In Honor of the 1940 Census

The 1940 census is going to be released to the public in April and it's going to be big, very big. So in honor of this amazing event in genealogical circles, here's a gorgeous  pattern from 1943. If your mom or grandmother was a young woman in the 1940s, she probably wore a dress like this during World War 2.  A lot of women's clothes were quite tailored in style, mostly because fabric was in demand for the troops and the skirts had to be come slimmer and shorter to use less material. But ruffles could not be stamped out entirely. This adorable dress is called a pinafore dress on the pattern envelope because it looks like you are wearing two garments instead of just one. I love the buttons all the way down the back.

My mom has told me many things about that era. It was an exciting time to be a young single woman. There were opportunities for work and for service that were unknown before that time. And Momma worked at Camp Claiborne as a secretary which meant that when she went to a dance there were hundreds of young men lined up to dance with the beautiful young woman she was. (She's still beautiful.) She told me she danced a million miles during her time there. And dancing was fun back then. I am sure she can still show you her jitterbug moves at age 90. I'll never forget the day when I was a teenager when  she and her brother showed us how it was done.

This pattern was great because it was an early printed one. Here's what the back looks like: 

You can find this pattern in my shop here.
There are tons more vintage patterns online. If you just want to drool over those 1940s styles, visit the 1940s section of the wiki Vintage Sewing Patterns.

What a Darling Pattern!

Scooter Skirt!

This precious pattern just sends me. Kids' clothes are so appealing  because they are small. And sewing for children is so easy because the garments are small. And the cost of sewing children's clothing is so cheap because the pieces are small.

Okay, kids' clothes are small. I think we've established that. And let's face it, clothes that would look horrible on a grownup look adorable on a kid. Very few folks could pull off view three with bib.

This pattern with the bib that covers the front of the culottes is beyond cute. And I adore that flip skirt with the button trim and bias skirt panels. And as we all know, it doesn't take a lot of fabric to sew something like this.

Patterns made for children have often been some of the most inventive ones designed. It is very common to find a pattern for a kind of kids' clothing that you can't find in the stores. The opposite is true of women's patterns. They tend to copy the styles in the stores and often publish them too late to catch the trend.

Sewing for children also opens up infinite possibilities for personal expression. I have a granddaughter who loves pink, princesses, unicorns, paper dolls and, weirdly enough, spiders. So my daughter made her the cutest dress out of a spider print material. She absolutely loved it. Kids love to wear things that show what they love. While grownups might be embarrassed to wear a blouse or shirt featuring their faves like football, convertibles or chocolate, my daughters have made clothes for their tots featuring dinosaurs, Star Wars, skulls and spiders as well as matryoshka dolls, ponies and other girly things. Kids are unafraid to announce their personal style through their clothing. How wise of them!

Children's patterns have been around as long as there have been patterns for adults. And even in eras when few folks choose to sew a woman's dress, they continue to sew for the kiddos. And I hope that sewing for children never loses its popularity. 

The Catalogue

Find more photos of it here in my shop

I wonder how many little boy hours have been spent in boredom while mom looked through the pattern catalogue? My sweetheart certainly has vivid memories of doing so.

There was something so magic about that catalogue when I began to sew. It was the book of infinite possibilities. You could sew a dress to look exactly like the one in the book, or go off on your own and create something unique.

I had three of these catalogues that I got in a big batch of patterns I bought and they were very hard for me to put in my shop. One is gone and two are still left for someone lucky. This one is perhaps the hardest for me to sell as it is one that I remember looking at. I can point out dresses I made, dresses my mom made and dresses I remember others wearing.

Sometimes you may start with a piece of fabric and go looking for a pattern to make up. But for me, the most fun is to start with the pattern and then go find some wonderful fabric to make out of it. 

Even though we have the Internet today, I still see women poring over the catalogues in fabric stores. There's no better way to find a pattern. And it's best if the store is not busy so that you can have three or four books (Simplicity, McCall's, Butterick, Vogue) all open at the same time while you're looking for that perfect one.

Sewing for Men

The home sewer who tackles men's clothing is one brave person. Men's clothing changes much more slowy, it's better made and it's much more demanding in fit than women's or children's clothing.

