Vintage Sewing Patterns

Today I'm gonna talk a little bit about working and copying and preserving your vintage patterns. I love sewing with vintage patterns. I love collecting them. I love looking at them. It's a big hobby of mine in my sewing career.

The big four pattern company manufacturers, Vogue, Butterick, Simplicity and McCall's have been around for many, many years. Butterick was one of the first ones making printed patterns. They had their first printed pattern was for a little boys suit in I think 18... The late 1890s. And they proved really popular and so women's patterns, you know, followed shortly after.

McCall's and Butterick in the early days really showed a really healthy robust competition. A business competition that's really neat to kind of look at. They really pushed each other to make innovations in sewing patterns. And it's one of those neat little bits of business history that I think is a really great example, two businesses working together but yet are highly competitive too. Butter and McCall's was one that had the colored packaging first.

And I think that was around 1930s. The early patterns were completely blank, they had nothing on them. So as a beginner, this is probably something you wouldn't wanna start out with. It's kind of a little intimidating but you can kind of see where things are. I mean, here's a dart, here's a dart you got the usual notches and then little dots meant something versus squares.

And it's all, relatively most of that information is in, you know, the pattern envelope. But when you see all these pieces out and there's absolutely no instruction it's definitely can be a little intimidating for a beginner. But then I think Vogue was one of the last, you know, the companies that we are really familiar with, was one of the last ones to adopt the printed pattern where all the instructions for all the guides and things are on the pattern. This is from a late or mid 70s pattern but this is a lot more familiar with, it looks a lot more familiar with the patterns that we have today. Some of the sizing obviously has changed over the last 80 90 years that we've had sewing patterns but not too much.

As far as sewing patterns, they in the early days were all one size. And then towards the 70s, 60 70s, we you would start seeing more multi-size patterns in one packaging. There were also half sizes which they no longer do. And there's a, you know, a lot of seamstresses are always fighting fit and feel that some of these, the big four need to kind of readjust their sizing but maybe that'll happen. What I've also found with the vintage patterns is the tissue paper is almost sturdier than the actual instructions.

I've had instructions just almost fall apart as soon as I open them. And I think it's just because of the crisper, you know, nature of the paper versus the tissue. But that's something that what I always do is I make a copy of everything. I just take it down to my local coffee store and I'll make a pattern of the instructions right off. And I kind of like to have it on the full, a full layout, if possible.

And then I'll make copies of obviously the pattern pieces. And I do that on Swedish tracing paper. You can also use, you know, artists tracing paper. I like the Swedish tracing paper 'cause it comes in rolls and it's fairly wide and you can get almost any size pattern piece on your Swedish tracing paper. And the other thing I really like about the Swedish tracing paper is it takes, when you're using a marker, a Sharpie or, you know, a magic marker or whatever it really soaks into the fabric of the material of the Swedish tracing paper and I really like that.

The other thing you can do is you can use different colors to denote specific parts of the pattern. These are great, they're like a dollar for 10 during back to school night. You can use the Sharpies for a little sharper, you know, finer point. And so that's, you know, immediately what I do is I'll make a copy of my instructions. And then I make copies of all the pattern pieces with all the, either the little squares or dots or all the information given on the pattern.

The other thing you can do to save a little bit of time especially if you do this a lot is sometimes I'll make copies just off my scanner of the piece especially if it's a small piece and I'm, you know I would use a rotary cutter so I wouldn't have to use my scissors or anything when I'm cutting out the actual garment piece. It's obviously a little thicker than the paper you're used to but it's a way to save a little time. The other thing I do which is kind of, I like to make a color copy of the pattern cover itself just for, you really don't have to but I like color. And then I put everything in an envelope of my copied pieces and I'll make notes of things that I've done whether it's on bust adjustment or anything that I've made adjusted to the to the new pattern. And I stick all that in an envelope and file it away.

And then I'll put these away back in their little, you know, little plastic sleeve that they come in and put those in a very protected space so they don't get wet or anything like that. And the other thing that I've found really invaluable with sewing vintage patterns is using sewing books that come from the decade that you want to, that you're sewing in. So I sew a lot with 40s and 50s and I have found some books still online, you know that are from the era. This is from the 40s, this is I think Vogue. Oh no, it's Constance Talbot.

And this has just some really great tips and pointers that you're not gonna find necessarily in instructions for in contemporary patterns. And the same goes for 50s. This is a Adele Margolis and a grant just some great tips on sewing 50s clothing. And that's almost a must to get some books on the decade that you're sewing. Now the 20s and the 30s, it's a little harder to find but so are the patterns too.

There's also some companies like Decades of Style, that's she's recreating vintage patterns from all the decades and putting them on, you know, nice dirty paper and you can find her online and just bringing back those styles but they're also fit for modern women's measurements. And, you know, are different fits and things like that. The other thing is there's lots of resources on in your library or online for the history of patterns. And I've even read a woman's doctorial thesis on patterns and the big four companies. So it would be Vogue, Simplicity, Butterick and McCall's.

And there was just a very geeky sewing moment to read that it was really interesting. And so, but there's lots of things out there online or in your library. And I hope you give sewing vintage patterns a try. But the, I think the biggest tip and the most important tip is just to preserve your pattern and to copy it off, you know, as soon as you get it. Especially if you think you're gonna use it and then just put these babies away in a safe spot and you'll be able to, you know, use your copied pattern over and over again.

So I hope you give sewing vintage patterns a try.