Latest Moan From You and Me 2025

After i put up this picture i but on new socks, 8 June, now today the new socks are wearing out all ready 1 has a hole in the heal and the other 1 is getting thin

Edit shocks for socks i'm very good at spelling as yiou can sea

 

I don't bother with the size numbers, I just look for the measurements on their sizing guide and make the one that's closest to my own measurements. A lot of the companies I use just do small, medium, large etc. And I think pricing is fair - you've got to take into account that the smaller companies are likely not selling thousands of copies. They have to design them, grade them correctly to all the different sizes, get samples sewn up and photographed, maybe adjust the pattern according to the sample results and got through the loop again. Then photograph and make the website content, and pay to keep the website hosted and maintained.

Some of the ones I use are less than £10 for a pattern and then have regular offers where you get them half price. Ellie and Mac and 5 out of 4 patterns are both good for cheap basics.

I've had some very good freebies too.

 

Any starter pattern/supplier suggestions for a complete novice? Also any good YouTube channels you would recommend?

 

Merchant and Mills would be good for a beginner - lots of simple but beautifully designed garments, and their instructions are good. They do paper as well as PDF patterns, the PDF versions are a good bit cheaper. And they have lovely fabrics for sale too.

Merchant & Mills Sewing Patterns

 

Until you mentioned the hole I thought you was referring to your car.

 

Now you mention car i have been working on it, new rear trail arm bushies

Have i not mention i'm no good at spelling i will change the spelling just in case of any mistakes

 

@Jiffy, your feet must sweat hydrochloric acid!

 

Just joking @Jiffy

 

I did wonder what the smell was!!!

 

Sizing definitely varies! I always got my underwear from the same place and recently needed some new stuff. Bought the same as previously, but if I'd actually worn them I would have definitely added to the Ministry of Silly Walks. I actually laid a new pair on top of my current ones any they are considerably smaller in all directions. I then tried the next size up and I could almost have got another 'me' in along side. Summat's gone wrong somewhere.

 

I've always thought clothing sizes needed standardising, I mean what else can you buy where the size varies, if I bought a pound of something in one shop I'd expect a pound of it to be the same in another shop.

There is no point in putting sizes on clothing as no body in the rag trade seems to own a tape measure.

 

I buy all my patterns from Sewdirect.com @Butterfly6 - they have Vogue, Butterick, Simplicity, McCalls, Burda, New Look so a wide range os styles and pricing and, if you sign up for emails, offer each brand at 50% off once or twice a year. Twice a year they have 50% off everything and taht's when I buy.

Patterns like Very Easy Vogue are good for beginners. All the patterns I buy have finished size marked on them so you can adjust bust, waist, hips or length if needed and they're all multi-sized these days and some have bust cup variations.

Since I started sewing in the 60s, patterns have changed a lot - better instructions, more sizes and there are now women's fit and plus sizes available. i've learned by doing but you can probably find classes in local fabric or sewing machine shops or community schools/evening classes/U3A.

 

It would still be difficult though because our body shapes vary so much. Especially women. We all have a different ratio of bust to waist to hip, so the style of the garment will make a big difference too. For the very skinny, there isn't that much difference, but the bigger we get the more we diverge from the basic skeletal shape.

For men it's not so hard - for trousers you can get away with waist size and leg length, because men don't have hips to worry about.

Women's dress sizes have changed over the decades too due to "vanity sizing". A size 10 now is much bigger than a size 10 in the 1960s. That becomes obvious when you look at vintage clothing patterns. To cater for people who are an actual 1960s size 10 we've had to introduce sizes 6 and below.

 

I've bought jeans and no manufacturer seems to have the same idea of what an inch is, I even have bought from the same company the same size, and I can fit in one pair but not the other pair.

It just a lottery buying clothes to fit.
And then you get the old small medium and large, and then a table telling you how big they are.
Might as well put the size on it and stop making things more complicated than they need to be.
If someone said to me can you make me a door I wouldn't reply, do you want a small one a medium one or a large one.

 

I would hope that you would ask them how big the opening was that it should fit in though!