Win a copy of Vintage Notions by Amy Barickman

Well, I just started sewing last fall and I love sewing books! And I love reading! And I have a thing for vintage fashion! Do I have to say more? I’d love to win this book – but otherwise I’ll probably buy it.

This looks like a fantastic book for inspiration! I’ve never met my grandmothers on either side of my family since they passed away before I was born. My mother, a modern working woman, never had the time or the interest to teach me any crafts. I am a self-taught beginner sewist and I’d love to put this book next to my Colette Sewing Book!

What a wonderful book! Believe it or not, I actually know who Mary Brooks Picken is. I am a life-long sewer, having grown up watching my mother sew for me, and actually taking scraps left over from MY clothes and making clothes for my dolls when I was five and six. I never had actual “sewing lessons,” but my mother says I drove her nuts asking questions as she sewed. :-) I absorbed her knowledge, and one day when I was about 9 or 10, I bought a pattern, some fabric, and sat down and made myself a tunic.

I still sew thirty-six years later, and within the last 10 years or so, I have done research into fashion history and began my own personal fashion history library, scavenging books from here and there as I find them at libraries, used book stores, or digging through the internet. This book would be an IDEAL addition to my library! (hint, hint!)

I am normally just a “watcher” but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to comment on this book and possibly win it!

I own this book and I absolutely ADORE it!

How Lovely! It was so nice to read about the school- I had never heard of it!

My grandma was a great seamstress but she never had the chance to pass all of her knowledge to me before she passed away. She was the one that got me into sewing by getting me a little sewing machine around the age of 6. I stopped sewing for years but recently I got back into it and I wish I knew all her tricks! And that is why I would like to have this book.

wow! I would like to win this book and give it to my sister who loves to make his own wardrobe and recycle old clothes, I’m from Argentina. Luckily for me heh!

When cleaning out my grandmother’s (and great grandmother’s before her) house I found a stash of sewing supplies dating from the late 20s to the early 40s. It is was a treat to add their quality threads and scissors to my sewing kit, but the best discovery by far were the several dozen patterns from that period (most from the very early 30s). And because I was lucky enough to inherit their genes as well as their sewing supplies, almost every one of them is my size. I used my favorite of the patterns last year for my wedding dress – when I wear garments made with these notions and patterns I feel a profound and special connection to my long gone family members, I felt my grandmothers there with me on my special day. It would be wonderful to use this book of vintage notions with these old patterns and imagine my grandmother and great grandmother reading the same words in their day.

I would love to have this book! I really enjoy looking at vintage patterns and construction details. I like to discover different ways of creating things. Also the illustrations seem like they’d be really fun to look through.

I am teaching myself how to sew, so anything I can get my hands on related to the subject is appreciated. Plus I am a history buff and also have great respect for the pioneers of the women’s movement, and sounds like the school these articles comes from fits the bill ;)

I WANT! Sewing was the first fibercraft I learned. Some of the best books on fibercrafts are the older ones. Therefore, I WANT!

What a beautiful book and a wealth of information that would sometimes get lost as the decades past. Without out our past we would have no future!

I would love to have an immediate resource for vintage sewing knowledge!

This looks like a great book! I love to sew and to read so I think this book would work for wonderfully! Thanks so much for the giveaway!

I have been hearing a lot about Mary Brooks Picken and would love to read more about her and her school. Thanks for sharing this book with us!

I went to school for fashion design but had learned to sew from an elderly neighbor when I was little. I have a big sewing book library and would like to add this one too my collection! You can never have too many sewing books!!

I will never get rid of my sewing books and would love to acquire this one. So elegant and love the Magic pattern for lingerie! Sad everything is going digital but I am resisting!

I love this book. I learned some sewing from my mom, but it was the items that she made for me and my siblings, that made me want to sew. She made us Barbie Doll clothes when I was in elementary school. I fell in love with the idea of having one of a kind items. All of my friends wanted them and they couldn’t get them. I wanted that for my kids too. The vintage sewing notions are awesome.

I think it is great that this book is dedicated to someone who influenced the education of so many women. I am a member of The Women’s Institute in England and part of the reason I joined was to learn more crafts. This book sounds really interesting, I would like to have a look through it.

That looks like a fantastic resource. My to go books are my older books – they’ve got a wealth of information in them & always get me from points A to B without a hitch.

Thank you for the chance to win this book. I would love to win this book and add it to my sewing library! I love vintage clothes and patterns I am just starting to learn to sew and I know I would find this book very helpful!

WOW, this book would be fabulous and I would love it for several reasons
– the pictures and. Sketches are lovely
-my mother never sewed
-my grandmother did not live in same country
-I love sewing books and vintage

This book looks lovely, I love collecting print sewing resources and would love to add this to my collection if I won!

My mom taught me to sew a straight line and read a pattern. Everything else has been self-taught, and I still have a lot to learn! This book would be a joy to have!

Wow! Very inspiring!

very cool. I think I’d use those patterns, and fun to look at

What a great way to learn techniques from the past. I particularly like the section on remodelling clothes from one fashion ‘era’ to the next. That is the way it is done!

