Lingerie in Profile: A Beautiful Lace Bra

Today my lovely readers I would like to show you a wonderful piece of vintage lingerie from my personal collection. This 1930's lace bra has so many beautiful little details that I just had to share it with you.

This bra has many hand made details but has a size 34 label so it was most likely made for resale at a very nice shop. The straps, rosette and binding are all silk ribbon, and the lace is incredibly soft.

Notice the lovely tricolor petals on the silk rosette and these little center pleats to give fullness to the bust... a lovely but futile attempt with a bra that reveals nearly everything.

One cup has a silk flower applique... something that looks a bit like a signature to me. At first I thought it was to mend a tear in the lace, but underneath the lace is flawless. Also, looking at the label, I don't know that this bra has ever been worn or laundered before.

Strap tails finished on the outside of the bra as an ornamental detail... the first I have ever seen.

Whoever made this bra, they, like me, just couldn't quite seem to get their closure to match up perfectly either ( A miscalculation I make time and time again).

 Sigh, oh for the old days. As lovely as this bra is, and it's in my very tiny size, I'm terrified to wear it and risk harming it.

To recreate this bra myself I think I think I would use DuBarry 2587B. This pattern is beautiful and I'm tempted to make a reproduction of it.

How about you? Do you have any vintage lingerie that's just too pretty to wear?

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~

Giveaway Winner...

Hello lovely readers! I hope that you're having a wonderful and relaxing weekend. I know I am. Before I announce the winner of this week's giveaway, I'd like to touch on a few things first.

I just read a wonderful article over on Va-Voom Vintage about Amelia Earhart. Brittany always writes the most well researched posts in her regular "Friday Fashionista" post and this one was no exception.

Also, thanks to Katherine of We Sew Retro for posting a link to the most amazing blog post full of 1940's lounge fashion photos from Life Magazine. The blog is written by Johanna Öst of Sweden and I highly recommend checking it out.

Also, here in the U.S. it is Memorial Day weekend. This typically means spending time with family, an extra day off work, and lots and lots of grilling and picnicking. I would just like to take a quick moment to remember that this holiday is to memorialize the sacrifices of fallen U.S.soldiers from all wars and conflicts.

And now for the winner of this week's giveaway.Thanks to everyone who participated; I always love reading your comments. Today's winner as chosen by the random number generator is Tina!
Congratulations! You win your choice of any two pdf patterns or booklets from Mrs. Depew Vintage! But wait, there's more! Tina also recently won the Ooh la la Pin-Up Sew-Along Giveaway (What are the odds!?) so I thought I would pick two winners this time! The second winner is Megan, of Megan and the (sewing) machine.
I'll email you both to find out which two patterns you would like to win.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

I'm on vacation, but that doesn't mean we can't have a little fun!

Hello from sunny, beautiful Virginia! That's right, I'm in the U.S.! Hurrah! My wonderful in-laws were going to come visit us in Norway this summer and then decided it was just as fun to fly us to them as it was to fly out and see us, so here we are! I have the greatest family! I even got to go to some garage sales today for the first time in 3 years, though the only thing I wanted to take home with me was the box full of free kittens I found. I think I died a little inside when I walked away from that one.


Anyway, I'm currently on an unfamiliar computer and blogging is a bit weird when you have no way to upload photos. So what can I do? Well, I though just to have a bit of extra fun, I would have a giveaway!


Since the only thing I have access to for the next 2 weeks is my portable hard-drive (full of the gold mine that is Mrs. Depew Digital) I'll go with that. How about winning your choice of any two digital patterns or ebooks? It's not a box full of kittens, but it'll do, wont it?

To enter the giveaway you can do one or all of the following, just leave a comment for each entry to get your name in the proverbial hat.

1. Tell me which  Mrs. Depew Vintage Pattern is your favorite. You can find them all here.

2. Become a follower of A Few Threads Loose on Twitter, Google, or Bloglovin'.

3. Like A Few Threads Loose on Facebook.

4. Like Mrs. Depew Vintage on Facebook.

5. Mention this giveaway on your blog.

I'll announce the winner this Saturday the 26th.
Good luck!  

1930's Evening Gowns

Recently on the Sew Weekly there was a wonderful post with photos of two truly amazing 1930's evening gowns.

Image courtesy of the Sew Weekly.

The post went live just as I was wrapping up the editing of my own 1930's French evening gown patterns and I was so re-inspired that I just had to share.

I have a major case of what I'm starting to call "Side effect salad bar", which is basically little bit of everything from the long list of fun things that go along with the steroids I'm on to treat a chronic pain condition. So I'm not going to write much, just post pretty pictures for us all to enjoy.

#1121

Sadly sold, but was available here.

