Showing posts with label vintage fashion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vintage fashion. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 25, 2022

A Few Pretty Pages of The Home Economics Omnibus

 


This blog post has been reposted from our new blog at MrsDepew.com.

Behind every great seamstress is often a handful of really excellent sewing books. Men and women have long shared their hard-won knowledge of dressmaking and tailoring in beautiful, illustrated volumes like the one below.


If you collect or sew with vintage patterns, then you'll love seeing a few pretty pages of this 1940s book The Home Economics Omnibus by Harris and Huston.


Enjoy!
















Friday, January 20, 2017

A few Goodies from 1940...

Hello my dears,
The other day I was flipping through a tall, dusty stack of McCall Needlework magazines and I was reminded just how amazing they are.


McCall Needlework, at least in the 40's was usually published quarterly. It was a bit like modern sewing magazines with some free projects here and there, knit and crochet patterns, tutorials on the trendy crafts of the time, and sewing pattern advertisements.
And of course it's the sewing pattern advertisements that caught my attention, and I got lost for entirely too long just admiring them.

So naturally, I had to scan and share them with you all. This is a handy resource to date your sewing patterns, and really just fun eye candy, too.




Who else is head over heals in love with the hooded robe on the upper left?! I'm so in love with patterns that have hoods! If you have a copy of this one and you're willing to part with it, let me know!









Happy sewing,

Sunday, July 20, 2014

Sewing #610... Intro to a mini sew-along!


Happy weekend, my lovely readers! Recently, you might remember, I sewed a 1930's bra for myself using one of the draft-at-home patterns from my shop, Depew #610.
Many readers wrote that they were curious about my process and wanted to see more so I decided to turn the project into a mini sew-along.




While sewing this bra, I took a lot of photos, but since this was more of a "getting back into sewing therapy" project for me, I didn't take nearly enough photos of nearly enough steps so I thought, why not do it all again for a mini sew-along?

I loved this bra so much that I have no reservations at all about sewing about a dozen more of them so I'll be starting from the beginning and posting as I sew.

You're welcome to join in with me and post questions as I go. The more, the merrier!
If you'd like to follow along, here is what you'll need:

1. The pattern comes in two different versions Digital (if you want to print at home) or Print (if you'd rather get goodies in the mail).

The 1930's bra pattern I'll be using.

2. Fabric: You'll need about 1/2 yard of 36" or wider fabric, plus the same for an optional lining (I used light weight silk so I lined mine). You'll also want about 1/2 yard of muslin for a test version.
This is a great pattern to use up fabric scraps, or the great vintage silk scarves you scored at the thrift shop and then never wore.

Tip: I got my lovely silk fabric, and the silk ribbon I used for the straps online at Farmhouse Fabrics for a really great price!

3. Notions: I recommend a purchased bra back for this project but you can also use hooks and eyes or buttons. For mine, I used a French bra back closure - It's the only bra back closure I think I'll ever use on my bras, it's just so comfortable! You'll also want about 1 yard of ribbon, bra strap elastic, or purchased bra straps.

4. Drafting tools. You most likely have these on hand already bust just in case, you'll need the following:
Pencil with eraser
Large paper (I use tracing paper but you can also use a paper bag or pattern making paper).
Paper scissors
Ruler
Tape
1 thumb tack
French curve (optional).

In the next post, I'll be going over how to draft out the pattern to your size and how to make adjustments to the pattern to make sure that it's accurate and easy to sew.

If you're curious how the draft-at-home patterns work, you can check out this blog post. It really takes something a bit intimidating and makes it quite easy!

I hope you'll join me!

Happy sewing,




Update: Here is a list of the posts!

Saturday, December 31, 2011

What do you think?

I have had a thought. Vintage German pattern magazines are few and far between, and expensive if you can find them but the patterns contained within are marvelous.


Would any of you be interested if I were to turn one, pattern sheet and all, into a pdf?


The pattern sheets included with these vintage magazines (if you're lucky enough to get one intact) are very similar to Burda Style pattern sheets, only the pattern is usually given in just one size.





There would be only very basic instructions in German but the pdf would provide all of the patterns for one edition on a pattern sheet.


It would be challenging, but worth it for the hard to find fashions. What do you think? I would love to hear your thoughts!