Focus On: Scarves

By Sherri from sewbettyanddot


The snow is snowing, the wind is blowing
But I can weather the storm!
What do I care how much it may storm?
I've got my love to keep me warm.

I can't remember a worse December
Just watch those icicles form!
What do I care if icicles form?
I've got my love to keep me warm.

"I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm" (Irving Berlin)

Even if you have love to keep you warm, you still might want to don a scarf. And even if you don't need to be warm, you might want to wear one as a fashion accessory!

As practical garments, scarves have their origin in ancient Rome, where they were often a cloth strip tied around the neck and used to wipe sweat or food from the face (ewww!). Originally worn by men, scarves were soon adopted by women--and they've been in fashion, in one form or another, ever since. Throughout history, scarves have had many purposes--as head coverings (for cleanliness, for instance, in a dusty climate, or for modesty); as indicators of rank (Chinese warriors could be identified by the color and material of their scarves), or, of course, to cover the neck and chest for warmth. In the twentieth century, iconic scarf wearers included Isadora Duncan, Audrey Hepburn [couldn't find a photo that I could use here, but we all know what Audrey looks like!], and Dr. Who.

Left: Isadora  Duncan; Right: Fourth Doctor (Dr. Who). Both images from Wikipedia

Of course, many scarves have very little practical purpose. Printed scarves tied around the neck or fastened with brooches reached their pinnacle as accessories in the 1960s and 1970s (think Vera's lovely prints, or the coveted Hermes scarf, for example).

Let's have a look at some vintage scarf patterns from the Pattern Patter team. In some cases, you could have that scarf built in to the dress itself...no chance of losing it! (This post is only looking at scarves worn around the neck, not headscarves.)  As always, please click on the images to enlarge them.

Top row, left to right: Advance 2995: Sandritocat;
Butterick 4680: PrettyPatternShop

Butterick 5593: MaddieModPatterns

Middle row: Prominent Designer (Leslie Fay) Mail Order A867: Erikawithak

McCall’s 2255: GreyDogVintage

McCall’s 2515: paneenjerez

Bottom row: McCall’s 2828: PurplePlaidPenguin

McCall’s 3865: anne8865

McCall’s 6216: DesignRewindFashions

Top row, left to right: McCall’s 6681: Denisecraft

McCall’s 9754: RetroMonkeys

Simplicity 1412: sewbettyanddot

Middle row: Simplicity 1711: shellmakeyouflip

Simplicity 1956: ViennasGrace

Simplicity 4981: CloesCloset

Bottom row: Simplicity 5125: Sydcam123

Simplicity 6152: AdeleBeeAnnPatterns

Simplicity 4178: BluetreeSewingStudio

Top row, left to right: Simplicity 5184: patternshop

Simplicity 6677: PeoplePackages

Vogue 8195: RomasMaison

Vogue 7845: ThePatternShopp

If you were going to tie one on, which of these beauties would YOU choose? Tell us in the comments!

Focus On: Formal Outerwear

By Sherri of Sew Betty and Dot

In keeping with the Pattern Patter team's festive treasury focus this month--Holiday Cocktail Party-let's take a look at all the ways you can cover up--and MAYBE stay warm--on the way to your party. I say "maybe" stay warm because some of these are really more decorative than practical. Doesn't that define fashion, in a certain sense?

The focus here is on capes, capelets, shawls, stoles, boleros, and long or opera coats. I'll look at more practical outerwear in a future post.

A (very) brief history of capes: everyone, men and women, used to wear cloaks, long (to the feet) and shapeless garments with slits for one's arms--in early days, these cloaks often doubled as people's blankets. Cloaks began to be more structured garments, and they developed collars and a piece that draped over the shoulders: the cape.

As women's fashions became more exuberant--especially the sleeves and the skirt shape--the cloak began to be shorter. Think of the bustle: cloaks would have hidden that feature (and made women look even more odd, with a bustle causing the cloak to protrude in the back).

Left: Man's cloak, French, 1580-1600, V&A Museum, from commons.wikimedia.com
Center: Spanish cloaks from 1848 English tailoring guide, from BlackTieGuide.com
Right: Woman's cape, English, 1830. Courtesy LACMA, from commons.wikimedia.org

What patterns are available for YOU to use to make your own formalwear cover-up? Check it out!

As always, please click on the images to enlarge them to see more detail.

