La Mode Française from January, 1932

Hello my lovely readers. Today for you I have just a couple of pretty things. I was looking through an old edition of La Mode Française ("French Fashion") and found a lovely little feature on jewelry.

La Mode Française French fashion magazine from 1932.

The title, Bijoux Moderne, translates as "modern jewelry." The article speaks about the impossibility for most budgets to allow beautiful jewelry for every ensemble in your closet. It suggests that when she is constrained by lack of cash, the clever woman can make her own instead.

You can see from the motifs pictured below what kinds of beads and and styles were popular in 1932. I have seen a lot of vintage jewelry in my time (it was one of my mother's particular specialties) and even now pieces like these are expensive to buy.

Judging by the designs above though, they wouldn't be that hard to reproduce. One can often find lots of loose vintage beads for sale on Etsy and Ebay - wouldn't it be fun to make your own reproduction piece?

Below are some lovely beads for sale on Etsy that are similar to those illustrated.

You can find these here.

You can find these here.

You can find these here.

You can find these here.

You can find these here.

How about you, have you ever tried making your own jewelry?

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,