If you’re part of the online sewing community and you’re on Facebook you’ve likely seen this post shared at least a few times. The headline reads, “Wiki Has Released Over 83,500 Vintage Sewing Patterns Online for Download.” You’ve likely seen it because this post has been shared on Facebook more than 424,900 times. Frankly, the idea of a free pattern archive this large is pretty incredible, and sharable.
In fact, though, as you might have found if you’ve ever clicked through on one of those Facebook shares, this headline is too good to be true. There are no free patterns to be had. But there is something else. It’s a different kind of archive, founded back in 2008 as a collaborative sewing community project, and it’s valuable and worthwhile in its own right. It’s a project run by volunteer moderators who are continually attacked by irate visitors demanding free patterns that never existed.
The Vintage Pattern Wiki is Born
In early 2007 Erin McKean, the blogger behind DressADay, met Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, at a conference. McKean loved vintage sewing patterns and had been sewing with them almost exclusively for some time, but she’d run into a problem: they were hard to search for online. “If you want a vintage pattern that has a Peter Pan collar and some pockets, that’s difficult,” she told me. Finding a vintage pattern in your size added an additional challenge.
When she met Wales he was working Wikia, a site for online encyclopedias that would go deep on specific topics. “He asked, ‘Is there something that sewing people would like as a wiki? And I was like we should just list all the patterns in the world! And so he was like, ‘Okay sure. Let’s do it.’” So that year McKean worked with a staff member at Wikia to set things up and the vintage pattern wiki was born.
For McKean, it was important to allow sellers to link to their product listings within the wiki. “If you only have consumers it will dry up and blow away,” she says. “You have to make it economically worthwhile for the people who are doing the really hard work of sourcing the patterns, making them tidy, counting and marking the pattern pieces, taking good photographs, and writing good descriptions.”
The vintage pattern wiki is a true collaboration, and that’s what McKean intended. “In almost everything I do try to use the Stone Soup model,” she says, referring to the folktale in which a whole community contributes vegetables to make a shared meal. “I feel that if everybody puts in a little bit of time, or effort, or information, or just a little love into a project, then it becomes much better for everybody.”
The vintage pattern wiki went live on November 14, 2007, and all was well. Over time, McKean became less involved, and the daily moderation fell to two women, one living in France and the other in California, both volunteers. Wikia merged into a site called Fandom, but the wiki continued to grow and was enjoyed and well used by vintage pattern collectors and sellers alike.
Clickbait Sites Descend
Then, about a decade later, the vintage pattern wiki was discovered by a series of clickbait sites that used it for their own advantage. These websites generate ad revenue based on numbers of visits and will do almost anything to get them, including writing misleading headlines. It turns out that promising an archive of 83,500 vintage patterns to download for free is very effective at generating site visits, just ask ArtFido.com whose post has generated the 424,900 shares on Facebook.
I reached out to the owners of ArtFido.com on Saturday to ask if they would consider revising the headline of their article since it’s clearly inaccurate. I got the following response via email: “Thanks but no thanks.” When I wrote back to ask how much ad revenue the post has generated to date, they didn’t respond.
Tarna is one of the two moderators of the vintage pattern archive (she prefers that I don’t use her real name). She’s a former collector and seller of vintage patterns on eBay and Etsy and moderates the site because she enjoys it. She’s never been paid. “Fandom just sent me some swag,” she says, “But that was after ten years of being a moderator.”
When people visit the wiki demanding free patterns she feels frustrated, and over time, has become more exasperated. “I’m baffled. We aren’t profiting from this. We’re all volunteers. We have to sit there and defend ourselves for something we never claimed. It’s like somebody saying this car dealership is giving away a free pickup truck and they don’t.”
No Free Patterns, But That Doesn’t Mean There’s Nothing
Although the vintage pattern wiki doesn’t actually contain a massive archive of free downloads, that doesn’t mean it has no value. It is what McKean and Wales intended it to be – a free, collaborative archive of vintage sewing pattern information – and that in itself is tremendously valuable.
McKean points out that the University of Rhode Island also has a vintage sewing pattern archive, the Commercial Pattern Archive (CoPA). Although CoPA is more extensive and comprehensive (the patterns date back to 1847 and the entries include the pattern schematics, not just the cover images), for many years this archive required a paid membership. The vintage pattern wiki has always been free and includes links to purchase the patterns, a useful thing for those looking to build their collections or actually sew with the patterns.
“I do think it’s a shame that people think that they’re going to come there and be able to download a whole pattern,” says McKean. “I really wanted to support the whole community of people who love vintage patterns.”