Captivating capes and capelets:

Top row: Simplicity 3986: PinkPolkaDotButton

Vogue 6914: VioletCrownEmporium

Simplicity 1889: FriskyScissors

Middle row:  Advance 5334: sydcam123

McCall’s 8719: SutlersSundries

Simplicity 8446: VirtualVintage

Bottom row: Yves Saint Laurent:Vogue 1897:  CloesCloset

Vogue8725: ViennasGrace

Butterick 6358: MantuaMakerPatterns

Stunning stoles and shawls:

Top row: Woman’s Day 5045: PeoplePackages

 Butterick 5699: JFerrariDesigns

Simplicity 2964: retromonkeys

Middle row: McCall’s 9577: GreyDogVintage

McCall 8437: SoVintageOnEtsy

Lanvin-Castillo: Vogue 1162: PattysPastTimes

Bottom row: Pauline Trigere: McCall’s 1085: CaliforniaSunset

Pucci: Vogue 2603: retromonkeys

Vogue 8151: PatternMatters

Beautiful boleros:

 Top row: Butterick 4696: Fancywork

Hollywood 1336: PinkPolkaDotButton

McCall’s 1619: FloradoraPresents

Middle row: Advance 4897: GreyDogVintage

Simplicity 1549: PatternShop

McCall's 8472: VintageNeedleFinds

Bottom row: Advance 5666: Sandritocat

Butterick 7221: PatternMatters

Simplicity 9364: RebeccasVintageSalon

And finally, some fascinating formal coats (and let's not forget the dolls!):

Top row: Simplicity 6219: AdeleBeeAnn

Patou Vogue 2029: AnnesVintagePatterns

Simonetta Vogue 1651: AllThePreciousThings

Middle row: Dior Vogue 2127: sewbettyanddot

Simplicity 7283: LagunaLane

Blass Vogue 1315: MidvaleCottage

Bottom row: McCall’s 2255: ViennasGrace

McCall’s 3138: PatternsFromThePast 

McCall’s 4127: DesignRewindFashions

How do YOU stay warm when you're dressed in your party frock? Tell us in the comments! 

I have to admit that I did once go to the L.A. Opera in a Max Studio long dress, Doc Martens, and a black motorcycle jacket. Ahem. It WAS the early 1980s!

Please be sure to shop with the team on Black Friday...lots of shops will be having smokin' sales, so stay tuned!

Christmas Is Coming...

By Sherri from Sew Betty and Dot

It's Christmas! (Well, it's Christmas in July, in any case--and for those who don't celebrate the holiday, there are patterns below that are great for any celebration).

Are you ready? Only five months to go! The Pattern Patter team has just celebrated Christmas in July with a big pattern blitz: tons of fun craft, doll, home dec, and Christmas patterns (as well as the usual fantastic selection of beautiful clothing patterns) were posted, just in time for some summer (or winter, if you're in the Southern Hemisphere) crafting. Why wait until November? Get started right now: set up your sewing machine right in front of the air conditioner (or heater), pour yourself some lemonade (or a cuppa), and off you go!


'Twas the night [or five months] before Christmas, and all through the house

Cross Stitch House Patterns: All Fairy Vintage

  Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.

Butterick 6383: Sew Betty and Dot

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,

McCall's 3425: RosesPatternTreasury

In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there.

McCall's 7384: HoneymoonBus

The children were nestled, all snug in their beds,

Simplicity 6702: PatternShop

While visions of sugar plums danced in their heads.
And Mama in her kerchief and I in my cap

Simplicity 1023: Historically Patterns

Had just settled our brains for a long winter's nap.

When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash. [Wrong sash, I know, but poetic license here!]

Vogue 7810: DejaVuPatterns

The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow
Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below,
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer,

Patch Press 362B: FabPatterns 1015

With a little old driver, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name:

N ow, Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen! [Work with me here...]
On, Comet! on, Cupid! on, Donder and Blitzen!
To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!
Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!"

Authentic Patterns 309: OmasBricaBrac

As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky;
So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,
With the sleigh full of Toys, and St. Nicholas too

Simplicity 8378: MBChills

Butterick 4252: PeoplePackages

Simplicity 9018: Patterns from the Past

Teddy Bear Pattern Books: EmSewCrazy

Simplicity 4815: RomasMaison

And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof
The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.
As I drew in my head, and was turning around,
Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound.

He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;
A bundle of Toys he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a peddler just opening his pack.