That's why I'm always surprised to see a pattern like this one. If  you're up to the challenge, you can turn out a fine 1970s jacket, fully lined with all the bells and whistles including interior and exterior breast pockets with flaps.

Whew! I actually took on a really difficult project for my sweetie when we were just honeymooners. He was very patient since we lived in a small apartment and it was a surprise. He had to spend a lot of time in the bedroom while I worked away at this two-piece suit I had decided he needed. And I don't think we have one photo of that suit. And it turned out amazingly well.

Since then, I've done a few ties and dress shirts, but I've had the most success with Hawaiian type shirts. He's worn them and liked them. But it's hard to compete with the tiny stitches and precision of foreign-made men's clothing.

On the other hand, it still makes me rather ill to see what passes for well-made women's clothing. You can make a truly beautiful home-sewn outfit and beat the price of some shoddy piece of workmanship with uneven hems and hanging threads. Plus, if you make it yourself, you know it's going to fit.

The same goes for children's clothing. If you want something really nice, designer and different for your child, you should probably make it yourself. And because of their small size, you can still sew children's clothing economically.

So to whatever brave soul purchases this pattern out of my shop here, my hat goes off to you!

Mini Pantjumpers from the 1960s

What happens when skirts get ridiculously short the way they did in the late 1960s? You end up with something like this. The micro mini lengths of the 1960s created the need for the pantjumper. This cute girls' pattern allowed you to show a lot of leg while keeping those panties covered. Some patterns had  micro miniskirts but provided a bloomer pattern to go underneath.

I had a handy little cottage industry in my dorm room hemming up skirts for the other residents. Skirts got shorter and shorter each season. I remember that as a college girl, there were always boys congregated at the bottom of stairwells during class changes. Wonder why?

We weren't allowed to wear pants on campus (yes, believe that or not) but pantdresses (Or pantjumpers as in this pattern) were okay.  Go fig.

I adored my pantdresses. They were so cute. Mom made me one in a forest green floral print with a big beige middy collar. My boyfriend (who's about to celebrate our 41st anniversary with me this month) dubbed it my Scout uniform. It was adorable.

When skirts couldn't go any higher in the early 1970s, guess what happened? Right. The maxi dress. Hems fell to the ankle or mid-calf. It's refreshing today to go shopping and find skirts of all lengths. You get to choose today. We really didn't back then unless we wanted to look completely dowdy.

You can find this pattern in girls' size 14 in my shop here.

Let It Snow!

Looks like the chances of a white Christmas here in northeast PA are small. But I've managed to see a few at the end of my long life. The first one was in Provo, Utah a few years ago. For the first time in my life, I was going to see snow at Christmas. And guess what? No snow there except in the mountains. And that was the year that it snowed all over Texas! So it was snowing at home and I was missing it! In fact, it did snow a little before the big day and I was happy. Last year, there was so much snow in Provo that we almost didn't manage to drive from our hotel to see the kids!

As a child in Louisiana I was fascinated by snow because I had never seen it. These snowsuits were something I never could have used. I remember my cousin used to send down her hand-me-down clothes. Some were wonderful. Others in heavy wool were completely useless.

This DuBarry pattern is a honey from the 1930s. The suits have great features including separating zippers in front, a belt to keep warmer, a cute hat pattern and even extra padding at the knee for extra wear. And the cuffs and ankles have knit ribbing. A kid could have stayed pretty dry and warm in this outfit while out having a good time in the snow.

Nowadays I don't see children in snowsuits, even up here in Pennsylvania. But this pattern reminds me of a golden time when kids played outside whatever the weather. I love the fact that the boy has a snowball in his hand all ready to throw!

You can read more about this pattern here

Jackie Kennedy Style

Wouldn't we all just want to copy Jackie O's style just once? Sometimes I find a pattern that is so Jackie, I want to swoon.

I have a lot of back stock and have no idea how this one didn't get put in my shop before now.  You can find it here.The cape with the front button and notched collar just send me. And anytime I see a pillbox hat, I think of Jackie Kennedy's style in the White House. I was a very impressionable preteen and teen while she was the First Lady. Her grace and fashion sense will always be unequaled for me regardless of who wins presidential elections from now on.