What she wrote back in the when the wiki first launched still holds true. “I don’t own this wiki. It’s not mine, I don’t get any money from it nor will I. It’s something for the community of people who love vintage patterns to build, share, and have fun with. Everyone should feel encouraged to participate!”
Thanks for this! I just shared it on the McCall’s & Simplicity Facebook Group, since this site gets shared all the time by members. —Meg
Awesome!
Is that it word for word? Really “Wiki Has Released Over 83,500 Vintage Sewing Patterns Online for Download.”
Then what’s the problem? Where does that say Free? It does not.
Does it have actual patterns though? If not, that would be another issue. But as for free, it’s not mentioned in the headline.
Well, the patterns are not released for download. Photos of the pattern covers and some information about the patterns have been uploaded by users over the last 12 years. So saying that the wiki has released the patterns makes it sounds like a sudden flood which is inaccurate.
And saying that the patterns are online for download implies that they’re available in their entirety which is also inaccurate. There are no patterns. There are links to places you could buy some of the patterns.
I would argue that the headline is pretty inaccurate.
Agreed, with that knowledge very misleading.
How can people be so stupid? I have actually used the site many times to just get an accurate picture of the patterns to go with the pieces of a tattered picture envelope. Thank you for all your work and dedication to preserving the piece of history.
You can get ideas from the pattern covers then search them out for sale on the internet. Many show up on eBay and Etsy.
The most confusing and annoying thing about this headline is they say “Wiki” as if it’s some entity like a corporation that has all this information and has released it on it’s website. Like, I know Wikipedia is a thing, but as far as I know “Wiki” is not a sole entity that belongs to anyone. I don’t know why this bugs me so much. Not to mention the fact that carefully unfolding and scanning each pattern piece of 83,500 vintage patterns, then uploading into an online database would not only be ridiculously time consuming, but if someone HAD done this, it certainly wouldn’t be free.
So, is there a link where any vintage patterns can be purchased? I am really struggling navigating through all these different links.
I was very impressed with the site. I was initially mislead by the title, but I soon found the Vendor link that took me to sites that had some of the patterns for sale. Honestly, if you have some good basic patterns you can make many of the clothing styles shown on the cover art.
Someone should sue those people that wrote the article that I could download some vintage patterns. 83,000 of them. Crap, makes me angry when people write crap like this. First, I am not a sewing machine person (I can do hand sewing) but I have been looking at it for years thinking I might and of course, because I might, I have the stuff, sewing machines I do not know how to use, thread, tape, all types of stuff I’ve bought or inherited. And really, right now, I would prefer to buy the patterns instead of downloading them because I am not experienced enough to “size” them for me. And yes, I know that my wanting some old patterns is a whim on my part but there are some clothes I want and the only place I see these clothes these days is on pattern covers. I love those dresses with the “waistlines” down around your hips instead of cutting you off in the middle. I am a very short, with no waist person. Those dresses give you a “waistline”. LOL And don’t laugh, but I also want a “poodle skirt”. Do not know where I would wear it but I want one. As I was born in the early 60s, I missed that era of clothing and I love those full flaring skirts. So poodle skirt it is. LOL Anyway, I am just wishing because I will probably not get around to it as I’ve have other responsibilities that take up too much of my time and energy,… Life gets in the way but one day…. might have some time and all… need some vintage patterns because the newer patterns do not seem to have the “looks” I want. LOL Thanks ladies for doing this. This lurker loves ya for it. 🙂 Tips, give tips for the sew dummies like me. We need all the help we can get. LOL
At this point, I’m a pretty experienced seamstress. I enjoy perusing the site for inspiration. I know better than to believe the patterns illustrated would be free and am puzzled why anyone would think such an archive would have all those patterns free of charge as it is nonsensical. The images can, however, be captured. So, it is simple enough to figure out either how to draft a pattern to match the image, combine other patterns to do so, or use draping techniques to simulate the vintage fashion. So, to me, it’s a great resource for inspiration and improvisation which is what the site aspires to be.
I soooo wish you could help me draft a pattern, from a picture of A pattern, that I’m dying for lol
Thank you ma’am!
Hello, I have just discovered that the pattern club that I belonged to is no longer in existence. Can anyone out there assist me by directing me to where I might be able to purchase the Vintage patterns by Butterwick, McCalls and Vogue. I would like to purchase a couple of the ladies bath Robes. Also a few of the Vintage dresses and skirts as well.