across this hilarious
1005
00:59:27.829 --> 00:59:31.809
quote from Lisa Woolfolk of Black Women's Stitch, who shared that,
1006
00:59:32.510 --> 00:59:36.050
I was so concerned about losing access to paper patterns.
1007
00:59:36.630 --> 00:59:40.409
Taping PDF patterns together is hazardous to my health. It
1008
00:59:40.469 --> 00:59:44.090
reduces my will to live. I would rather mop the
1009
00:59:44.369 --> 00:59:48.809
ocean than tape together PDF patterns. Honestly?
1010
00:59:48.829 --> 00:59:49.030
I feel it.
1011
00:59:49.690 --> 00:59:55.449
I feel it, dude. postscript on sewing, gender, and how
1012
00:59:55.469 --> 00:59:59.610
we value labor. Pattern companies have never just sold instructions
1013
00:59:59.670 --> 01:00:02.679
for making clothes. They have sold ideas about what sewing
1014
01:00:02.800 --> 01:00:06.519
means and who it is for. At different moments in history,
1015
01:00:06.579 --> 01:00:10.099
home sewing has been framed as feminine duty, moral virtue,
1016
01:00:10.119 --> 01:00:14.239
a sign of thrift, and later as a pleasant creative pastime.
1017
01:00:14.900 --> 01:00:19.170
That framing carries weight. Sewing has long occupied an uneasy
1018
01:00:19.230 --> 01:00:25.409
space between work and leisure, production and pleasure. It requires skill, time, patience,
1019
01:00:25.510 --> 01:00:29.360
and physical effort, yet has been rarely recognized as labor
1020
01:00:29.440 --> 01:00:32.619
in the same way as other forms of making and
1021
01:00:32.679 --> 01:00:35.980
creating are. Although both men and women have historically worked
1022
01:00:36.039 --> 01:00:40.070
as professional tailors and dressmakers, sewing in the home became
1023
01:00:40.110 --> 01:00:43.590
closely tied to women's unpaid domestic roles and was treated
1024
01:00:43.650 --> 01:00:48.329
as something expected rather than something valued. In recent years,
1025
01:00:48.550 --> 01:00:50.280
the meaning of sewing has shifted again.
1026
01:00:50.829 --> 01:00:50.929
Yes.
1027
01:00:50.949 --> 01:01:16.730
That's us. Yeah. The skill, knowledge, and labor involved can
1028
01:01:16.829 --> 01:01:21.110
be softened or overlooked just under a different set of ideals.
1029
01:01:21.769 --> 01:01:25.199
The paper pattern industry has always depended on women's expertise
1030
01:01:25.260 --> 01:01:28.400
and effort, even when that work was minimized or taken
1031
01:01:28.420 --> 01:01:32.679
for granted. And that raises a bigger question. When something
1032
01:01:32.760 --> 01:01:36.300
is associated with the home, with women, or with pleasure,
1033
01:01:36.679 --> 01:01:38.940
why do we find it so easy to stop seeing
1034
01:01:38.980 --> 01:01:40.059
it as real labor?
1035
01:01:41.159 --> 01:01:44.219
Oh, that's so, it's so true. Cause yeah, I do
1036
01:01:44.320 --> 01:01:46.820
see it as, Ooh, I made this one garment. I'm
1037
01:01:46.860 --> 01:01:49.449
so much better than everyone else. Meanwhile, every other garment
1038
01:01:49.510 --> 01:01:52.630
I made or every other garment I wear is still
1039
01:01:53.110 --> 01:01:58.230
from regular clothing industry. That is such an important reality check.
1040
01:01:58.250 --> 01:01:58.489
Yes.
1041
01:01:58.550 --> 01:02:05.239
I'm doing a counterculture revolutionary. I'm also, yeah. Oh, there's layers.
1042
01:02:05.489 --> 01:02:06.219
I got to sit with that.
1043
01:02:06.239 --> 01:02:11.670
Yeah. This is a good writer. This is a good writer.
1044
01:02:11.750 --> 01:02:16.260
Sarah Goley on Substack. I've looked through a lot of
1045
01:02:16.280 --> 01:02:18.880
her other things. She's a great writer. And a lot
1046
01:02:18.920 --> 01:02:22.079
of it is about fashion and sewing and women's things.
