Sewing Patterns Through The Decades: 1920s Style

Hey all!!

It's been a while, I know!  You ever have one of those days?  Or one of those weeks?  Or .. one of those months?

Yeah, we all do.  That's neither here nor there though, let's get on with a blog entry!

I thought it might be fun to roll through the decades and see what kind of fun patterns our Pattern Patter Team members have available from every decade.  Won't that be interesting?

I think so.  Let's get going!
In the 1920s the sewing pattern industry was really getting going.  Patterns had been available for decades before, but new trends in fashion plus new innovations in sewing patterns made it easier than ever to sew for yourself.  You really could have the height of Paris fashion for a much cheaper cost. I'm just speculating here but since more ladies were working in offices and such they may have had more money to spend on things like clothes.

Unbranded Pattern #302

The 1920s are usually considered pretty glamorous (not to mention a total and absolute change from almost everything that ever came before!)  However, this sedate little number shows that style could be simple too.  This unbranded pattern is available from Retroactive Future and is on sale!

Butterick 1771 &  Ladies Home Journal 5250

These two patterns from Kinsey Sue are somewhat similar, with a shoulder drape.  However, the Butterick pattern is slightly more complicated with it's bias cut and asymmetrical neckline which mirrors the asymmetrical flounce at the bottom.

Butterick 1227, 1214

A new addition to my personal collection, this 1920s Butterick advertising sign features lively prints and delicate pleating.  The nautical collar on 1214 is an interesting touch.  Though the lines are straight the amount of ruffles and bows adds femininity.

Australian Home Journal 8376

Though the lines of the 20s seem simple at first glance, look at the complicated lines of this pattern from Sew As It Was Patterns.  Again with a somewhat nautical collar, but the lines down the front are incredibly interesting!  You don't usually see patterns this complicated these days.  This one is from Australian Home Journal so as you can see, this up-to-date fashion was a worldwide phenomenon. :)

Butterick 6365

After a long night of dancing, why not slip into this beautiful robe from Vintage Needle Finds?  Even though it's a robe, it still suggests the straight lines of the late 20s by suggesting you tie it slightly below the natural waist.

From Butterick's Spring 1926 catalog and my personal collection comes this selection of dresses, ranging from very simple to quite complicated.  A hat was still a must as you can see!

Costume parties were big business in the 1920s, with costumes made both of fabric and crepe paper. This Ladies Home Journal catalog from my personal collection features masquerade costumes only, for men, women, and children.  All the major pattern companies had their own masquerade catalogs, including Vogue and Weldon's.

McCall 2833

Pierrot-style clowns were always a favorite... an easy to make costume that could be worn by anyone. This one is in stock at Rebecca's Vintage Salon.

Pictorial Review 1927

These complicated gowns from my personal collection feature very interesting layers and colors.

Pictorial Review 1927

Elegant looks for the bride and her attendants from Pictorial Review and my personal collection.

Pictorial Review 1927

Wow!  Look at the complicated lines on this gown!  I wouldn't want to sew it.  Funny enough, despite the straight lines in the illustration, this is listed as for "the mature figure" with "larger hips."  Haha, I'm not sure how large hips would ever look like that illustration.  (From my personal collection.)

Pictorial Review 1927

How lovely it must have been to wear these simple and comfortable underthings after so many years of being corseted and covered up.  Though many women did wear bust minimizers which squeezed them in for that boyish look.  Couldn't have been comfortable! (From my personal collection.)

Advance 1042

Little girls were often clothed in very short little dresses with a smock-like cut.  Seen here in a very early Advance pattern from The Granny Squared.  Advance patterns from this era seem to be extremely scarce.

Butterick 4433

This bed coat, box coat, or vest is perfect for lounging in the morning.  From Clutterina's Shop.

Butterick 6399

If working with a vintage unprinted pattern is too difficult, or an original 1920s pattern is too pricey, why not try this lovely repro gown from Cloe's Closet?

