The Great Pattern Review
Period Patterns
Carol Ross
Period Patterns are definitely not for the faint of heart or beginning sewer. My suggestion, if you want to use these patterns, is to completely ignore the instructions and sew the pieces together in the order with which you are familiar. The instructions were bad a couple of years ago and now they are completely dreadful. The instructions for assembling the finished garment skip around explaining different versions of the garment; thereby confusing you and probably bringing on a migraine.
#16 - Tunics, c. 650-1310
Christine James - Recommended
Very easy. Good for beginners. Simple side seams, sleeves, neck insert and that's it. I made View 2 and had no problems.
Anita Klein - Recommended
Very simple, just a few pattern pieces. I made View 3 and 6. I had a little trouble with the yoke piece. The instructions are not clear. I finally attached the yoke by hand-sewing it.
#21 - Cotehardies and Sideless Surcoats, c. 14th and 15th centuries
Denise Lorraine - Recommended for experienced sewers.
I didn't have any problems with the pattern but, it's not for beginners. I'm very pleased with the gown. I particularly like the extensive historical notes that accompany the pattern.
Rebecca Prince
Make a muslin first. You'll need it. This garment is very tight-fitting. Choose a fabric with a tight weave and buy a bottle of fray check. You'll have to fit the dress several times to get it right. The instructions for turning the surcoate after you've attached the lining are wrong. I left the bottom unstitched and did a roll-up hem.
Janet Canning
I made the cotehardie. I drew a heavy line on the pattern pieces so they were easy to trace. The wrist and hip placements weren't accurate for me (I'm 5'7"). Absolutely make a muslin; it's the only way you'll succeed.
#26 - Houpelandes, c. 1390-1460
Tara LaBella - Recommended
The Houppelande is fairly easy to cut out and put together and I can recommend it. It probably would be a bit difficult for a beginner. The pattern assumes that you have more than a basic knowledge of sewing and what has to be done to finish a garment. The collars do not seem to work for the neck openings but, I made two styles using the collarless faced openings. I altered the men's basic style with the bagpipe sleeves by not sewing up the front opening. I faced the opening all the way down to create a 15th Century dressing gown and added a matching fabric belt. I also made the Houppelande with the lined batwing sleeves with no problems except trying to even the hem as the cut and weight of the cotton damask I used caused it to stretch past what I had anticipated. The pattern does warn you about stretching and suggests hanging the unhemed Houppelande overnight, but, given the weight of the amounts of fabric in the design, I'd suggest about a week, especially if you are using a heavyweight fabric such as velvet.
Betsy Dickenson
I made three different Houpelandes using this pattern and was very pleased with the results. They were authentic in look, even down to the hand made buttons. The pattern historical notes are intresting, as are the lined illustrations depicting the works of fine art from which the designs are derived. I would NOT recommend these patterns for anyone who is not an experienced sewer. The directions assume more than basic construction knowledge, etc. and do not give explicit instructions. The bottom line: if you have good sewing skills and knowledge you will be thrilled with the results. If you do not fit the above description you will be lost.
#41 - Women's Italian Renaissance Gowns, c. 1470-1505
Sheri Jurnecka - Not Recommended
One of the pattern pieces for the dress was missing. The piece for the bodice is just a flat rectangle (no seams marked, no darts, no gathering lines --- nothing). The instructions for the bodice front are, "Fit". That's it. When you're making a gown for a Size D person, you need to do something substantial to a flat rectangle. I modified the pattern. The gowns turned out very well but, I would not use this pattern again. Sheri (on the right) is wearing her gown; Beverly Avery (on the left) is also wearing a gown Sheri made from this pattern.
Annie Osendorf - Not Recommended
I'm just starting my muslin, and my first impression with the Period Patterns is they could have used a better quality of paper, like the Burda pattern company uses. For a $25 pattern, you would expect a little more from this company. And after reviewing the instructions and pattern pieces, the comments listed on your web page were right on target. I might just cut my losses and look for another pattern.
#43 - Men's Italian Renaissance Garments, c. 1420-1500
Cassandra O'Connor - Recommended (sort of).
