Vintage Sewing Patterns

Time sure does get away from me, but then that is probably my fault.  I keep going from one interest to another and then back again - reading, music and records from the past, sewing and vintage fashion, researching vintage items, family history, family pictures and letters, all sorts of collections - it just goes on and on and on.  

I have always enjoyed sewing since I was a little girl.  I would get into sewing kicks off and on throughout my adult years.  I would sew a lot for a year or two and then not touch a sewing machine for years.  In the late 1980s and early 1990s, I was in one of my sewing sprees and began buying lots and lots of patterns, material and notions - just couldn't pass up a sale.  Of course, my sewing slacked off way before I used all the patterns, materials and notions.

Last week I started going through some of my sewing patterns and I also pulled a couple of boxes of my grandmother's old patterns, some of which I remember her using to make clothes for me back in the 1950s.  Some of her older patterns are in bad shape and I need to look at those to see if they can be salvaged in any way.  

I opened this Companion Butterick pattern from the early 1940s - #2197.  There were no markings like seam allowances, notches, grain, or darts on the pattern pieces - no indication of what piece it was.  There were just different sizes of round holes in different areas.  At first I thought all the markings had faded off and the pieces were useless.  Then after reading the instructions, realized that was how they were marked back then.

Just think of the skill it would take to sew like this.  




While all the pieces were cut, they were all there and after really examining the pieces, I could see the perforated numbers on each piece.  There was only 1 piece that was torn in 2 pieces, but could easily be fixed. 

























Here are pictures of the different pieces included in this pattern and the pattern perforations instructions.   Also a picture of the sleeve piece showing that it is #11.  It will be interesting to look at these old patterns.   

I will be putting most of my vintage sewing patterns up for sale on my eCrater store @ CAROLINABLUELADY Vintage Collectibles  

I also discovered a wonderful site called Vintage Sewing Patterns.  It is a site where vintage sewing patterns (over 25 years old) can be documented and if available for purchase, it will show you the vendor(s) that you can click on to go and purchase.  Not only can you search by various means like garment type, decade, pattern company, etc, but there are also videos and copies of pattern books to view.  

If you are interested in vintage patterns, I hope you will visit this wonderful site.    

A Story of a Needle, Thread and Thimble

I was researching sewing thimbles in regards to collecting them.  There are so many beautiful and ornate thimbles and such wonderful history and stories that goes with them.
 

But the one story I found that I thought I would share was the story called Dependence and Indpendence. a story of "Needle . Thread and Thimble"  Little Folks.  I found this story in 2 different newspaper publications, Morning Oregonian (Portland, OR) dated August 24, 1888 and The McIvor Times and Rodney Advertiser (Heathcote, Vic. : 1863 - 1918) dated January 4, 1889, an Australian newspaper

A thimble, a needle and a piece of thread were all lying on a lady's work table together.  Now, the needle, had rather a nasty temper, and could give sharp pricks when it pleased, and this morning it was out of sorts, so it tried to pick a quarrel with the thimble, and said, spitefully:  "You gave me some hard knocks yesterday, and I wish you would be more gentle in the future." 

"It is true, I do push you hard sometimes," answered the thimble, "but you know it is only when you do not do your work properly, and our mistress makes me keep you up to it." 

 "Pray, don't you two quarrel," said the thread wishing to be a peacemaker. 

"You mind your own business," retorted the needle.

"My business is your business," said the thread, "for you are no use without me, and I am none without you."

"That's just it," said the thimble.  "A great deal of nonsense is talked in this world about being independent, but my own opinion is that people should try to help one another, for, from the highest to the lowest, we are all very dependent n the good services of our neighbors for something or other every day of our live."  

Check out our Pinterest board for thimbles.

   

Lunch At The Five & Dime With My Grandmother

I loved spending time with my Grandmother when I was little.  When we didn't live with her, I would still visit her on weekends or a week here and there.  I loved watching her sew.  When I was really little around 3 and 4 years of age (early 1950s), she would let me sit on the sewing machine extension and watch her.  I loved seeing how fast she could get that needle going and listening to the whining hum of the machine - it always whined higher the faster she would go.  She was a dressmaker by trade and had her own business.  She not only did alterations, but also made clothes for others.  I loved watching her customers trying on their clothes and her pinning and marking the alterations to be made.  She would let me play with scraps of material so that I could make clothes for my dolls.  There was a card table next to her sewing machine for handwork and I had a chair across from her so I could work too.  She always had a radio on - we would work, listen to music and talk.  And, when I got tired of sitting, I could dance in front of the floor length mirror and pretend I was a ballerina.  Every once in a while I would check to see if she was watching me (it would embarrass me if she did) and she was always working on her sewing project not paying any attention to me so my freedom of dancing could continue.  She never called me a princess, but I was definitely her princess just like my oldest granddaughter is to me.

Every Saturday morning, she would go downtown to get her notions, supplies and materials needed for the next week.  If I was staying with her, I would get to go downtown to shop with her.  We got dressed up and would catch the Delaware-Central 19 bus to go downtown.  I loved her holding my hand when we walked up those big steps of the bus and the bus driver smiling at us.  She always bought most of her notions at J.C. Penney's.  This store was located on the Circle in Indianapolis and the Soldiers and Sailors Monument was in the middle.  Here is a picture of it (Photo by Ruth Reichmann) - copied this off the Internet so hopefully, I'm not in too much trouble. 

It was  really tall and there were cascading water falls on two sides of it.  It was so beautiful.  The fabric department at J.C. Penney was on the second floor.  It was so much fun touching all of the fabrics and feeling the different textures - velvet, corduroy, flannel, satin, silk and organza.  I think my favorite fabric was polished cotton - it was so shiny and smooth.  I know, sounds weird, but I was a child.  And, yes, I still have to touch everything when I go shopping for clothes or material.  Now, if we were going to more than one store, it was hard keeping up with her - she walked fast.  And, there was no such thing as a mall.  We had to walk out in the weather, cross busy streets and it was noisy and so many people.  But it was all worth it because we always got to eat lunch at the five and dime.  We had a choice of Woolworth's, Kresge's or the G.C. Murphy dime store.  Sometimes she would let me choose.  Usually, we had to wait a few minutes so we could get two seats to open up together.  I loved watching all the people while we waited and the anticipation of a waitress asking me what I wanted to eat made me feel so special.  

After we ate, we would have to walk back to the Circle to the bus stop and catch the bus back home.  Did I tell you that my Grandmother was a fast walker?  My legs were always hurting by this time and I couldn't wait to get on the bus and sit down in those big seats.  But, once we arrived home and she was putting away her threads, zippers and seam binding, I was looking forward to going shopping with my Grandmother again and eating lunch at the five and dime.