Leaflet from SoFro Fabrics / House of Fabrics

Or how about this cute DIY leaflet to make your own fringe-covered flapper dress from Denisecraft?

I hope you enjoyed this little stroll through patterns of the 1920s.

McCall's Fashion Digest - July 1960 - $5 or Under Fashions

McCall's Fashion Digest - July 1960

$5 Fashions

Today we'll take a look at McCall's Fashion Digest from July 1960.  This pamphlet featured patterns that could be made for $5 or less.  Wow!  Let's look inside.

The cover's pretty boring.

Here we have McCall's 5471... can you believe you could make this for only $4.50?

Here are some similar patterns from Pattern Patter Team Members:

1.)  Grey Dog Vintage - Simplicity 3796

2.)  Vogue Vixens - McCall's 6225

3.)  Pretty Pattern Shop - Simplicity 2627

Here is McCall's 5470, a slim shirtwaist you could make for only $3.25!

Here are some similar patterns from the Pattern Patter Team!
1.)  Crafty Paneen - Butterick 9971
2.)  Sandritocat - Simplicity 5037
3.)  Grandma Made With Love - Simplicity 3554

How about this nice blouson dress that could be made for $3.50 in 3 hours?   VERY EASY.  Of course, fabric used to be 96 cents a yard...

Here are similar patterns from Pattern Patter Team Members.

1.)  Erika With A K Vintage - Vogue 9584

2.)  Fragolina - Advance 8895

3.)  Vintage Needle Finds - Butterick 3066

A simple sheath was even cheaper to make at only $2.70 when made out of 89 cents a yard fabric!

Here are some similar patterns from Pattern Patter Team members:

1.)  Pattern Shop - Simplicity 7010

2.)  Bluetree Sewing Studio - Simplicity 4518

3.)  Redcurlz's Patterns - Butterick 8213

These economical sheaths are super stylish!  You could still wear these today and knock 'em dead.

Laguna Lane has McCall's 5468 in stock!

5490 has a contrast waist band that helps the waist look smaller.  5465 has sleeve interest.

More similar patterns from team members:

1.) Rose Corners - Butterick 2137
2.)  Clutterina's Shop - Simplicity 4804
3.)  Frisky Scissors - Simplicity 1993

I love love LOVE 5431.. what a beautiful sundress!  If you love it too, team member Violet Crown Emporium has it in stock.

Some more similar shirtwaists from Pattern Patter Team Members:

1.)  Laguna Lane - McCall's 6262
2.)  Sydcam123 - Simplicity 4182
3.)  Pattern Matters - Simplicity 1683

The drop-waistline seen in 5445 was really popular in 1960.  All the pattern companies had it prominently featured.  It didn't last very long though!

Some similar patterns featuring the low waistline / skirt yoke:

1.)  Frisky Scissors - Vogue 8489

2.)   Keepsakes Studio - Simplicity 1086

The last page features even more dressy looks that cost less than $3 bucks in 1960 money!

The back cover features McCall's 5486.

I hope you enjoyed this look at McCall's July 1960!  Please comment about which one you like best!

And visit all the shops of the Pattern Patter Team!

Interesting Selections From Butterick Catalog of Fashion, 1900 - Part 2 - Patterns for Work

Part 2 - Patterns for Work

For Part 1, please click HERE

Here's part two in our continuing series looking at the Butterick 1900 Spring catalog.  This time we'll take a look at some utilitarian patterns made for various kinds of work.

Here we have a selection of work aprons in various styles, some more utilitarian than others, the one on the left being a bit more dressy.  

Here's an interesting nurse's apron and cap.  

Here we have a nurses' cap and kerchief.

These overall aprons could be worn doing housework or cooking.

In the days before sunscreen, and when having a tan was not en vogue, a sun bonnet like this one would have been welcome for working in the garden or hanging out laundry.

Here are some more bonnets that are a little fancier but I would say the two on the left may have been worn for utilitarian purposes.  Bonnets aren't exactly my area of expertise.

This advertisement appeared in the back of the catalog advertising books helping with both nursing and cooking.

