A 1920s Couture Gown Pattern - A New Pattern Release!

Hello my dears. I'm happy to post today about a research/ reproduction project I've been working on for months!
My collection (hoard) of vintage magazines and quarterlies always makes me happy, but recently they also told me that a pattern in my collection was very special!

The quarterlies often had a few pages of couture designs mingled in with their every day patterns and a 1927 McCall Quarterly was kind enough to inform me that my McCall 5050 was a design by House of Worth!

After much digging, I also found the same pattern advertised a few times in two other magazines from the period, some of which included references to embroidery patterns that could be used to make the dress more unique!

I already had plans to release a reproduction of the pattern, but I decided to hold off until I could really do something special.

I was finally able to hunt down rough images of what all three referenced embroidery designs looked like, and once I had them, I drafted those, too!

And now it's complete! Pattern #3086 is now available in print or download and includes three full-sized embroidery motifs to make it exactly as pictured in the magazines!

1920s Worth Couture Dress #3086.

Most of the reference material has the pattern illustrated for day wear but the sleeveless version in printed silk was advertised as a "Gown of Grace and Gaiety from Paris".
You can find the pattern here.

House of Worth has a strange, special place in my heart. My late mother was obsessed with Worth and the history behind the famed Couture house that launched Parisian Couture as we know it today. Her greatest goal in life was to one day add a Worth gown to her antique clothing collection. A big dream indeed, considering that they are often only found in museums these days. She passed away before ever making her dream a reality. It felt strange, sad, and bitter-sweet to know that I had a pattern of one of their designs and that I couldn't share it with her.
As I'm a pattern collector, and not a really a dress collector, this was essentially my version of her dream and I'm so happy to have realized it a bit for both of us.

For an extraordinary photo collection of House of Worth designs, check out the Metropolitan Museum of Art online catalog.
But beware, bring something to soak up your drool and clear your schedule, because you're going to be there a while...

Happy sewing,

Making Your First Dress - A Lesson from 1927

I just keep finding things inside of my Woman's Institute lesson books! This time I was looking through Dressmaking - Perfection in Details and this flyer was tucked in the back.
It was most likely included in the mail order coursework as part of the Dressmaking Program.

It mentions a few commercial patterns that one could purchase to make these looks including Ladies' Home Journal 5146, Butterick 1390, Butterick 1561, Pictorial Review 4006, and Ladies' Home Journal 5503.

Enjoy!

Oh, and in other news, look what I just finished!

#3069 Slip Pattern

Making a Kimono Sleeve Dress from the Woman's Institute

This morning I was gently riffling through my Woman's Institute book collection and inside a copy of Dress Construction and Finishing I found the coolest little booklet!

It was meant to come along with actual fabric dress pieces sent to the student to sew, and then return for examination! Can you just image getting a dress in the mail, already cut, just waiting to be sewn together? How fun!

For those of you unfamiliar with it, the Woman's Institute was a dressmaking and millinery instruction school that operated mainly by correspondence.

You can read all about their courses and book in a few different publications including Dressmaking Made Easy, Home Study Courses, and What the Woman's Institute Means to Me.

For your enjoyment, here is the lesson booklet in its entirety.

You can make a dress similar to this by using a straight-line one-piece dress pattern.

How to Properly Mend Sewing Patterns

Pattern repair and preservation are topics that don't come up very often unless you're a die-hard pattern collector or an experienced sewing pattern seller. Many people might reasonably assume that a sewing pattern or envelope with tears is worth less than one without. That makes sense. What they might not know, is that a pattern or envelope that have been repaired with any kind of tape is likely worth LESS than a torn, un-repaired one.
Here is why.

Tape adhesive can degrade and change color over the years. While it might be a temporary repair, old tape can eventually weaken the paper surrounding it, stain the pattern paper, and in some cases eat through delicate tissue leaving nothing but a shredded, inflexible plastic remnant.

I thought that I would put together a quick guide to pattern repair for anyone who is interested. If you have any suggestions gleaned from your own collecting experience, please do leave a comment to share with us!

Allow me to first say though, that this is not a lecture or condemnation to those who have taped their patterns in the past. Your pattern is your property to do with as you wish, and I would simply be happy to teach you a way to help those damaged patterns to not only survive longer, but also retain their value and integrity in the future!

Pattern sellers should pay special attention to how, and if, they choose to repair their sewing patterns. Collectors like myself are not terribly concerned with a torn piece or envelope here or there, but we are VERY concerned with patterns that have been taped in any way. It is always safer to leave a pattern un-repaired and let the buyer fix it themselves if they are so inclined.

