Friday, 15 June 2012

Home Notes, September 1947- Free patterns

These are a few pages from a copy of Home Notes dated September 19th, 1947, including a couple of sewing and knitting pattern freebies.


I love the striped dress the girl on the cover is wearing- so bright and cheery!


Free drafting instructions for a basic short sleeved evening sweater, to be sewn in silk boucle. This pattern would make a great starting point for adaptation to so many forties styles.



The only coloured printing inside is reserved for these two adverts for mail-order patterns and fabric cut-out kits. The short sleeved blouse is certainly catching my eye!

And finally a free pattern for a "Two-way Cardigan Jumper", knit in a zig-zag ribbing with a high neckline and choice of sleeve lengths.



Wednesday, 9 May 2012

Stitchcraft Sept 1956: Summer bouclet blouse

Today's free pattern comes from my copy of Stitchcraft, Sept 1956, and is for a short sleeved blouse in a good range of sizes from 35" up to a 42" bust. It has a V neckline with narrow contrast stripes to the yoke and sleeve bands. 



The pattern calls for steel grey and white, but I plan on making this one up in a nice bright jade green or light turquoise shade with white for summer. What colours would you choose?


Saturday, 28 April 2012

Butterick Fashion News, December 1940 and February 1941

These are the last two from this batch of Fashion News booklets, dated December 1940 and February 1941.










Thursday, 19 April 2012

Butterick Fashion News, August and September 1940

As promised, two more Fashion News leaflets from Butterick. These two are from August and September of 1940.

August 1940





September 1940




 

Friday, 13 April 2012

Butterick Fashion News, March 1940

I received a lot of six Butterick Fashion News booklets in the post this morning, all from 1940/41. I'll split them up over two or three posts, but today I have spring fashions from March 1940.












More to come in a day or two! (Hopefully those will all load the right way up- literally no idea why some of these have rotated themselves!)

Wednesday, 31 August 2011

New vintage patterns

Another three to add to the collection!


First up is a 1950s Style assymetric dress pattern. It was the unusual shaping that drew me to this one- it has side pleat detail to the skirt and a square collar decorated with a brooch or pin. It also happens to be the perfect size so shouldn't need any major alterations. I plan on making this up as an autumn/winter wear dress (anything with sleeves is automatically winter wear for me), probably from some dark bottle green cotton sateen in my stash.


Next up is a late 1940s Wheldons "dance frock" pattern. I liked how the gathering adds detail to a simple design on this piece. I plan to first make a blouse using just the bodice parts of this pattern, with the yokes made of contrast fabric to the main body. Although this pattern is a couple of sizes too small its simplicity means it should be easy enough to grade up.

The instruction sheet for this pattern certainly shows its age- I will most likely scan and copy it to preserve the delicate original sheet

Last is something I have been after for some time, a basic 1950s blouse pattern, this example by Butterick. This is a simple blouse with drop shoulder kimono sleeves in two lengths, with collars cut in one with the shirt front. I can see this one being used over and over, including made into a shirtwaist pattern when combined with a self-drafted skirt.