While all of these patterns are extremely rare, the Pattern Patter Team always have tons of apron patterns available!  Why don't you check some of them out?

Row 1: Sandritocat; Fancywork; Cloe's Closet

Row 2: Floradora Presents; The Granny Squared; Grey Dog Vintage

Row 3: So Vintage; Crafty Paneen; Grandma Made With Love

CLICK HERE FOR MORE!

Focus On: Shift Dresses

By Sherri, sewbettyanddot

Question: what is easy to wear, comfortable, versatile, and cute? Answer: a shift dress!

Shifts as we commonly refer to them today are, in essence, a columnar-shaped dress with no defined waist. They can be mini or to the knee. They are most typically sleeveless, but there are definitely shifts with sleeves. Compare this shape to the sheath dress (the two are often confused: the sheath hugs the body while the shift does not).

When I began researching this post, I thought it would be easy since shift dresses are, well, "easy." The history of the shift and its development into the garment we know today is actually rather complicated--and fascinating.

It all goes back to the chemise, a plain, straight garment, usually of a lightweight fabric such as muslin. Chemises were the primary undergarment worn in the eighteenth (and part of the nineteenth) century. They were worn next to the skin and so absorbed sweat and body oils; they could be easily laundered (well, as "easy" as doing laundry was in the days before wash machines and running water!) while elaborate dresses adorned with trims and jewels could not. Marie Antoinette--always a risk taker--briefly popularized a garment called la gaulle, which consisted of light and airy unconstructed (for the most part) layers of muslin. Please remember that upper-class women typically wore dresses with very tight torsos with panniers over the hips and voluminous skirts. Fashionable ladies of course followed suit, but the French people were scandalized: they felt the dress looked like a chemise, and they were horrified that their queen would wear her underwear in public (Queen Marie was already not at all popular with the general public due to her somewhat eccentric ways and her quest to find some simplicity away from the over-the-top atmosphere at the French court). The garment became known as a chemise à la reine (the queen's chemise).

1. Chemise (3^rd quarter 18^th century, France). Collection The Costume Institute, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Gift of Mrs. Dudley Wadsworth, 1941
2. Marie-Antoinette en chemise, Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, 1783 (courtesy Wikipedia)

3. Neoclassical (empire style) dress, worn by Felicité-Louise-Julie-Constance de Durfort, portrait by Merry-Joseph Blondel 

(courtesy Wikipedia)

The end of the eighteenth century saw a Neoclassical revival in art and fashion, and women turned to tunic-shaped dresses (as seen on women painted on Greek and Roman pottery) that were fitted at the bust and fell straight with no waist constriction. The style was popularized by Empress Josephine, so the English began to call this an "empire silhouette." In the Regency period in England (first decades of the nineteenth century--think Jane Austen) this style of dress was often made of white or light-colored fabric, which denoted a higher economic class as only ladies of leisure could keep a white dress clean. As fashion is always changing, this silhouette fell out of style for about 100 years...but in the 1920s, enter the flapper. The long, straight dress with very little waist definition (and less restrictive undergarments--good-bye corsets!) was again en vogue. Not only was this style easy to wear, but it also signified the wider freedoms women began to enjoy, including the right to vote (the 19th Amendment was passed in the U.S. in 1920; New Zealand and Australia were early adopters, passing universal suffrage laws in the late 19th century).

1. Dress (1805-1810), probably British. Collection The Costume Institute, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
2. Dress (1924), United States. Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of the Brooklyn Museum, 2009; Gift of Mrs. Fred May, 1957

3. Silk sacque-back dress, 1956, Saks Fifth Avenue. Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of the Brooklyn Museum, 2009; Gift of Louise K. McGann, 1977

Sack dresses available in a Sears catalog--note that they are called chemises, harking back to the beginning! 
Ad from a Sears catalog, late 1950s. From Shih, Joy. Fashionable Clothing from the Sears Catalogs, Late 1950's (Schiffer Publishing, 1997); via plosin.com

