Independant pattern companies list

Threads magazine recently posted on their website a very interesting resource: a list of all independant pattern companies they could find. They’re offering this list as a complement to the current issue of the magazine, which has an article about lauching a pattern line for which they interviewed independant pattern designers. They seem to want to get an exhaustive list of all exhisting pattern companies. Since it adds to my own list that you can find here (which I’m updating as I find new brands), I thought I’d share the link. ^^

I’ll soon be back with real posts (and an explanation as to my silence)!

A small note

Sorry I didn’t write the past weeks, I have things to say but sad things happened and I wasn’t really on a writing mood.

To get slowly back, I wanted to add a side note about pattern Simplicity 2101: the ties at the shoulders are “fake”. They’re not part of the yoke, you just tie them on top. In the first picture I showed of the dress, it is shown without ties.

The good thing about this: you get two tops in one, since you can wear it with or without the ties. And you can use them to make sure your bra straps won’t show, since you can catch them in the ribbon and ties them to the yoke. I find it very useful with such a wide neckline.

The bad thing: I find they have a tendency to move (go too much to the back or the front of the dress) and untie themselves. I had to move them back or retie them several times during the day.

I like it better with them, especially since my yoke is not perfect at the shoulder seams. ^^;

Spotted: Pochée autumn 2009

The new Pochee is out! I’ve been haunting my bookstore for some time, waiting for it to appear. I really like that magazine. I don’t own any yet, but it’s only because I can’t choose which one to buy. I love reading it at the bookstore. They always have nice sewing ideas, cute clothes, explanations that seem very well detailed and the overall look is really nice. Very natural japanese. I also love the part where they show the workplace of some designers who (I think) work from home.

Here is the cover of the last issue which is still as nice looking as the previous ones.

Like the new “Pochée special” sewing book they just release (going to talk about that in a future post) the magazine concentrates on outer clothes. Which means dresses, something that they call “dress coat”, which can really be a coat if made in the appropriate fabric, and jackets. I think among those main patterns I saw 5 that looked definitely like coats/jackets to me. As usual those are offered by several “natural” designers and for each style you will find one basic pattern and one or two variations (which usually make a really different garment). Appart from those patterns you can find: small objects, bags (2 pages), leggings/arm warmer (1 pair)/leg warmer (1 pair) (2 pages), stoles/vests (2 pages), dresses and tunics for women and girls, skirts for women and skirts, two jackets/coats for children and a few bags for your children who go back to school. That’s all I can remember right now.

Edit from September 10th: thanks to lolo from Le grenier de Noélie we now have a link to scans of this magazine. There aren’t all the outfits, but it show those from the main theme. You can see them here (flash needed I think). They also show the leggings pages, the stole pages, two of the children pages (those with the coats) and two other adult outfits that I liked.

It’s funny, it seems that I see jackets and coats patterns everywhere lately. Is it me or are they really more present? I’m not sure. It might also be that more of them have interesting details/shapes. There was a lot of new releases since the beginning of September, I’ll try to talk about them in the next posts (at little at a time).