1047
01:02:22.559 --> 01:02:26.619
Some great... anti-fast fashion stuff, I will probably get back
1048
01:02:26.659 --> 01:02:28.500
to her. She's got some good writing. Like I said,
1049
01:02:29.079 --> 01:02:32.800
I really like to present ideas to you, our audience,
1050
01:02:32.820 --> 01:02:35.949
that you might not have heard otherwise. And then that's,
1051
01:02:36.489 --> 01:02:39.449
I hope, is a starting place for some of your
1052
01:02:39.630 --> 01:02:44.099
own ideas. I'm going to, I still have a whole
1053
01:02:44.199 --> 01:02:46.780
lot of stuff to say about this, but we're already
1054
01:02:46.860 --> 01:02:49.550
at an hour. So I think I'm going to. Wow.
1055
01:02:49.820 --> 01:02:53.079
How did that happen? This is a big topic.
1056
01:02:53.380 --> 01:02:56.280
Okay. This is a very big topic. I didn't realize
1057
01:02:56.320 --> 01:03:00.099
how many, how, how long ago it started and what
1058
01:03:00.139 --> 01:03:04.239
the social implications of patterns were. So as we started
1059
01:03:04.280 --> 01:03:07.199
with sizes and then every listener said, well, what about patterns?
1060
01:03:07.280 --> 01:03:11.070
And now we're into like. Yeah, okay.
1061
01:03:11.329 --> 01:03:14.449
You didn't even explain seam allowance and why Berta doesn't
1062
01:03:14.590 --> 01:03:14.849
use it.
1063
01:03:15.329 --> 01:03:18.429
Yes, and I have those tabs all on my desktop here,
1064
01:03:18.510 --> 01:03:22.199
but my brain is turning into polyfill, so that's about
1065
01:03:22.320 --> 01:03:23.739
all I've got for today.
1066
01:03:24.000 --> 01:03:26.559
All right, then. I guess we'll just have to revisit
1067
01:03:26.599 --> 01:03:27.880
this in a future episode.
1068
01:03:28.219 --> 01:03:29.699
We'll pick this one up. I want to pick this
1069
01:03:29.800 --> 01:03:32.610
one up next week because it's really kind of fresh
1070
01:03:32.639 --> 01:03:37.809
in my mind. I know we had a list of,
1071
01:03:37.829 --> 01:03:39.190
this is going to be the topics for the rest
1072
01:03:39.210 --> 01:03:40.280
of the year. All right.
1073
01:03:40.300 --> 01:03:44.659
Well, thank you, Lolly, for giving us a multi-week prompt, apparently. Yeah,
1074
01:03:45.719 --> 01:03:48.789
we'll be back with this next week, almost definitely, to
1075
01:03:48.849 --> 01:03:53.150
talk more about the weirdness and idiosyncrasies of patterns and
1076
01:03:53.190 --> 01:03:54.630
why they exist the way they do.
1077
01:03:55.150 --> 01:03:58.380
Oh, it's so fun. It really is. Thank you all
1078
01:03:58.570 --> 01:04:00.980
for being with us as you mow your lawn. Ha
1079
01:04:01.000 --> 01:04:03.940
ha ha, Chris. You're probably going to be shoveling snow soon.
1080
01:04:05.639 --> 01:04:08.800
And Mike and Lolly and Patricia Ann and All of
1081
01:04:08.940 --> 01:04:11.099
our other fans, we are going to name all of
1082
01:04:11.199 --> 01:04:14.119
our Patreons and fans on our last episode for this season,
1083
01:04:14.179 --> 01:04:17.909
which will be sometime in December. But until then, keep
1084
01:04:17.969 --> 01:04:21.250
writing us. Check out our Patreon, please. It's only a
1085
01:04:21.289 --> 01:04:25.429
dollar a month and you get ad-free podcast feed. And
1086
01:04:25.469 --> 01:04:27.989
it really, it's not so much the money as, well,
1087
01:04:28.030 --> 01:04:30.250
it is. It is because you guys pay for our hosting.
1088
01:04:30.289 --> 01:04:31.789
You pay for all kinds of stuff.
1089
01:04:31.829 --> 01:04:33.829
But mostly you get an ad-free feed. I mean, that's
1090
01:04:33.869 --> 01:04:34.630
the real benefit.
1091
01:04:34.860 --> 01:04:36.849
You get an ad-free feed, and that's the important part.
1092
01:04:36.889 --> 01:04:38.909
You don't want to listen to things for Chumba Casino.