What were some of the elements of her style? Silhouette for one thing. Slim, column dresses always make me think of her. Accessories like short gloves and those glorious pillbox hats, and a string of pearls on a black dress always bring her back to me.

And since we're talking about patterns, it is amusing to me how one person can define an era. When you look at pattern envelopes, you often find one person's look copied. There are a ton of patterns from the early sixties that remind me either of Jackie or Audrey Hepburn. There's also a time when a lot of women on pattern envelopes looked like Marlo Thomas. She even had her own line of clothing. Pattern companies weren't stupid. They knew that they could sell patterns if they sold you the dream of looking like a fashion icon.

Christmas Dresses

I was bopping along the highway on my way to a newspaper assignment when "Jingle Bell Rock" came on the radio. Not any newer cheesy version but the original with Bobby Helms. And what came back rushing to my mind was the dress my mother made me for the Christmas party with my social club called "Belle Jeunesse" in junior high. It looked something like this pattern in my Etsy shop.

The whole idea of a social club for middle schoolers is pretty ludicrous. Not many boys that age want to dance. But all us girls went to the dances with high hopes of romance. The dress was red chiffon layered over red taffeta and it had a full skirt and a long drape over one shoulder. I felt like about a million and a half bucks. And I remember my mom having fits cording the waistline. It was beautiful.

I remember another Christmas dress which I had mom copy from a Seventeen magazine. It was fuchsia with a green band around the hem and wide sleeves. Very, very mod!

I guess it's no surprise I ended up being a seamstress and pattern lover if some of my most vivid memories of events are tied up with the clothes that I wore!

Ah, The Sixties and Seventies

If you want to date a 1960s pattern, just look at the hem length. Look at this gorgeous Advance pattern from the early 1960s. The model's knees are covered! As the sixties progressed upward into the 1970s, so did the hemlines. First short skirts, then miniskirts, then microminis. At the very end of this trend, patterns had dresses with a shorts pattern added in since the dresses barely covered the panty line.

When I got married, skirts had already reached their highest and were on their way down in a dramatic way. Suddenly maxi coats and skirts were all the rage. I made a double-breasted plaid maxi coat with flannel lining. It was quite a project but I was really too tiny to find a coat that fit in the stores. And I was determined to have something in the new more fashionable length.

And really that was the beginning of a new era when women could choose the length of their skirts. My mother remembers how suddenly the skirt length dropped after World War II and how her mother added contrast hems to her pink suit that went in her trousseau. And in the sixties it was painful to watch older ladies having to choose between being stylish and showing off sometimes chubby knees and thighs or to go longer and look dowdy.

Today it's all good. If you want to wear a micromini, you can. And if you choose to put your skirts at a more modest length as in this Advance pattern, you can do that too. And if you want to wear skirts that brush the ankle, you can do that too. I hope that we never go back to the day when hem lengths were strictly dictated by fashion.

1940s Fashion

I love the number in Funny Face where every woman in America starts to "Think Pink!" So my blog got a makeover for spring.

Advance 3883

Today's pattern is an Advance pattern from the 1940s. I'm pretty sure this is a wartime pattern. World War II patterns are so interesting to me historically. The envelope paper is very cheap for one thing. Good paper was needed elsewhere. This one is in amazingly good shape considering.

And look at the styles. Remember that the skirts got shorter in the 1940s, a sacrifice women made to the war effort. It took less material to make a short skirt. And look at how conversative this pattern is in use of fabric too. A dress from the 1930s took yards more material. (But not as much as the dresses to come in the 1950s!)

These young ladies probably were not wearing hose. Silk was a high demand item for the military. So silk stockings were very hard to come by. Today women gladly go without hose when they're wearing dresses but at the beginning of the war, it was unthinkable to do so. My mom tells of how she and her friends used leg makeup instead of hose when they got dressed up. She says they sometimes even painted the line down the back of the leg to mimic the seams in hose.  In one of her most poignant stories, a boy she dated briefly at Camp Claiborne in Louisiana went off to war and was killed. His mother sent my mom her son's parachute. He had told his mom he wanted my mom to have it. My mom says she made lovely lingerie from that parachute silk.