As the Depression hit, the flapper lifestyle (and silhouette) faded away. After the privations of World War II, Christian Dior's exuberant New Look (tiny cinched waist--more constricting undergarments here--and enormous full skirts) was a sensation. Because every action has a reaction, designers then created a much simpler silhouette with the "sack dress," which, as its name implies, was a straight garment that hung from the shoulders with very little waist detailing (some of these dresses had a low belted back). Cristóbal Balenciaga is credited with the creation of this style in the late 1950s--the dress above (far right) is a knock-off from Saks. And on from this relaxed shape comes the shift as we know it, a child of the Youthquake and mod sixties. André Courrèges and Mary Quant were at the forefront of the mod shift dress revolution (both are credited with "inventing" the mini-dress). Finally, Lilly Pulitzer popularized the shape (and lovely colorful prints--the simple silhouette lends itself to prints and border prints) for suburban women everywhere; Jackie Kennedy was photographed in a Lilly and the rest was history. Shift dresses have never really gone out of style since the 1960s...they remain popular today, in part due to the variations within such a simple shape and the versatility they afford. 

1. Shift dress by André Courrèges (1960s). Courtesy FormidableMag.com

2. Mary Quant advertisement. Reblogged from TheCarnabetianArmy.tumblr.com

3. Lilly Pulitzer advertisement, early 1970s

Now, let's take a look at some lovely shift patterns from members of the Pattern Patter team on Etsy!

Top row, left to right: Simplicity 5918: MaddieModPatterns

Vogue 6154: SloCrafty

McCall’s 7337: SelvedgeShop

McCall’s 6740: sandritocat

Second row: Polynesian 143: VintageNeedleFinds

McCall’s 7641: FarfallaDesignStudio

McCall’s 7143: ThePatternShopp

Simplicity 4441: paneenjerez

Third row: McCall’s 7370: PaperDollPatterns

Butterick 3079: PrettyPatternShop

Alfred Shaheen 101: HeyChica

McCall’s/Quaker Oats No. 1: mbchills

Fourth row: Simplicity 6398: BessieAndMaive

Butterick 3923: BluetreeSewingStudio

McCall’s 8126: PinkPolkaDotButton

Simplicity 6394: SoVintageOnEtsy

Top row, left to right: Mary Quant: Butterick 3505: Fragolina

Butterick 2623: GreyDogVintage

Simplicity 9891:beththebooklady

McCall’s 8620: ErikawithaK

Second row: Vogue 6474: Fancywork

Butterick 4800: laughingduckvintage

McCall’s 7204: sewbettyanddot

Simplicity 7499: TabbysVintageShop

Third row: Simplicity 6724: DesignRewindFashions

McCall’s 8139: allthepreciousthings

McCall’s 8219: retromonkeys

Simplicity 9766: omasbricabrac

Fourth row: Vogue 1954: Redcurlzs

Vogue 1928: WEAREVINTAGESEWING

Vogue 2153: CloesCloset

Vogue 1156: historicallypatterns

Top row, left to right: Vogue 6736: sydcam123

McCall’s 8694: LagunaLane

Simplicity 8609: PatternMatters

Second row: Butterick 4528: JeaniesShop

McCall’s 9267: RebeccasVintageSalon

McCall’s 9263: ClairebearToo

Third row: Mail Order 9242: stitchingbynumbers

PDF Pattern No. 132 – Trudy: EmbonpointVintage

McCall’s 8657: Denisecraft

Shifts are so fab because they're very forgiving of any figure flaws AND they can easily transition from season to season: in the summer, all you need are some cute sandals and a shawl; in the fall, some tights and a sweater and you're on your way.

By the way, check out our Free Pattern Friday pattern to make a shift (check out all our Free Pattern Fridays, BTW!).

Which frock pattern would YOU shift for? Tell us in the comments!

(Main sources: Wikipedia, Victoria and Albert Museum [www.vam.ac.uk], The Metropolitan Museum of Art [www.metmuseum.org])