1093
01:04:39.230 --> 01:04:39.889
Trust me, you don't.
1094
01:04:40.170 --> 01:04:42.389
No, you really don't.
1095
01:04:43.269 --> 01:04:45.570
So wherever you're at, I hope you have a good
1096
01:04:45.630 --> 01:04:48.949
sewing week, a good sewing experience. Keep your eye out
1097
01:04:48.989 --> 01:04:53.880
for machines, patterns, vintage fabric, other people who share our obsession.
1098
01:04:54.699 --> 01:04:57.880
Keep the weave tight and stay threaded.
1099
01:05:01.699 --> 01:05:04.099
And there you have it, part one of our discussion
1100
01:05:04.119 --> 01:05:07.300
about the history of patterns, a topic suggested by our audience.
1101
01:05:07.760 --> 01:05:11.550
We started in 1580 and ended up in 2025, learning
1102
01:05:11.590 --> 01:05:14.510
about early pattern drafters and the emerging technology that made
1103
01:05:14.550 --> 01:05:18.929
patterns ever more accessible and desirable until they weren't. I
1104
01:05:18.989 --> 01:05:22.630
particularly liked learning about Louise Demarest and her husband, both
1105
01:05:22.690 --> 01:05:25.469
for their lovely business story and for the fact that
1106
01:05:25.510 --> 01:05:28.599
she was a suffragette who wasn't also an active racist.
1107
01:05:29.429 --> 01:05:32.309
It is also interesting to think about how sizes once
1108
01:05:32.389 --> 01:05:36.329
upon a time were actually a useful innovation rather than
1109
01:05:36.369 --> 01:05:39.429
a means of social manipulation. Or about how we now
1110
01:05:39.530 --> 01:05:44.130
prize having a bed over acquiring other appliances first. Times change,
1111
01:05:44.730 --> 01:05:48.159
even as some things never do, you know? Big thanks
1112
01:05:48.219 --> 01:05:51.820
to Sarah Gulley, aka The Weekend Project on Substack, for
1113
01:05:51.860 --> 01:05:54.519
her excellent essay that made up the bulk of today's content.
1114
01:05:54.920 --> 01:05:56.920
Do make sure to check that out in the show notes.
1115
01:05:57.849 --> 01:06:01.130
Next week, we will be continuing on this topic. And
1116
01:06:01.250 --> 01:06:04.570
on my other podcasts, this week's topics include Autistic Rest
1117
01:06:04.650 --> 01:06:07.610
and the Myth of Wasting Time on Autistic Stuff for
1118
01:06:07.650 --> 01:06:11.630
Autistic People, Gate of the Feral Gods, Chapters 25-28 on
1119
01:06:11.690 --> 01:06:15.550
Podcast at Donut, and A Memory of Light, Chapters 16-17
1120
01:06:15.670 --> 01:06:19.679
on Watt Spoilers. I also have a returning podcast client
1121
01:06:19.719 --> 01:06:23.880
that is planning, quite solidly, to get her revamped project
1122
01:06:23.960 --> 01:06:28.150
booted up sometime this month. Possibly. And I hope I'll
1123
01:06:28.170 --> 01:06:31.130
be able to tell y'all more about that soon. As
1124
01:06:31.190 --> 01:06:34.150
a reminder, we are unofficially sponsored by Stagecoach Road Vintage
1125
01:06:34.190 --> 01:06:37.610
Sewing Machine. You can reach them at srvsew at gmail.com.
1126
01:06:38.070 --> 01:06:40.570
Follow us on social media and YouTube. And you can
1127
01:06:40.590 --> 01:06:42.650
best support the podcast by sharing it with your friends.
1128
01:06:42.949 --> 01:06:45.369
You can even get ad-free episodes by joining our Patreon
1129
01:06:45.409 --> 01:06:48.909
at patreon.com slash usedtosew. Thank you for listening to us
1130
01:06:48.929 --> 01:06:51.710
here at Used to Sew. We always welcome your additions, corrections,
1131
01:06:51.829 --> 01:06:54.349
and feedback in general. Please reach out to us via
1132
01:06:54.429 --> 01:07:01.780
email at usedtosew at gmail.com. Used to Sew is a
1133
01:07:01.800 --> 01:07:05.239
production of Fox and Raven Media. For more podcasts from
1134
01:07:05.280 --> 01:07:09.079
Fox and Raven Media, visit our website at foxandravenmedia.com.