Sew Expensive... A 1935 Evening Gown McCall 8476

Hello my dears. This is going to surprise you. Yet another beautiful 1930s evening gown pattern has sold on eBay for more than $12. I'll bet you never saw that coming...

I'm a bit behind on getting this pattern posted but a little while back, McCall 8476 sold at auction for a delightfully shocking $810.99.

The listing photos don't show the copyright date but I estimate this one to be circa 1935.
And after a quick internet search, maybe the highest bidders knew something about this one that the rest of us didn't?

Image from Pinterest.

...that's right, kids, this one was designed after a Patou gown.

Now let's talk about that seam gathering at the front hips. I remember shopping for pants with my mom when I was a teenager. Something that really stuck in my head was her advice that one never wanted to draw attention to one's crotch area if it can be helped. She explained how some pants would crinkle oddly in the front area and as she'd point it out, her face would form a grimace, a crinkling around her lips as she pinched them in disapproval at a pair of pants. The expression was rather similar to the unwanted fabric puckering, now that I think of it...

And on my dear Mama's advice, I could never walk out of my house in a dress with such unfortunately positioned gathers. I have to say, Patou, darling, I'll have to pass on this one...

Now, if you'd like to see a dress that Patou absolutely nailed just a few years earlier by drawing attention to the dècolletage rather than the hips, look no further than McCall 5840, circa 1929.

How about you? Which of these gowns is more your style?

Happy sewing,

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,

Sew Expensive... Vogue Couturier 535

To continue the train of thought a bit from our last post, we have another expensive luxury pattern selling for a good deal of money.
Not long ago, Vogue 535 sold at auction for $168.49.

Though high, this is really the going average for late 40's early 50's Couturier patterns with any character. By character, I'm referring to patterns with interesting or unusual details. Note the high collar, asymmetrical button closures and dramatic sweeping lines of the tunic in the illustration above. The more details like these, the more complicated it is to sew, the higher the interest and value to collectors.

In our last post, we saw a 1930's Vogue Couturier pattern sell for $360.
Over the last few years of tracking the selling prices of these, it seems that they follow a price trend by decade.

Vogue 862 available here.

On average, 1930's Vogue Couturier patterns sell for between $200-$380.
1940's-1950's Vogue Couturier patterns sell for between $100-$200.
1960's/ 1970's Vogue Couturier patterns sell for between $40-$200. This is also interestingly the decade that Vogue chose to start advertising the couture designer responsible for the patterns, with patterns by Dior, Chanel, and Givenchy fetching the highest prices.
These averages are dependent on a few things. These are auction selling prices. Buy it now prices found from pattern sellers on Etsy and other websites might vary on the mood/ experience/ clientele of the pattern seller.
Also keep in mind the evening gown patterns will be quite a bit higher than these averages.

Vogue 2971 available here.

If you've got one of these in your collection, be sure to check and see if it has all of its instructions. These patterns often had two separate instruction sheets with the cutting layout often on another sheet entirely. If you only have one sheet, make sure that it has both cutting and sewing instructions on it.

Another thing to keep in mind is that while some of these patterns can be found with "Vogue Couturier" cloth labels inside - a pattern is considered complete without it. The cloth label was not automatically included in each pattern - one had to request them at the pattern counter when purchasing and many buyers simply didn't bother with them.

How about you? Do you have any Couturier patterns in your collection? Did you get a great deal on them? Find them at a thrift shop? Pay dearly for them from another collector?

Happy sewing,

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,

Modes et Travaux ~ December, 1949

Today for your eye candy super happy fun time I have pictures of the very best that  Modes et Travaux had to offer in fashion, sewing, and hand work in December of 1949.

I was elated to win this edition on ebay because the cover is a beautiful sketch of a creation by none other then Christian Dior.

A white evening gown by Dior with the illustration by Artist Pierre Mourgue.

Does it get any better? Does it? Nope. Ah this dress, the stuff of dreams. I immediately set out to find photographs of it, and I'm still not sure I have the same dress but here is a photo of a Dior gown from 1949:

Lillian Bassman, Fantasy on the dance floor, Barbara Mullen, dress by Christian Dior, Paris, 1949. photo courtesy Phillips de Pury & Company

There isn't anything in the actual magazine about the design on the cover (what?!) so moving on we can see the lovely full-page advertisements that the magazine starts out with.

Longing for more fur in my life

Living in this cold, icy, god-forsaken winter wonderland of a country has led to a bone deep need for warm, comforting, and fluffy accessories. Some of my go-to wardrobe choices include a hand beaded wool scarf, vintage fur detachable collars, fur lined boots, and various mink and ermine neck warmers. l'm sure you can see where this is going.

With this season in fashion adding fur touches nearly everywhere, it has become glaringly obvious that I need to add a fur purse to my arsenal of accessories.
I had a brief debate with myself over sewing or buying one but it all boiled down to the fact that I have enough sewing projects on my plate as it is.

So I set out on the hunt and I thought that I would share some of my favorites with you.
I was really in love with this mink bag but let's face it, a military wife just can't go and spend $349 on a purse.

So I started looking at vintage and my options got a bit less expensive...until they got more expensive when I stumbled across Hopcotch  Couture and their AMAZING upcycled purses:

Hopscotch Couture