Sew French: 6 November 1949

I'm back from vacation with epic jet lag and a head cold, but I've hit the ground running anyways. With my first post back from vacation I'd like to start with a new segment I'll be doing here on A Few Threads Loose called "Sew French".

I have an amazing collection of vintage French sewing magazines and patterns and since I get so much enjoyment from them, I thought I would share bits of pieces of them with you.

Today I would like to share some lovely images and sewing patterns from "Le Petit Echo de la Mode." This edition was printed November 6, 1949.

It has lovely fall fashions and focuses mostly on really beautiful coats (and dresses) like these:

Sewing patterns for all of these fashions were available to order by mail. They are harder to find but I just love French patterns from this era; the styles are so timeless.

My favorite image from this edition is below, showing the latest style of accessories in suede.

Translation: "Suede in your adornment."

And of course, I have for you the two patterns included in the issue which I have given a "digital bath" as I like to call it.

 The first below is "Paniers et Corbeilles" or "Baskets and Trays." The measurements given for these are in centimeters.  If you don't read French and need the instructions, you can use Google Translate to make some sense of it.

This second pattern translates as "The baby area" and includes a "sleeping sack," "bags for hot water bottle and bottle" "a mat" and most interesting of all, a "walking belt" to keep the wee one from wandering too far on your daily promenade. Essentially it's a toddler leash.

Are these as fascinating to you as they are to me? Would you make any of these things? I would love to know! I have so much fun digging these things up.

I hope you have a lovely weekend.
~Anna~

A Pattern and a Giveaway!

So I know that pictures of my sewing projects have been few and far between in the last few months of blogging. Some of that is due to a months' vacation back in the US, and some is due to trying to figure out my new camera, and the rest of the blame goes to the fact that I've been too busy working on pattern pdf's to get pictures taken, or anything sewn, for that matter.

I just finished turning another of my vintage patterns into a pdf for download in my shop and I'm excited, cause it's a hat and purse! Gotta love accessories, right? This one came from a great 1940's catalog and it's just gorgeous!

It gives tips for coordinating different fabrics to make matching hats and bags, as well as how to embellish with bows, feathers, etc to make several different versions of the same hat.

Which leads me to the giveaway part. Would you like to win a copy of this pattern? Yeeeeeeeeees? Good. All you have to do is...
1. Become a follower if you're not already. You can leave a comment telling me that you follow and it will count as an entry.
2. If you like A Few Threads Loose on Facebook you get another entry.
It's that easy.  I'll pick a winner by random number generator and announce the winner on Monday the 18th. Good luck!