There are so many things I like about this pattern. Look at that contrast panel and sweetheart neckline on View 2. And the lace trim on view one is just amazing. Even little bitty woman in View 3 is wearing a lovely dress.

But even though times were spare, women still wanted to look beautiful. I particularly like the hairstyles on this pattern cover. The flowers in View 2's hair are so beautiful and I think many, many women would die for that handbag she's carrying.

What I Find in Vintage Patterns

I don't know any other vintage pattern sellers personally. I've talked with a few of them via email. But I can tell you one thing we all share: a vivid memory of things we have found in patterns. I just bought a huge stash and here are some of the fascinating things I've found so far. Click on the first photo for a closer look. The ornament was in the box. But the rest were hidden treasures I found as I started to count pieces. They are:

A lab receipt.


I hope Stan and Steve didn't break anything in Chemistry lab in 1965.

Part of a 1939 calendar. A 1964 postcard posted at sea. The writer says she had a rough crossing. At first I thought she said that she had eaten "on land for every meal." But on closer inspection I see she was "on hand for every meal." A baby gown pattern made from a 1950s newspaper. One side has the classical and opera radio offerings, the other some fabulous dinette suites. And my personal fave, the baby shirt pattern made from the clipping of the wreck of the Andrea Doria which as you all remember sank in 1956. Oh the humanity! I think I would have chosen another part of the newspaper to use for my pattern.

And there are always the pins. Long pins, short pins, colored pins, safety pins. And I throw them all away. My neighbor was surprised at the waste, but they are all going to be either rusty or dull and there's no sense ruining a new piece of fabric on an old pin. 

Sadly, I could not find the sleeve pattern made from a wonderful set of 1930s comics. But I know I saved. it. I'll post it when I find it.

The bottom line is that these old patterns are  great historical documents, but so are the things I find inside.

Rainbow Brite and Strawberry Shortcake

Rainbow Brite shines again!

The Seven Sprites

For those of you who think Sprite is just a drink, this post won't be that interesting. But one of the most unique fabric trends was the printed doll era. These are all from 1983 in the big middle of my girl child raising years. Which is the reason why I still have the Strawberry Shortcake theme song running through my head.

One of our daughters had a Strawberry Shortcake doll that breathed fake strawberry smell when you squeezed it. I remember that she always brought it with us to take us up in the mornings. A very evocative smell.

I only remember the youngest having Rainbow Brite anything. She had the doll which was very cute. 

I just purchased a huge stash of Strawberry Shortcake fabric. And in the same box were these dolls as well as several Cabbage Patch printed pillows. Sadly, the Smurf fabric seems to be damaged. I may try washing it again today.

 You can find the Strawberry Shortcake dolls from time to time but the two Rainbow Brite ones  are too rare and fun to list in my shop. I have no idea what they're worth. So we're letting eBay decide for us! (Rainbow Brite Sprite auction and Rainbow Brite auction). You can follow along. As with any eBay auction this could be exciting or really boring.

 In other news, I've just gotten a box of sixty patterns, mostly for men, which I love. Look for a post on mens' patterns soon. And I'm set up to make a deal on 545 more patterns tomorrow. Can't wait!

Vintage Fabric

Having lived through the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, and the aughts, I can tell you that nothing defines a period more clearly than the fabric. Sure, we all want to use that vintage pattern, and some of them are really evocative of their era. But a straight skirt is a straight skirt in any era. And so, to create something vintage, you have to have the fabric.

This piece screams 70s. In what other era would you find plisse (this is a chemically treated fabric that puckers like seersucker) in a diagonal orange yellow and green print? I even have patterns in my shop that call for diagonal print fabric. I have to wonder what this was intended for. Pajamas? A dress? In any case, it's a wild piece that is really, really fun. From the way it wrinkled in the dryer, it's obviously 100 per cent cotton so I'm guessing nightwear was its intended use. I think I'd have trouble sleeping!

Or how about this piece? It's 36 inches wide which is a big clue. But it is also in the penultimate colors of the 1950s, aqua and navy blue. (The ultimate color of the 1950s would have to be pink.) I have a set of Fashion Frocks cards from the 1950s and these are the most popular colors by far. This gorgeous piece is obviously 100 per cent cotton (as were almost all cottons of that period). You can just see this one in a gorgeous tailored blouse or perhaps sheath dress.