McCall's 5651:

His eyes—how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow;

Vogue 7321: JFerrariDesigns

The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath;
He had a broad face and a little round belly,
That shook when he laughed, like a bowlful of jelly.

Sew and Stuff Wreath: Sew Betty and Dot

 He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself;
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread;

McCall's 7099: Selvedge Shop

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk,
And laying his finger aside of his nose,
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose;

He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.
But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight,
"Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night."

There are loads more wonderful Christmas, doll, toy, and craft patterns (not to mention fabulous frocks for holiday soirees and outfits for the little ones to wear to see the Nutcracker) from Pattern Patter team members, so get cracking: you only have five months left!

Focus on: Pockets

By Sherri of Sew Betty and Dot

This is the first in a series of blog posts focusing on a particular aspect of a garment's design.

Today we look at pockets, those oh-so-handy (pun intended) applied elements that began as a practical solution to carrying around necessities and then began to take on a design or decorative purpose over the ages. The pockets below are clearly just decorative! (Or maybe a small lipstick and one house key will fit?)

Butterick 7445: Sew Betty and Dot

The word "pocket" is derived from the Anglo-Norman word "pokete," which means small bag or pouch. And the first pockets were indeed small bags sewn onto a thin band that was then tied around a woman's waist, usually over her shift and under her petticoats (men's pockets were sewn right into seams and linings)--women's dresses did not have pockets as we know them, sewn into/onto a garment, until the eighteenth century. Remember, dresses were full and wide-shirted, with petticoats and/or panniers and hoops under them. A pocket could be worn with no interruption to the line of the dress itself.

And these tied-on pockets seemed to have held quite a lot: handkerchiefs, needle kits, combs, pocket-books (small diaries), snuff cases, scent bottles (often held up to the nose to block out some of the unpleasant odors associated with urban living), and sometimes even small food items (!). Pockets were often hand made and frequently made by friends as gifts.

Image courtesy
 The Duchess of Devonshire's Gossip Guide to the Eighteenth Century,
who I believe got the image from Victoria and Albert online (see below).

When fashions changed to the more straight up-and-down form familiar from the Regency period (Jane Austen, anyone?), the tied-on pockets, which added bulk, no longer worked: voila, the reticule (a very small, often drawstring bag) was born.

Image courtesy JaneAusten.co.uk

By the 1840s, as fashion changed again and dresses and skirts became full again, they began to have pockets sewn into the seams. (All of the pocket history comes from the Victoria and Albert Museum, which, in addition to being one of my very favorite museums,  is a fabulous fashion/costume resource online.) But enough history: let's look at some gorgeous vintage sewing patterns where the pocket is prominent.
Butterick 3918:
Dresses from the 1920s--again, with straight up-and-down lines, for the most part--didn't lend themselves to pockets. The dress above (late twenties/early thirties) has small diagonal patch pockets, not terribly noticeable. In the 1930s:

Butterick 3918: 

New York 971:  GreyDogVintage

Patch pockets, often relatively small...

Simplicity 1562: MissBettysAttic

DuBarry 1184B: All the Precious Things

McCall 9451: PaneenJerez

And an evening dress with tiny decorative pockets!

Pockets became more decorative in the 1940s; you often see contrasting colors or bias pockets, or designs where the pocket is a feature of the garment.

Simplicity 2075: PeoplePackages

Simplicity 4496: FaithfulFabrics

Simplicity 2903: DesignRewindFashions

McCall 7544: Sandritocat

McCall's  7735: Anne 8865

Enormous pockets!!! And then the 1950s:

Simplicity 4354: RetroMonkeys

McCall's 8731: Vienna's Grace

Vogue 553: DejaVuPatterns

Butterick 6125: RomasMaison

Modes Royale D-154: SydCam

Simplicity 4680: Cherry Corners

 And some Swingin' Sixties pockets:

Butterick 9550: SelvedgeShop

Butterick 2288: RedCurlz

 Butterick 2938: SewUniqueClassique

 Vogue 1867: SewBohemian

   Finally, 1970s pattern pandemonium:

Simplicity 8778: Sewing With Miss Dandy

Butterick 6548: GrandmaMadeWithLove

McCall's 5058: QuiltCitySue

Simplicity 7311: MBChills

Butterick 6243: CaliforniaSunset

Pockets! Pockets!! Pockets!!! It's a Pocket-Palooza!

Tell us in the comments: which pocket-centric pattern would YOU be most likely to wear?