Sewing the Curve: Thoughts on Size, Patterns, and Body Image

Today, there is no finished object. This weekend was a glorious whirlwind of wedding activities—a fabulous bridal shower, wedding ring shopping, and introducing Sam to my out-of-town loved ones—which left minimal time for photographing the lovely dresses I made. (Spoiler alert: I'm the latest Elisalex convert.) This break in sartorial presentation does give me a chance to do something else, however: start a conversation.

Since returning to this blog in September, I've been confronted again and again with an issue that I'd long ago laid to rest. Namely: the size of my body and what that means for my wardrobe. I am in a somewhat unique position within the realm of fashion—one of those odd consumers on the Venn diagram between straight sizes and plus sizes. There are plenty of stores that I can walk into, pick up a cute piece, and leave with it, but there are also plenty which I've been sized out of. Ann Taylor Loft is always a hit, while Anthropologie can be an exercise in frustration. The arbitrary nature of ready-to-wear sizing is one of the main reasons I began sewing, honestly. It was emotionally taxing to always have Fashion-with-a-capital-F telling me what I was and wasn't allowed to wear, by the simple act of disallowing me a choice in the matter.

So, I began sewing. And it was a wonderland. Not only was I in charge of my own wardrobe—from fabric to pattern—but it always came in my size.

Or, so I thought. The rise of independent pattern companies has put a damper on that freedom. My first foray into indie patterns was with Colette, whose size range I'm comfortably ensconced in. On the larger end, sure, but happily involved in the party. Then along came Salme Patterns, whose Sylvia dress is adorable, but whose sizing chart is suspiciously out of whack. At least they tried to include larger sizes, however, unlike Deer & Doe, Megan Nielsen, or Paper Cut Patterns, who all stall out around a RTW size 12 (UK 16). This is not only much smaller than the offerings from the Big 4 patterns, but conspicuously just shy of  traditional plus sizes.

What's worse is that many of the indie patterns I regularly use—By Hand London and Colette, included-—stop just a little larger than my size. There are precious few pattern companies who tread into truly plus sized waters. Instead, larger sewists are forced to grade and slash and spread to even get a baseline pattern. It's as if the designers don't simply ignore this population, but actively discourage association with their brands. That, quite frankly, blows.

If you spend any time in the comment trails of this blog, you've probably noticed a recurring theme. With every project I post, a smattering of other sewists will comment about how lovely it is to see a pattern on a woman of my size. When I first started blogging again, I thought nothing of it, but the more blogs that are added to my reader, the more I begin to wonder. Why aren't there more women of a size blogging? If statistics hold true, 40% of western women are a size 14+. So, where are they?

I suspect that, not unlike RTW fashion, plus size sewing bloggers have been sized out of the conversation altogether. How are they supposed to participate in this community, when there are limits on their involvement? It's easy to say that designing for plus sizes is just too hard or cost prohibitive, as Colette did in their (in my opinion, disastrous) recent blog post, but that doesn't address the problem at hand. There is a market demand for large sizes—just look at the readership of this blog—but most designers seem as happy to ignore that population as their ready-to-wear counterparts are. So, a size 22 woman not only can't find a cute dress at the department store, but she can't make one herself without considerable effort and pattern alteration know-how.

In the end, plus sized women are confronted with a whole slew of road blocks to sewing blog bliss. Not only must they fight conventional beauty standards by posting pictures of themselves not labeled "before," but they don't have the same opportunities as straight sized women. Rare is the pattern they can pick up and learn to sew with. Rare is the cute, modern company that is designing with their proportions in mind. Since most pattern models are at the lower end of straight sizes (another commonality with RTW fashion), it can also be a total guessing game to judge how a pattern will translate, once the grading process ends. With each hurdle, less and less women are inclined to create and share. How can our community not be weakened by the loss of those voices?

Writing for this blog is, hands down, one of the most empowering things I've ever done. With each picture I post of myself, with each positive comment received, my own inner critic shrinks. It could easily go the other way, but sewing for my supposedly problematic body and chronicling those adventures here, makes me all the more confident that I am lovely and chic, no matter what Fashion thinks. That other women are denied that confidence, by the very pursuit that instilled it in me, breaks my heart.

If there were any spare time left in my day, I'd take a pattern drafting class tomorrow and start fixing this mistake myself. As it is, I implore you to give it some thought. If you're a plus sized sewist who has been reticent to start a blog, please take the plunge. We need your creative energy, if the sewing community is to be more inclusive and body positive than its mainstream counterpart. If, by some stroke of happenstance, you're a pattern designer or future pattern designer, consider the market. Speaking from experience, I'd pay more for a size-inclusive independent pattern than the cheaper, boring Big 4 alternatives. There is no way I'm alone in that.

I would be remiss if I didn't end this post with a couple of positive shout outs. Despite the major gap in the plus sized sewing community, there are bloggers and designers proving that this is a vital market which deserves to be served. Some of my favorites are Cake Patterns, Alana from Lazy Stitching, Laurwyn from Quirky Pretty Cute, and Carolyn from Diary of a Sewing Fanatic*. If you long for more plus sized sewists in your life, please check out their fabulous sites! Even better, if you have suggestions of other lovely plus size resources and bloggers, leave them in the comment trail, along with your thoughts on sewing, size, or body image.

Pictures are all of Hilda, the iconic 1950s pin up girl, illustrated by Duane Bryers.

*all bloggers mentioned have self-identified as plus size

Note: I've switched the commenting system to Disqus, so the comments for this post are now not linked to author profiles. I'll be compiling and posting a list of the bloggers mentioned in this post, so that people who would like a reference will have one!