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Easy Ways to Pretty Frocks
I thought I’d share some more images from this sewing pamphlet from 1928 called Easy Ways to Pretty Frocks, which I gave you a taste of earlier. It was published by thread manufacturers J&P Coats. The pamphlet guides you through drafting a “plain dress,” which is in the style of the day, a sack dress. It then presents multitudes of ideas for trimming and altering this dress. This is what I love about deco fashion, all the beautiful variations on a single theme.
Comments
Joy
May 20, 2010 #
This is amazing! Thank you for sharing.
lsaspacey
May 20, 2010 #
OMG! This booklet is incredibly informative. I love the pleated dresses, oh so simple with cutting the pattern after the fabric has been taken care of. I must try this! Thanks so much for the complete page scans!
lsaspacey
May 20, 2010 #
I just realized that I could use my Burdastyle Anda pattern as the basic dress to make sketch 48 on page 23! It already has the cut-on dropped sleeves and boatneck.
Anna | Mormor hade stil
May 20, 2010 #
That is so cute! Love those old books, thank you for sharing.
chirley Maria
May 20, 2010 #
Adorei este post!
Caroline
May 20, 2010 #
Wow. Thank you for scanning this in. It’s precious.
Natasha
May 20, 2010 #
The illustrations are wonderful and inspirational. Thanks so much for sharing!
Deborah
May 21, 2010 #
I love looking back in time with old publications! Thank you for posting. Very charming illustrations– inspiring stuff!
In addition to making 2 Colette patterns curently (CEYLON on the machine right now) I just finished a dress made from a 1930’s sewing pattern, using some silk from the 1930’s. My husband said it was a “time-machine dress” and when I wear it for the first time I’d better be careful in case I GO BACK TO THE 1930’s!
Ebony
May 22, 2010 #
Ohh how beautiful. I love old pattern books
Carolyn
May 24, 2010 #
Such a lovely booklet, thank you so much! I especially love the trimming and flower pages (they are now in My Pictures folder) and I want to try that wired and sheer fabric covered petals one right now!
ashley akers
May 24, 2010 #
I have been wishing that there was a current book with ideas just like these. Anybody know of one?
Elide
May 25, 2010 #
Not long ago I bought a reprint of this book, you can find it here:
http://www.amazon.com/Pretty-Frocks-Stylish-Clothing-Accessories/dp/1934268933/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1274826629&sr=1-1
I love it when old pattern books like this talk about the frugality of embellishing the clothes you have rather than buying new. You get the feeling that the things people owned then were much more precious, as opposed to the disposable clothing we have today.
lsaspacey
May 27, 2010 #
Of course I found that you could still buy a copy of this after I put a lot of Photoshop cleaning work into it. But here it is, with credit to Sarai for scanning in the images from her copy. I’ll add the rest to the set after I receive my copy. Thanks again Sarai!
Sarai
May 27, 2010 #
Wow, thanks for doing that! So helpful!
the fabled needle
May 30, 2010 #
thank you so much for sharing, sarai! i recently purchased a 1920s dress w/o thinking it would look good on me (it was just too cute to pass up). as it turns out, since it’s such a slim fit, i really like it! now i’m on a ’20s-kick. ;) i hope to put this little booklet to good use – thanks again! have a lovely weekend.
jen
Vicky Loebel
November 20, 2013 #
What a fantastic find! Some of the pics are broken now (I see I’ve found the blot a bit late…) but I loved reading this period pamphlet.