The basics:
Do not tape any part of a pattern or envelope with scotch or any other regular tape. Things to avoid using include shipping tape, masking tape, duct tape, washi tape, staples, sewing pins and paper clips. All of these can do more eventual harm than good.

Found in a Bag - the 1920's Dress

As many of you already know, my mother was an antique dealer - her specialty happened to be vintage clothing and she was a master at restoring difficult pieces. Those great items though that she found beyond repair were always saved hoarded to be later used to help in the restoration of something else. Some pieces ended up as parasol covers, beaded purse linings, or period correct doll clothes.
Others were forgotten about and tucked away in every spare corner and cranny she could find in the antique house she owned - also slowly being restored. When she passed away, my sister and I went through many boxes, and sometimes, rather than digging through the contents of an entire box, I would follow a hunch and decide to give an entire box a new home in my sewing room hoard, sight unseen.
It has felt special, opening these boxes over 2 years after her passing, and feeling close to her again.
My most recent excavation brought to light a dusty Dollar General bag with what I can only describe as the pleasing weight and bounce of silk inside.
I decided to photograph the bag as I dumped its contents on my sewing table, and what follows is my experience of said bag. I though you might like discovering the "Dress in a bag" as much as I did.

Lovely 1920's Couture and a New Pattern Release!

Well, hello my dears!
I have been hard at work doing two things very diligently. The first has been working on a pattern project a very long time in the making. The second is learning how to stop and take care of myself. It has taken me a few years but I have finally learned the lesson that chronic pain teaches everyone familiar with it: You have to learn when to stop. It's not easy, especially when you're an obsessive workaholic who loves what you do for a living!
This lesson has called for less blogging and more gardening, less pattern drafting and more quiet moments with a good book, less 14 hour days and more tea, yoga, dog walking, and wine in the garden breaks.
Self-neglect is a hard habit to break, but at least I've been enjoying the learning process :)

When I haven't been seeking those quiet, peaceful, relaxing activities, I've been quite happily working on a reproduction for what I consider one of the crown jewels of my vintage pattern collection. But it had to be done right, and that called for some painstaking research and a lot of work.

The pattern in question: A 1929 Maggy Rouff Couture design that looks more like it's from the early 1930's. Maggy Rouff was rather fashion forward in general but in 1929 it seems like she started setting the stage for the hemline making its descent from the flapper just-below-the-knee, to the calf-length we associate with the early 1930's.

This wonderful design features three versions that can be sewn long sleeved or sleeveless. The front has a wrap effect with yokes trimmed in bows and a flounce for a faux-bolero effect. However, the most interesting feature by far, is the straight skirt which is trimmed with asymmetric flounces for the suggestion of an uneven hemline -  in a manner that was very fashion-forward for 1929. 

My favorite part about adding the original pattern to my collection was how it felt a little bit like an Easter egg. I knew it was familiar-looking when I bought it, but couldn't quite place it. Then I opened it up and there was a photograph printed on one of the pattern pieces. The photo of the original Maggy Rouff design that the pattern had been designed from. I ran back to my collection of vintage magazines, and sure enough, in a fall 1929 magazine, there it was. The dress! The original pattern envelope made no mention of any designers on the front as they usually do.

The dress in question at far right.

The flounce creates the illusion of a longer, asymmetrical hemline and calls to mind en evening look if one were to leave off the sleeves.
Also from Maggie Rouff and her fellow designers that year, came the beautiful, flounce bedecked evening gowns that merely flirted briefly with the floor:

Maggy Rouff on the left, Patou on the right.

All of this of course, eventually led to a reproduction. But I had several mangled and badly torn pattern pieces to re-draft along the way (poor little pattern, I'll save you!). And this pattern, with 13 pieces and a half dozen flounces takes up more paper/ fabric than any pattern I've yet to work with. But she's finally here!

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, Depew #3061.

Depew #3061 Ladies' Dress Sewing Pattern.

I've been playing about with some sketches and draping and there's even a way to sew this dress up for an evening look! Simply leave the sleeves off, extend the front and back hems about 4", cut a few more flounces like the ones at front and back, sew them a few inches below the first set and voila, evening dress!

A quickie in Photoshop - not my best work but you get the idea.

You can really play around with this dress by leaving the flounces off at the bodice, or cutting them from contrasting lace, or leaving all flounces off for a smoother day-time silhouette.
The sky is the limit!

Happy sewing,

McCall 5044 - A 1920's Robe in Luxury Cottons

Hello my dear readers, I'm back!
I'm sorry it's been such a long time since my last post! I have been so busy that something had to give temporarily and I'm afraid that something was writing. However, I have been doing some projects in the meantime and have finally got the time to share with you. My only New Year's resolution this year was to work a little bit less and to sew a little bit more and so far, it's rather nice!

