1929: Ethnic Prints for Spring

Ethnic prints are popular this spring, so it seems very appropriate to post this striking image from Fashion Service Woman's Institute Magazine and March 1929. It is a beautiful advertisement that features the "Indu-Chi" series of fabrics, "Parisian in design, latin in feeling, and inspired by the vigorous, joyful, decorative embroideries of Hungarian peasant festival costumes." Simply gorgeous.

Happy Easter, Happy Spring: 1926 Style Show Contest

Happy spring to all, and here is a peek at fashion from 1926 that I hope will help you forget about any unseasonal spring weather you may be experiencing.

This wonderful find, a "Style Show" catalog from the Sharood Company, a mail order house located in Minneapolis, features spring and summer fashion for 1926. The cover is graced with a lovely frock with ribbon ties at the neckline, cuffs, and hips.

Check out the new spring fabrics and colors for 1926!

Here are the prize winners in the style show contest! First prize of $500 is quite a generous prize for that time period. Well it would be a decent prize today! I find the number of prize winners very interesting - and generous. Imagine all those happy customers who won a prize.

And here is the grand prize winner - with her winning letter, and the response from Sharood's. 

To make it easier, here is an enlarged view of her letter. I love the details of the ensemble she chooses and her rationale for her choices of coat, dress, hat, hose, and shoes.

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And here is "her prize winning costume". Totally lovely! I think the coat and the hat are my favorites. And the colors - "pencil blue" and gray - I really like the color combination. What do you like about the winner's ensemble? And any guesses on what color "pencil blue" actually is? ;)

Home Sewing Tips from the 1920s: Dress Up Your Frocks with Lace Medallions

It's "blond on blond" in this inspiring tip from Ruth Wyeth Spears and the 1920s. The tip is perfect for making a special holiday frock. The insertion of medallions of filet lace adds an elegant touch. The thin bands that trim the front bodice and dropped waistline are of filet lace as well. All the trimmings are placed on the fabric itself, rather than being see-through. Don't forget to add the satin ribbon bow & streamers of "deep strawberry tone"!

Dreamy fashion for the 1920s home sewist!

Home Sewing Tips from the 1920s: Smart Neck Finish for a School Frock

I rather like the finishing touch that Ruth Wyeth Spears describes in this tip for her 1920s home sewists. Look how the bands incorporate the facings, which become part of the revers collar. And then those cunning little snaps on an underlay to close it all. This would be fun to try!

Another helpful tip for adding smart style to your sewing projects!

Home Sewing Tips from the 1920s: Make a Simple Frock with Lacy Flounces

Need a fabulous party frock for a Great Gatsby party that is also easy to make? Use this great tip from Ruth Wyeth Spears and the 1920s! This lacy frock is adorable, and with Ruth's instructions and illustration, I can easily visualize sewing it for a summer party. If you tackle this project with its embroidered eyelet trimmed with a footing of net, send me a picture!

And aren't those cute shoes she's wearing? Yum.

Home Sewing Tips from the 1920s: The Popular New Jumper Dress!

Well this tip is an historical eye-opener! The jumper (as we know it in the USA) is a hot couture item, and I must admit that a drop-waist jumper is an intriguing fashion. Ruth provides a pattern for sewing your own jumper, along a suggestion that this fashion item provides splendid opportunities for "make overs" or re-fashions. I couldn't agree more!

Home Sewing Tips from the 1920s: Freshen Last Season's Frock with a Trig Little Jacket

Well! Ruth Wyeth Spears describes how to make a "trig little jacket" that she calls a bolero in this wonderful tip for home sewists in the 1920s. :) With this tip, Ruth illustrates not only a sleeveless little bolero to dress up last season's frock, but also matching belt and matching cuffs on the frock! Very stylish, smart, and trim indeed. Another inspiring tip for your 1920s wardrobe!  :)

Home Sewing Tips from the 1920s - Fagoting Trim

This is a great tip from Ruth Wyeth Spears for the home sewist and the 1920s. It features fagoting, a type of trim that provides a see-through band in a garment (unless you face the back of the fagoted section). Fagoted trim was popular in both the 1920s and (to a small degree) in the 1940s.