 These two pieces of fabric are a pretty good contrast between an era of extremely good taste and one that was characterized by extremes and loud fashion statements. I loved them both.


I'll be listing these fabrics and more in my Etsy vintage shop called Coconut Cake.

Let's hear it for lingerie

Do people even wear peignoirs any more? Or how about gowns like that Grecian model on the right? Looking at this pattern reminds me that my dad used to wait until Christmas Eve to go shopping for Mom. (He always worked a half day on Christmas Eve too.) Used to drive her crazy. But, back then, the stores didn't sell out and there was still plenty of gorgeous merchandise left if you had enough money to pay for it (which evidently Dad did.)

Some Christmases Mom got clothes from Selber Brothers in Shreveport. But sometimes she got lingerie. Beautiful peignoir sets. I was always impressed by all that gorgeous nylon and lace.

We were watching "Bachelor Mother" the other day and Ginger Rogers plays a relatively poor girl who works in a department store. On New Year's Eve, she doesn't have a date but is listening to the radio in her robe. Michael noticed that she had on high-heeled satin slippers. Totally believable. I remember slippers like that. Oh, the elegance of that era.

Shameless plug. Click on this link to find this gorgeous item in my my pattern shop on Artfire.

What is the strangest thing you have made from fabric?

I love the old patterns that taught you to make cool stuff like hats, gloves, purses, home decor, stuffed animals, etc. I get the feeling that there were lots of women back in the day who would try any project if it involved fabric. My grandson recently was pleased to get his birthday gift from my daughter and said, "It's not made of fabric!" Hm-m-m. There's a young woman who makes anything she can from fabric.I love this one on the left because of that cute big cap from the seventies. The smaller hat is cool too as it isn't made from fleece or anything stretch but from cotton or wool type fabrics.

I think one of the strangest things I ever made from fabric was a new boot cover for my son's car. That's that vinyl goodie that wraps around your gear shift knob. Another might be a valve cover for my husband's tuba. It catches the drips that otherwise would land on the floor. So what's your weirdest project?

Fabric suggestions

One of the most important factors in vintage pattern use is following the fabric suggestions on the back of the envelope.  I read an old blog post and the young lady asked for suggestions why her dress had not been a success. She had made this pattern (Simplicity 7796) out of a stretch jersey material.

If you read the back of the pattern  envelope, the pattern does call for jersey, but it was bonded jersey. This is a very different thing. In the sixties, I had an orange ensemble with a sleeveless dress like this and a matching trench coat. It was made out of a cotton knit bonded to a foam backing. This was a very heavy fabric. Plus the dress was lined and had tons of interfacing. The dress has to have a shape of its own for this pattern to work.

This pattern would be lovely in a light to medium weight wool, a bonded jersey or even a heavy cotton. With lots of interfacing. But a light stretchy material? Never!

I almost always follow the fabric recommendations on the back of a pattern. And even then I've had a project fail because the fabric wasn't right. The fabric has so much to do with the way the garment hangs and fits. I know that sometimes the fabric suggestions on an old pattern call for a fabric that no one these days has heard of. But you can always Google it!

Why Vintage Patterns are Cooler

So why are vintage patterns cooler than modern patterns? Let me count the ways. Older patterns came from an era when you could and would try absolutely any technique while sewing. There were patterns for everything from gloves to hats to tailored suits to fur coats. Fabric was way cheaper and available in more variety, patterns were cheaper, and there were no folks in third world countries making blouses and with tucks and ruffles for a song. It actually paid to make your own clothes. Now, a home sewer has to really want to do it, because you can find something to fabulous to wear at Ross or or any department store's sale rack for way cheaper than you can make it.
This explains in part why so few people sew today.

Back in my day, some of my friends wore only clothes they (or more usually their mothers) had made. So vintage pattern catalogues were as up to the minute and as comprehensive as they could be. I would pick out a dress in Seventeen magazine and my mom would go to the fabric store to look for a pattern that was close enough to adapt. Try that today. You really could produce a stylish wardrobe at home.