What a useful book! Beyond a basic “this is how you make a sewing machine go” tutorial, I’m an entirely self taught sewer. I’ve been sewing for years now, but only recently had a revelation that I needed to back track and actually learn the basics (hello french seams and properly inserted bias tape!). Would love to learn more from this book!

This book looks beautiful! It’s one thing to whip up a Vogue vintage pattern that’s reproduced for this day and age but to get an insight into the world of authetic vintage patterns and dressmaking would be something very special. To hear that this school was so accessible to women is really inspiring and encourages us to keep the craft alive!

I would love a copy of this book because I’ve been learning about this art since I was a little girl. My grandmother used to sew lovely dresses for my sister and I. She passed away ten years ago and I try to do some sewing for my daughter’s little girl as a tribute to my grandma and to all the love she gave us for years.

What a lovely, lovely book. My mother taught herself to sew and then in turn taught me. I’m enjoying teaching my daughter and others in our 4h group. This book makes me think of my mother and the happy memories I have of sewing with her. It also makes me think of the huge button collection she had that I foolishly sold at a garage sale many years ago. I would love to have this book and share it with my daughter and marvel at how things have changed and also stayed the same.

That book is on my wish list at the moment, looks beautiful!

I’ve recently began sewing with a mid-century Singer 503, and this book would be a truly helpful addition to my small collection of vintage patterns (which I’ve been to nervous to start). Loving the lingerie patterns featured on this post and will be checking out the website for sample patterns too!

I’d love to own this book because I really enjoy learning about a lot of the ‘forgotten’ aspects of sewing, and I find the layout of the book very pleasing to the eyes. I think it’ll look lovely on my bookshelf with my other sewing reference books.

I’d love this book to gain more information about vintage sewing/fashion. That area of my bookshelf is sadly thin. Shame on me!

Lovely. I love the vintage apparel items. It looks like a great resource!

I started sewing a year or so ago and I am simply mad about it. The reason is that I have a beautiful and tall teenage daughter who love all things vintage. This book would be such a wonderful tool to help me learn. Ps I just finished Colette’s crepe dress for my girl and it is so very well designed that it made me look good and my daughter beautiful!

I would love this book for a few reasons:
I have discovered a love for refashioning and a passion to fight sexual trafficking of women.
I plan to combine them both by refashioning op-shop clothes and selling them. All proceeds going to the A21 campaign which fights for those trapped.
This book would inspire and teach me the skills needed for my idea.

I’m really new to sewing and I randomly found this website. I really love the walk-throughs because I’m so very new to sewing. I also love vintage patterns and my dream is to one day create my own vintage dress. I hope to be able to participate in the next follow-along so I can learn more. Sewing is so new to me that I need all the help I can get. :)

I would love this book as I only started sewing this year and have never had any teaching from older generations in my family and this book would fill in the gaps with the knowledge of age. :)

I would love this book! I’m strating out into the big world of sewing and feel completely out of my depth! I see all these fantastic blogs which I aspire to but feel I am very far off the amazing quality that they all produce. This book would be lovely:) xx

I’ve been trying to grow my small collection of craft books, mostly through used book sales. This one looks really lovely and would make a great addition!

I love old patterns and to explore the construction of old patterns, there is such a creativity hidden in them which you do not find in new patterns I think, at least not in the same way. I have a nice collection of old vintage dresses, from th 20’s-60’s, I love wearing them, but I also love to se how they are made and use this knowlegde in my own sewing. Amy’s book is perfect and I think is absolutely fabouless that she wrote it! It would be fantastic to win it, but if I am not the lucky winner, I will buy it anyway :)
Thank you for a lovely blog. Yours is the only one I always read!
Best regards, Louise

I really love sewing and old fashioned things, along with antiques. This is such a delightful mix of all of those. I would really love to add this to my library.

I also would love to win this book. I am starting to reteach myself sewing and am collecting books that have a degree of basics to them but also offer something a bit more advanced to help me when I bite off more than I can chew pattern-wise.

Count me in the giveaway!
I love that the book can teach you new an different techniques. I’m always up to learning new things and sewing new garments

This book looks like a dream. I would love to learn a little more about the history of sewing and be taken back in time by this beautiful book. I think we can sometimes forget how important sewing has been for what is now known as the fashion industry. it seems like the prefect little sewists companion and would love to be the proud owner of this one:) Thanks so much!

I’m very into “new domesticity” and the idea that what I am doing is out of respect for our foremothers so I’m thrilled for this kind of book! My grandmother is fading & my mother isn’t very domestic so any link to the past is thrilling to me.

Because it looks like one of the most adorable books I’ve ever seen.
Ok, I also love the artwork inside, and that there is a chapter on hats. If anything has hats, I’m in. Also because I’m a beginning sewer, and discovering the joys of remodeling clothes (just turned a pair of 1-inch-too-short pants into amazing shorts, and in the process of transforming a too-large, boxy shirt with a pretty collar into a tank top that showcases that collar) so that chapter on remodeling clothes made me wish I had the book in my hands right now to read it.

Lovely to look at and lovely ideas!