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!

A Compendium of Lingerie Patterns... Let's talk about a sew-along!

On my last post quite a few said YES! to my thought that we should do a sew along on lingerie. I really want to show you all that lingerie is not hard, not scary, and a very rewarding sewing project. Like all things small, underwear or bras don't take forever to sew, and are practically instant gratification projects.

I would love to get your votes on what you would like to sew with me, and the pattern with the most votes will be what we tackle as a group. Do you want to sew a bra, panties, tap pants, slip, teddy or camisole? Should we use an inexpensive pdf pattern that will be super easy to find or do we want to use a paper pattern, offered in multiple sizes?

Here are nearly all of the great lingerie patterns that I know about. Most of them I'm very familiar with already. Some of them are pdfs from my shop, some aren't. Some are pricier than others. Please don't feel obligated to vote for one of my pdfs just because. Don't pick the pattern that looks the easiest. Pick the pattern that you think you will feel gorgeous in. Pick something that will make you feel special when you wear it. That's the one you want to vote for. I'll help you with the hard stuff!

Leave a comment to tell me which of these you'd like to sew in the sew-along. I know, there are a lot of them, so we'll narrow it down to 3 in this post, and in the next post you can vote again for your favorite.

Slips/ Camisoles:

Vintage Pauline Slip and Camisole Printable Sewing Pattern PDF Copy 34 bust.
One Size, $5.

Colette Patterns Cinnamon - No. 1012
Multi-size, $16.00