Miss Lillian's Postcards - Vintage Tweet from Mother

Sender: Mother
Addressee: Miss Lilian Maguire, #1902 g Terry Ave, Seattle, Washington
Postmark: St Louis, MO
Date: November 6, 1908
Image: Merchants Bridge, St. Louis, MO.

According to Wikipedia, the Merchants Bridge is a rail bridge crossing the Mississippi River in St. Louis, MO. It opened in May 1889 and is over 4, 000 feet long. To experience crossing this bridge while on a train, check out this video on YouTube.

Message:

Dear Lilly

I have sent a package

by express today so

you can be on the look

out for it. Hope all

feel well we are 

all well.

Love to all from all

Your Mother

This is so lovely, to see a postcard to Lillian from her mother. I love her closing "Love to all from all". To all means Lillian, her sister Anne, and Anne's husband Ade, who all live at 1902 G Terry Avenue. I am guessing that "from all" means that Lillian has one or more siblings still at home with her parents. In time we will see postcards from these siblings. I wonder what is in the package that Lilly's mother sent. What merited sending it by express? All we can do is wonder!

Scraps from the Past: Cute 1950s Toddler Dresses

With the end of January, my thoughts are turning to spring and what better time to think about sewing a sunny party or play dress for a toddler? Two recent listings in my shop are the patterns listed below for toddlers, and each pattern had a fabric scrap! Each is from the early 1950s.

The pattern: Simplicity 1149 (size 1 is in my shop)

The scrap: The fabric scrap is the collar for view 2 and is a charming soft cotton, with teal polka dots. I can envision this fabric for view 3, myself - so cute with those scalloped edges.

The pattern: Simplicity 4136

The scrap: The fabric scrap looks like it might have been intended for the sash tie. It is a beautiful sateen cotton in soft aqua blue. I don't think the scan captures the shiny quality of the sateen, but it is lovely. I can visualize it for both views.

Are you inspired yet?

In Search of Style - Apron Inspirations!

The pattern: Tucked inside this very charming apron pattern, Simplicity 1359, were a couple of large sheets of folded paper. What could they be?

What's inside: What a treasure - it's apron heaven! The sheets of paper (one extra large) were filled with images of hand-drawn aprons! They look like they were most likely traced from mail order pattern offerings in the newspapers. Isn't this a completely delightful and diverse collection? 

A couple of the aprons have the pattern number written next to them, and a few are identified as 1-yd aprons. It would be fun to find all the patterns for these aprons. I love how our mystery sewist focused on the ornamentation details and fabric choices. 

The extra large sheet required two scans to get all the images. There are so many cute aprons illustrated on these sheets, I don't think I could pick just one favorite, I would have to sew a full collection. Wouldn't you? :)

Scraps from the Past: Toddler Coat in Sunny Corduroy

I so enjoy finding fabric scraps tucked into vintage sewing patterns. They provide a window into popular fabric trends to match the vintage pattern style itself.

The pattern: This pattern for an adorable dress, coat, and cap for a toddler just begs to be sewn. It is easy to imagine these fetching items from Simplicity 3807 and 1951 in any number of fabrics and colors. It's very inspiring!

The scrap: A small scrap of a very fine pinwale corduroy was included in this pattern. It is a soft fabric, and a warm color, perfect for spring. Certainly the fabric was used for the coat and hopefully for the hat. It does make one wonder, though - what fabric did they use for the dress?