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Folkwear Year in Review - 2022

January 02, 2023 2 Comments on Folkwear Year in Review - 2022

I want to start out by saying that at Folkwear, we are incredibly grateful for our amazing customers! Year after year, for over 40 years, people have been using Folkwear patterns to make clothing (from everyday wear to fancy dress), costumes for theater and movies, reenactments, and to connect with their cultures. From very simple garments to complex and intricately embroidered clothes, we are honored to be a part of all of these sewing adventures. And delighted by our Folkwear fans. Thank you for your support of this small business.

I always like to give our customers a little glimpse into the last year and what we accomplished (and remind us here at Folkwear). I am glad to be carrying this company on into the future.

New Pattern Releases

Child's Cookie Apron
Basics Collection

160 Hawaiian Mu'umu'u
161 Thai Fisherman Pants
Tea Cozy (free pattern)
Christmas Embroidery Pattern (free pattern)

Patterns Re-released. These are generally patterns that Folkwear used to publish, that we brought back in a larger size range, but there are a few that were only PDF patterns for the last few years and now are available as paper patterns too!

PDF patterns released (we often up-sized these PDF patterns if the original range was small).

There were so many blog posts with amazing sewing tutorials and how-to's, histories, and garments that we made, but I'll list a few highlights below.

The Pinafore Dress Hack (I love this dress and get loads of compliments on it, and this post got a lot of attention).
Basics Tunic Sew Along (we also had a Pants Sew Along and a Pinafore Dress Sew Along).
Making a Quilted Basics Jacket (we also had a tutorial on how to make this jacket reversible)
Pattern Printing Changes - still dealing with this, but I think we've got it figured out pretty well now.
Tea Cozy pattern and tutorial (free pattern and recipe!)

We also updated our website this summer. And I spent a month in England with my children. Living and working there was so very good for us and I hope to find a similar option this summer as well. I love that Folkwear allows me to travel and is a job I can often do while away.

We will now spend time over the next several weeks planning for 2023. We will likely have a few new patterns out, and will continue to develop PDF patterns, as well as provide tutorials and sew alongs for our patterns. We will also likely expand our fabric selection. We would love to hear from you! What would you like to see Folkwear do in the coming year? What patterns? What products? What tutorials or sewing information would you like us to have?

2 Responses

J Scott

January 13, 2023

I would love to see a PDF of the Aus Drover’s Coat – I am going to buy it in paper because it doesn’t seem to be available yet in PDF form, but with a PF I can reprint and recut in a different size if I am unwilling to do the long job of tracing it out, so I personally would potentially buy both formats. I hope to use it for cycling to work on a daily basis! I use a rain poncho right now but I really would love a coat with leg straps.

Lisa Giokas

January 03, 2023

Firstly I’m so glad that you still make printed paper patterns! I prefer them over PDFs although I see the value in having both options for customers. I’d love to see more project sew alongs on the blog. Specifically for the Model T Duster Coat which I making right now. I’m a visual learner and sometimes the illustrations included in the pattern instructions are a little hard to decipher. For example I found the collar construction particularly confusing. Also I’d like to see a tutorial on how to shorten patterns. I’m quite short (5’2") and have to shorten the pattern pieces by several inches. It can be tricky trying to figure out what other adjustments need to be made to accommodate for the length adjustments. Thanks!