Sewingplums

Here’s a way to spend a rainy holiday weekend 😀

If the Butterick/ McCall’s/ Vogue or Simplicity/ New Look and Burda, Kwik Sew, or Neue Mode patterns don’t warm your heart, why not explore smaller pattern design companies.

Most of them focus on a particular style. As a wild overgeneralisation, I look to USA-Canada companies for classic tailoring, comfortable casuals, historic/ vintage reproductions, or art-to-wear, and for specific sports. And to European pattern companies and pattern magazines for more chic or fashion-forward styles. But I can immediately think of companies which don’t fit that, and your preferences are probably different from mine !

I’ve included :
– some links to lists of USA-Canada independent pattern companies. There are so many of these companies, I gladly leave it to others to keep track of them all!
– USA on-line retailers. Again there are many of these, so I’ve tried to limit them to ones which carry pattern lines not in the big lists.
– European on-line retailers of USA-Canada patterns. So we can save ourselves postage and customs. Happily there are more of these than I thought.
– European independent pattern companies. I’ve listed all the ones I can find, as they’re less well known and I’d like to support them.
– a little about European pattern magazines and on-line sources for them.

– – –

Lists of links

Many of the companies sell their own patterns on-line. Sadly there’s no one complete list of links. Here are some good starting points for USA-Canada patterns :

Current styles

Some of these pattern lines have discussion threads at Stitchers Guild, where you can get advice, news, and encouragement !

Historic reproductions
(For 19c fashions see also Frances Grimble’s books.)

– – –

USA on-line retailers of independent patterns

Each retailer has their own selection of companies, and sometimes not the complete issues of a given pattern line. Many of them sell patterns which aren’t in the above lists. These are some places to start from :

Craft Connection

EZ Knit

Haberman Fabrics

Nancy’s Notions

Pattern Review

Sewingpatterns.com

The Sewing Place

Sew Thankful

Vogue Fabrics

Waechter’s Silk Shop

New Leaf Pattern Distributors
wholesale wearable art patterns, provides more names for you to follow up !

– – –

UK and Europe on-line retailers of independent patterns and pattern magazines

Habithat (UK)
Patterns : Folkwear, Jalie, Laughing Moon, Sense & Sensibility, Timely Tresses.

Sew Box (UK)
Patterns : Colette Patterns, Hot Patterns, Serendipity Studio.

Vena Cava Design (UK)
mainly historic patterns.

There are many UK sources for Amy Butler bag patterns. These are among the ones who sell her clothes patterns as well as her bags :
Gone to Earth
Nerybeth Crafts. See Amy Butler under Categories on left.

Couture Atelier (Switzerland, site in German)
List of pattern companies is under Schnittmuster nach Hersteller. I can’t get Google translate to work with this site reliably.
Patterns : Amy Butler, Favorite Things, Folkwear, Green Pepper, Indygo Junction, Jalie, Jean Hardy, Lingerie Secrets, Marfy, Olympia, Onion, Past Patterns, Pattern Company, Revisions, Schnittquelle, Sewing Workshop, Shapes, Suitability.
(Switzerland is not in the EU, so you may have to pay customs.)

Fjoelner (Denmark)
(click top right if necessary to get English version of site)
Patterns : Multisnit, Onion.

Naaipatronen
Sewing Patterns
Schnittmuster
Naaipatronen site in 3 languages, items sent from Netherlands.
Patterns : Burda in 7 western European languages (not English), Amy Butler, Folkwear, Jalie, Jean Hardy, Kayla Kennington, Laughing Moon, MaMu, Marfy, Mediaeval Miscellanea (Period Patterns), Pattern Company, Ragstock, Revisions, Sense & Sensibility, Suitability, Truly Victorian.
also lingerie and childrenswear.
Pattern magazines : single issues of Burda, Burda Easy, Burda Plus (in Dutch), KnipMode (Dutch), Ottobre (Dutch and English).
And here is their Dutch to English sewing dictionary, for us lovers of KnipMode 😀

Dots n’ Stripes (UK) has Ottobre magazine in English.

Schnittmuster.net (Germany)
Patterns : Jalie, Jean Hardy, Onion, Simplicity in German.
Pattern magazines : single issues of KnipMode (Dutch), La Mia Boutique (Italian), Ottobre (in English and German), Patrones (Spanish).
Also Sew Stylish and Threads magazines.

Burdastyle.de (Germany) for Burda magazines in German.
Diana Moden (German) 4 issues a year subscription through Amazon.de
Coudre-Broder-Tricoter (France) has Burda, Burda Mode Plus, Burda Couture Facile magazines in French.
Journaux.fr is a source of Burda (in French) and Diana Couture (Diana Moden in French)
La Mia Boutique (Italian), 12 issues a year, is available from :
UK subscription
Italy subscription
Revistasedomicilio.es for Patrones, and Burda in Spanish.

If you have favourite European sources I haven’t mentioned, please let me know ! (There’s a little below about US sources of pattern magazines.)

– – –

European womenswear pattern companies, other than Burda and Neue Mode

Au Bonheur des Petites Mains (France)
Au Bonheur site in English
‘Boutique’ styles.

Marfy (Italy)
Marfy patterns are available in the US from Vogue patterns, where you can see the full range of patterns. They’re also available through the Fashion Sewing Group.
Chic elegance. Pattern only, no instructions. Individual sizes.

Multisnit (Denmark)
The Google translation of this site says <<Click on pattern cover to see rock counseling and drug consumption << 😀
Instead look at the Fjoelner site for descriptions in English.
Wardrobe and other multi-style patterns for modern casuals.

Onion (Denmark)
Onion patterns in English
Soft casuals.

Pattern Company (Germany)
Pattern Company site in English
Stylish casuals.

Schnittquelle (Germany)
Schnittquelle site in English
Current styles in individual sizes, mainly for felted and other fabrics with two good sides.

Stoff&Stil (Sweden)
Stoff & Stil site in English.
Relaxed styles in individual sizes.

There are also several pattern companies for lingerie and childrenswear, some at Naaipatronen above.

I keep coming across European pattern companies. If you know of any that are available on-line which I haven’t included, please tell me about them !

– – –

Also

Simply Pretty for Japanese pattern books and magazines.

Pattern Review (members only) 2008 article on international pattern magazines – ‘International Superstars’ by Cidell.
Cidell gives US sources available at the time, but some links are now out-dated. Burda (English) and Modellina (Italian, Spanish, French) subscriptions from OPR in New York City, and Universal News. Burda is on newstands in big towns in the UK. (Burda Easy isn’t published in English.) For KnipMode and Ottobre see Naaipatronen/SewingPatterns or Schnittmuster.net, and for Mrs Stylebook see Simply Pretty. Most of the magazine sources I’ve found are in Europe, and I mentioned them before.

P.S. info about where to get pattern magazines in Australia here.

Independent Pattern Company Alliance

And there are many marvelous resources for vintage patterns, which I’m not going to list here.

What amazing opportunities there are for pattern lovers. Have fun looking at the rich possibilities 😀

– – –

Links and information valid August 2010

Explore posts in the same categories: pattern making for clothes

This entry was posted on August 28, 2010 at 7:22 am and is filed under pattern making for clothes. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. Both comments and pings are currently closed.