So let's look at example pattern on the left for a tour of some of its cool features. This pattern features French cuffs. How wonderful is that? The pattern called them linked buttons or something like that. But it's a French cuff just like on a man's shirt. This pattern also includes a version with sheer sleeves and underlining. This is something most folks won't bother to try today, but you can make a beautiful garment that way and the full instructions are in this pattern. This pattern also has a optional braid trim and a bias roll collar. I just  adore bias roll collars.

Thank goodness those wonderful patterns are still around and can be found on the Internet. Because if I really, really want to make a  peignoir set this winter, there's a vintage pattern that will show me how to do it.

Pattern O' Week --Back to School

I found two patterns this week with an apple and back to school motif on the envelope. What are the chances? This one comes from the early sixties and has an apple pocket no less.

I remember that my mom made me three dresses to go to first grade. One was a yellow and brown plaid, double breasted with a big collar and white buttons. My school picture is in that one. Another was lavender with a long torso. The third was plaid with a white blouse. My mom made another one for my daughter to go to school in when she entered first grade. I remember my mom telling me about the features of the dresses and I remember soaking up that terminology. I probably told everybody I knew that my dress was "long torso." What a hoot I must have been as a child. I was exceeding small with an enormous vocabulary.

Those dresses made going to school seem like the greatest adventure ever. And so it has always been. I go to school again today. I'll be teaching college English this time. It matters not what year it is or how old I become. What I wear on the first day of school is important. And it's still exciting. Fashion and education. Who knew how closely they worked together?

The Coolest of the Cool

As a proud owner of a 1960s heritage, I've always thought that we were ultra cool. But in my heart of hearts, I knew that the period that just preceded us, the 1950s, had us outcooled all over the place. As a child, I instinctively knew something marvelous was going on in design, clothing, attitudes and music. Now we look back with longing to that marvelous Eames era. My husband and I are lucky enough to have all of his parents' fabulous 1950s modern furniture including that iconic Eames rocker. They don't fit very well in the house we're in now, but someday they'll be right at home again as they were in our 1960s house in Denton, Texas.

So what does this have to do with patterns? Everything. 1950s clothing was so great. And pattern art takes us back instantly. Just look at Mr. Cool over there on the left. The blue sunglasses, the white trim on that jacket (which I know had to be white terry cloth), the bleached blond hair. He had to have a bachelor pad with great stereophonic sound. His favorite album: The The Music from Peter Gunn by Henry Mancini. Reading material? The James Bond novels by Ian Fleming, of course!

My First Vintage Project

After months of playing with, counting, drooling over and literally swimming in vintage patterns, it was time. Time for me to make something for myself. I found an amazing piece of cotton fabric at an estate sale and it just looked like a blouse to me. So I went through my stock and found this pattern (Simplicity 4080) from the early 1960s (Mad Men era). This is old sizing so even though I'm fairly small, I used a size 16.

And so here is the result:

I cheated on two things: one, I used an iron-on nylon knit interfacing which just turned out dreamy on the collar. Two, I used a nylon zipper. (I have plenty of vintage metal ones but they're just really heavy for this light fabric). I did zigzag the seams although the original pattern was cut with pinking shears. This would have been easier. I gotta get my pinking shears sharpened.

I was struck by several things. The fit was so beautiful on this pattern. The neckline in the back even has tiny one/eighth inch darts. Four front darts. Two elbow darts on each sleeve. Sweet! As far as alterations, I did discover that for the next project, if I use a size 16 again, I need to narrow the shoulders a bit (for this blouse I will add some small shoulder pads) and, of course, I did shorten the sleeves by two inches. (You read that right. I am a mutant.) I did decide to put the blouse together according to the original instructions even though I would have done a few things very differently. (The zipper in particular). But their way worked fine. And I even learned something about making thread loops (needed to keep that beautiful roll collar in place) from this pattern. I did wonder what women did about finishing the edges of those slash darts at the waist in the front. They are literally only about one eighth inch at the bottom. I zigzagged them which was a poor alternative.

I was really happy with the way this turned out. Of course, some awesome orange polished cotton capris to finish out the outfit would be good. Now to find the awesome orange polished cotton. I just happen to have a suitable pattern at hand.