I made View 5, the Italian Renaissance Cioppa with the big big sleeves. I consider myself an intermediate sewer. I've made some very pretty things, and can follow and make patterns fairly easily. I ignored the muslin because my fabric was from the dollar store. I'll NEVER try to follow these directions again. Who wrote these? It wanted me to do all these arcane things with yardsticks and tons of little dots that didn't line up and lines drawn on the fabric to get the gown pleated. I stared at the pattern directions and pattern, literally, for two hours, trying to figure it out. I drew the arcane lines, sigils, and weird-ities. I stared some more. Finally I threw out the directions and just box pleated the stupid thing. It came out great and wasn't hard! If I do this again, I'm ignoring the directions. The pattern seriously underestimated fabric usage; you really need about 11yd. fabric. The instructions tell you to lay out the fabric to be 18' long. Who has a workroom with that much spare floor space? I sure don't. The instructions never even mentioned how much lining is needed for the sleeves (approximately 5 - 6 yards). Sizing was quite weird, especially in the shoulders. If I do this again, I'm adding 5-6" to the bottom hem; knee-length feels a bit short. The photocopied primary sources were neat, but directions careered all over the three handout sheets. They were written either by someone who'd made this thing so many times she just assumed everybody knew what she was talking about, or by someone who'd never actually sewn this garment. The diagrams were worse than useless. I'm fairly sure that right and wrong coding was incorrect. I still don't know if I was supposed to put a neckline lining on it because, though it asks you to cut a lining, it never tells you to put it on. Other than that, it actually was fairly easy to put together once you used your common sense instead of following these ATROCIOUS directions. The garment has only 3 pattern pieces. I also made the shirt, and that was easy as pie. Came out gorgeous and soooo period looking. I'll make another for myself, altering to make a chemise. My boyfriend thinks it feels a bit binding under the arms, and it sort of looks it, but it's not a bother to him. Bigger guys might need some reworking on this though. The directions were easy and accurate. Period Patterns ought to have had this person do the cioppa/giornia instructions. I recently made the doublet and the trunk-hose included in PP43 (the doublet is shown in the photo on the left). To my surprise, both went together without a hitch. I didn't really read the directions for the doublet because I'd been burned so badly on the cioppa ones, but it was fairly logical to put together. I probably should have tried to fit it better through the upper chest -- mine came out a bit big there. But overall, easy to make and easy to figure out. The hose required extensive fitting on my victim, but they also came out well.
Tara LaBella
I have to agree that Period Patterns are not for the inexperienced (or the faint-hearted). As to the men's Italian Renaissance Garments, quite frankly I haven't had the nerve to make more than the shirt. The pleated over-garments have instructions that I finally figured out but, I'm not yet sure if it's worth the amount of work as set forth in the instructions. (Did Renaissance tailors have the work space and time to spend doing things this way?) The shirt assumes that you know how to figure out how much cording yardage you will need and then attach ties to the neck and cuffs. Although I cut out the men's 42 chest size, it's much too tight under the arms for the intended wearer. (It fits me fine but I'm not even 5' 4" and wear a size 12 ladies pattern.) It needs extending in the armsceye to neck length more than in the torso's waist to hem length to fit anyone over 5' 8", and especially for anyone 6' or above.
Catherine Olanich Raymond - Not Recommended
I made View V, the Italian Renaissance Cioppa with the big big sleeves. Like Cassandra O'Connor (see review above), I found the absurd pattern piece layout, misinformation about the amount of fabric required, and the ridiculous directions made the entire project take at least twice as long as it should have done. Let's take each of the faults in order.
Period Patterns borrowed an old trick from the earliest Victorian patterns and drew all three pieces directly on top of each other. That means the sewer either takes a HUGE pattern sheet to a photocopy shop and have three copies of this sheet made so she will have three individual pattern pieces (the Cioppa consists of only three pieces) or laboriously fold and pin and transfer the pattern shapes to muslin, thereby creating pattern pieces. Neither alternative is practical or satisfactory.
I agree with Cassandra that it is not possible to make the pattern with 8-1/4 yards of fabric for the outer and lining in the large size. I had no problem cutting the lining fabric out of 10 yards of 45" satin largely because I ignored the pattern's cutting layout. My fashion fabric had a stripped design, so it took considerable piecing to cut out the sleeves. Event with the piecing and the width of my fabric, I needed 10 yards of the fashion fabric; that is 2 more yards than the patterns specifies.