#1123

This dress look like it would be worth every penny. Courtesy of Tovas Vintage on Etsy

#1125

#1120

This amazing gown os for sale on etsy here.

#1122

Image courtesy of Decades INC.

#1124

I hope you all have a lovely weekend.
~Moi~

What the heck is a PDF and why you might like them...

Today I'd like to talk a little about PDF patterns and e-books. With the digital world quickly catching up to the world of print, the term PDF comes up more and more often.

For those of you not familiar, a "PDF" is just a type of file, (like jpeg, tiff, or png ) and stands for "Portable Document Format." It's essentially a file like any other you might encounter and usually requires Adobe Reader to open, (which I might add, is on just about every computer these days).

Underwear and Lingerie E-book.

The great thing is, wonderful, beautiful, rare things are being digitized and protected from decay and disappearance and made available at the click of a button for research, education, or just pure pleasure. E-books in pdf form may be read on your computer desktop, kindle, iPad and even most new cell phones! They can also be printed out and enjoyed away from a digital device.

1920s Tunic Dress - an instant download, print at home sewing pattern.

PDF sewing patterns can be downloaded with the click of a button and printed out at home. No need to pay shipping costs to get a pattern from anywhere in the world. Just download, print and get to work!

Fashion Dos and Donts for the Plump E-book.

Many of you have used PDF patterns by now but I still often get questions like, "How does a download pattern work?

Most "digital (PDF) sewing patterns, new or vintage, are just images of parts of a pattern that, when printed and taped together, make a full-sized pattern ready to cut out and sew.

The quality of the pattern that prints out depends on the skill and experience level of the person creating the pattern, and perhaps how good their design software is. I have downloaded patterns that were simply scans of an original, and some that have been designed with professional pattern drafting software. One is not necessarily better than the other, though the price and image quality are usually quite different.

A Print-at-Home instant download pattern taped together.

Any pattern from Mrs. Depew Vintage described as an instant download, print-at-home pattern will look like the above when you print it out and tape the pages together. They are designed to print on your home printer to A4 or US letter-sized paper. Once put together, they are full-sized, ready to cut and sew patterns.

Other digital patterns can be drafting instructions or diagrams that you can print at home and draft your own patterns from. Take for instance this pattern:

Depew 1123

The above is a Draft-at-Home pattern from Mrs. Depew Vintage.
To get a full-sized pattern you first print out the measuring band and miniature pattern, then use them to draft the pieces scaled to your measurements, much like the Lutterloh system.

You can read all about the different types of patterns available for download from Mrs. Depew Vintage on our pattern types FAQ page.

Panties, Panties, Panties!

I have been waiting ages for some lovely stretchy satin to arrive in the mail and finally, right before the weekend, it arrived! It was followed a day later by my elastic (not in the color I thought, but ok) and I was FINALLY able to sew the Betty High Waist Panties I've been so looking forward to.

Image courtesy of Ohhh Lulu...

And then I proceeded to FAIL at said panties twice. Yup, twice.

Allow me to expound. The pattern is perfect. Flawless. I'm an idiot.
Way back in my muslin sewing stage of the pattern, the panties fit perfectly and I though no more of muslins and testing. Well, that was stupid. When the fabric finally arrived I failed to notice that the "stretch satin" that I ordered had almost no stretch to it whatsoever compared to the jersey that I had sewn my muslin with. How did I miss this? I blame the Chardonnay. I got everything but the elastic sewn in before I tried them on and realized that they wouldn't fit over my hips. FAIL.
So I tossed them and started over.

The second time I made them I got everything right up until the FOE, (fold over elastic.)  I had never sewn FOE before but I read Sarah's instructions, everything made sense, and I proceeded to sew the elastic on completely WRONG. So I threw those away too.
Has this every happened to you? Have you completely messed up the simplest thing in the world for no foreseeable reason?

At this point, I was pretty nonplussed. I got online and looked up the side effects of the higher dose steroids the doc has me on to fix some crazy painful nerve damage and sure enough, "Trouble focusing, nervousness, dizziness and complete stupidity" were right there on the side effect list. We're going to just blame the roids, o.k.?

Today after a double latte, a couple of hugs, and some Franck Sinatra, I gave it another try and was able to sew a proper pair of Betty High Waist Panties! Hurrah! The growing pile of misbegotten panties in my trash was really starting to worry me!

I love how they came out and now I can't wait to give Sarah's Signature Ruffle Bloomer pattern a go. But I'm going to have to wait because last night I found out I'll be flying to the U.S. in week and I have a lot to do to get ready!

In the meantime, have any of you finished your bra and corset from the Ooh La La Pin-Up Sew-Along? How about the Betty High Waist Panties? I've seen a little from a few of you but I'm getting ready to do a round up post so you can all show off your work! More on that soon...