Ruth providers her usual great instructions and illustrations, so be totally inspired with your next frock!

Home Sewing Tips from the 1920s - Trimming a Satin Frock

Reverse pin tucks! AND hand-embroidered panels! This is a win-win tip from Ruth Wyeth Spears for her 1920s audience. Can you visualize it - a black satin frock with panels embroidered in peacock blue and gold? I simply love Ruth's ideas.

Do you think it's better to embroider the panels and then stitch them to the dress, or complete the sewing of the dress and then embroider it? My guess is the former, but I could be wrong. :)

Home Sewing Tips from the 1920s - Embroidered Collar & Cuffs

Well, I adore hand-embroidery and deep collars and cuffs, so this is superb tip from my point of view! Thank you, Ruth Wyeth Spears for this tip for your home sewists of the 1920s! I love the Napoleon-style collar and the deep contoured cuffs - so totally elegant. The hand embroidery uses simple stitches (single stitch, cross stitch, and satin stitch) that produce a beautiful, rich look, especially if you include gold thread in the pattern, as Ruth suggests.

I definitely want to try this one! Perhaps on a jacket - don't think I could pull off a full coat. :)

Home Sewing Tips from the 1920s - Easy-to-Make Frock with Pleats and Jabot

Perfect for summer, this frock is a snap to make - Ruth Wyeth Spears will tell you how! Note the  clever but simple jabot and the panel of crisp knife pleats in the skirt front.

 

You can start with or without a favorite pattern - just how clever do you feel? ;)  Just click on the image to make it larger and easier to read.

Home Sewing Tips from the 1920s - Smart Plait Treatments

Accented box pleats are the focus of this excellent tip from Ruth Wyeth Spears and the 1920s. She provides two ideas - top-stitched box pleats with extended points (a very handsome treatment, I think), and pairs of box pleats trimmed with braid (note the use of a low-hung belt over the pleats -a nice extra touch!).

Fine flapper fashion, I think!

Home Sewing Tips from the 1920s - Sew a Graceful Flapper Negligee

Simplicity was a hallmark of the Flapper era, and yet simplicity did not imply lack of graceful style. In this wonderful tip from Ruth Wyeth Spears, sewing expert and writer for the seamstresses of the 1920s, she describes how to sew a negligee that both saves fabric and time!

Note that the construction calls for seams from under the arm to the hemline, with small openings at drop-waist for a ribbon tie belt. What could be simpler? Select a soft material, in a harmonizing color - oh, happy thought! :) Love those little slippers with fur trim. But why is she wearing a necklace, earrings, and bracelets? If you sew this negligee, let me know!

Home Sewing Tips from the 1920s - Creating an Evening Frock from Draped Squares

Well, what do you think of the first episode of season 4 of Downton Abbey? I think they set the stage for lots of shenanigans in future episodes!

Lady Lily, the niece that Lord and Lady Grantham are supervising certainly has the heart of a flapper. And her dress for the local dance outing reminds me of this dress described in the home sewing tips from Ruth Wyeth Spears. Ruth assembles squares of chiffon and attaches them to a foundation slip to create bias drape and an elegant "scarf" style frock.



I think this could be described as an "easy to assemble" frock. :) How would you like to dance the One-Step in this?

The Drop Waist Flapper Revisited

A year ago (really?), I posted about drop waist flapper dress patterns. I thought it would be fun to revisit this topic with additional versions that are currently or about to be listed in my shop. These patterns demonstrate the enduring popularity of this style through the decades.

Note that some waists dropped lower in some patterns than in others. And the 1980s pattern is a maternity drop waist dress. No need to be slim for this style! :D:) Enjoy!

1960s

 

 

 

1970s

 

1980s