The instructions sheet explains that the reason the directions meander over three separate sheets of paper is because they were originally laid out on a single large piece of paper and then photocopied onto three sheets to save costs. That's a poor excuse but, it's a minor fault compared to the fact that, what the directions tell you to do (once you find them all and read them) is insane.
For example, the instructions tell you to sew together the assembled lining pieces and outer fabric pieces for the Cioppa at the neckline in front and back while inside-out; then to sew those pieces together at the the hemline while the garment is inside-out and after that to turn the assemblage right-side out through an armhole. Hah. It can't be done. I tried for nearly an hour and failed. My husband, who was a Math major in college with an interest in Topology, tried for 30 minutes to turn the garment right-side out as directed before concluding that what the directions were telling us to do was topologically impossible. I finally ended up unpicking the stitches at the neckline, turning it right-side out, and re-sewing the neckline from the right side with a strip of ribbon binding.
As for the pleating, I gave up on matching the markings I had so carefully attempted to place on the pieces and tried to box pleat the body and sleeves, as Cassandra suggests. For some reason (possibly the slippery nature of my man-made fiber lining and brocade), I could not manage to box pleat either fabric evenly. Faced with an impending deadline, I decided to get them sewn in to the armscye (an epic struggle in itself since each sleeve consisted of at least 4 yards of fabric). He wore the finished garment with a heavy belt and it looked fine.
#46 - Woman's German Puff-and-Slash, c. 1500-1545
C. Moore
I completed a very beautiful dress from this pattern; of course, not without a lot of changing and alternatives to their directions. The instructions really stink. Period patterns are not for the faint-hearted, but if you want a great dress, it's worth the effort.
#53 - Early Tudor Men's Garments, c. 1495-1537
Jessica Wilbur
Like most Period Patterns, #53 has problems with the instructions being vague and confusing, and the pattern pieces being difficult to cut. The yardage requirements on the back of the envelope are also hard to interpret. I found an error or two in the instructions, even after I had taken the time to write them out sequentially to avoid further confusion. However, once I had omitted a couple of blatantly modern elements (use of interfacing in the cuff of the gown, etc.), the finished result looked very authentic and was very comfortable for the wearer. I would recommend this pattern only for the intermediate or better sewer, and would add the caveat that a muslin is a necessary step! I had to do a lot of fitting but the wearer is taller than average. The finished ensemble can be seen in the photo on the left.
Michelle Burchett - Recommended
I made up this costume for my son. It was a Shakespeare play "The Tempest" he played Stephano. The tunic is #3 with the #2 blouse. I would say the best thing to do is to read and re-read the pattern before you start. I would suggest only for the intermediate or better sewer. Once you understand how the directions work by going back and forth it made a lot more sense. Not a fussy pattern very little detail on the pattern pieces themselves. I did have to cut the pattern down a bit, the wearer was only 14 and it worked beautifully. Pictured above-right.
#56 - Late Tudor and Elizabethan Gowns, c. 1545-1610
Janet Canning - Not Recommended
Make your Elizabethan corset first then start a muslin for this gown. You'll be working on the muslin throughout the process of trying to get through this pattern. It's a pain.
#58 - Men's Elizabethan Garments, c. 1558-1605
Sheri Jurnecka
I made the Venetians. The pattern is unwieldy; pages and pages of confusing, minimal instructions. The pattern pieces do double duty; one might be used as a leg band for one garment and a waistband for another. It's messy and mind boggling. The actual pattern for the Venetians is quite simple, but getting those few pieces and specific instructions is not fun. Recommended for amateur detectives.
#101 - Medieval Military Garments
Tara LaBella
I've made the surcoat without any problems.
#102 - More Medieval Military Garments
Tara LaBella
I've made the coif, the arming cap and the gorget with no problems. The instructions for the lined coif (cut like a balaclava) have to be followed carefully or else your work becomes a doughnut when you attempt to turn it. (I should have known better but I was tired and we all know what happens when you sew when you're tired...)