McCall 5044 Ladies' and Misses' Negligee

My most recent project was McCall 5044. I found this pattern a while back on Ebay and imagine my delight when I searched my magazine collection and found it featured in a December, 1927 edition of Fashion Service Magazine!

 I fully intended to sew this lovely negligee in silk but I wanted to make a wearable muslin first, and I decided to use some really beautiful cotton from my stash.
The main body fabric is from the Olivia Collection by Anna Griffin.

The instructions were a bit vague (quite common for 1920s McCall's) so I had some room to customize the pattern. I made version A and lined the interior with soft cotton so all seams are neatly concealed. I also lengthened the sleeve bands a bit to allow for my rather long arms.

Instead of sewing fabric carriers I followed this incredibly nifty Youtube tutorial and made thread carriers for the sash. It was so much fun to try something new, and to avoid stitching those darn cloth carriers made my day!


I also searched high and low and found a lovely art deco rose motif online, adapted it a bit, and embroidered it with my initials on the sleeve.

I know, I went a bit overboard for a wearable muslin but every step of sewing up this negligee was more fun than the last and I just couldn't help myself. It went together so easily and I can't wait to make another one in some sumptuous silk.

Update: This pattern is now available as a multisized reproduction in both PDF and print!

How about you? Did you do any recent sewing or make any sewing-related New Year's resolutions?

Sew Expensive... McCall 6057 Evening Gown Pattern - A Record Breaker!

Hello my lovely readers. This morning I watched, mesmerized, as a vintage pattern sold on eBay. This particular pattern was something special. I knew that there wasn't a chance in hell that I would be able to afford it, so I stared at it in horrified fascination, like one watches a train wreck, or Keeping Up with the Kardashians.

It was so pretty, and it sold for so much darn money!

McCall 6057 Evening Gown Pattern from 1930.

I watched McCall 6057 climb over the last few days until it settled at an eye-watering $831.
We have a record-breaker in the Sew Expensive category here on A Few Threads Loose, Ladies and Gents! For my international readers, that's £498 or 610€.

Some of you might remember that our former heavy-weight expensive sewing pattern was McCall 1794. This lovely pattern held the record at $685 for nearly two years!

So why was this pattern so expensive? This is the perfect storm of vintage sewing pattern wonderfulness: The artwork is beautiful + it's from a hard-to-find era for McCall patterns + it's an evening gown pattern + it's right on the historical transition from 1920's-1930's hem lines + it's sexy as hell + I want one = $831.

And that is all, my dears.
Happy Sewing,

My Favorite 1920's Teddies... and a free sewing pattern!

The 1920's brought us some truly wonderful fashion revelations, my favorite being the loose-fitting dress and less constricting undergarments to accompany them. Lingerie also got so much easier to sew with little to no boning, fewer seams, and simpler designs!

The best part of this, in my humble opinion, was the advent of the Chemise (also known as the teddy or cami-knickers). It could often be sewn from two squares of fabric and was a great way to reuse fabric to make dainty things.

Original 1920's lingerie patterns are nearly impossible to find. In fact, they're practically the holy grail to lingerie pattern collectors like myself. Teddy patterns from the 1920s are the rarest of all. If you do a Google search you'll find hardly any at all. Sad Face.

I have quite a few in my collection though and I thought I would share.

McCall 5124 1920s Step-in Combination Chemise Camiknickers.

McCall 4487 Mid-1920s Ladies' and Misses' Step-in Chemise.

McCall 5818 late 1920s Step-in Combination is available as a reproduction pattern here.

These beauties are so lovely and when they do rarely crop up, they are often quite expensive (and rightly so!). This makes getting your hands on that 1920s look rather hard and one must often turn to reproduction sewing pattern companies like mine to find something to substitute for an original.

But today, I thought I would skip all that and just give you a free pattern!

This is a digital PDF copy of an insanely easy sewing method for a lovely set of step-in combination teddies from 1926. The pattern for two different versions was originally published for the newspaper column of a "Fashion Expert". This pattern would also make an amazing little neglige for when you need one in a hurry.

I have digitally enhanced the images but the instructions are the exact wording used by the original designer. The grammar and writing style tells me that the "Fashion Expert" was most likely a French woman writing in English and the way she expresses herself is so charming!

It is not necessary to print this pattern. The "Pattern" given is a very easy-to-follow set of instructions for cutting and draping a certain measurement of fabric with several drawings and diagrams.
This is a great way to use up some of those vintage scarves hiding in your closet, or a nice length of silk you haven't found a purpose for yet.

Happy Sewing, mes cheris!