Free Vintage Sewing Tutorials

*This post has been in draft form for about six months now. Only after seeing Vintage Notions by Amy Barickman in the bookstore did I realize I never published this and that someone besides me might be interested in what I found. So...

Once I found a document on Sewing Vintage's website with instructions on how to draft your own blouse from the 1930s I started to wonder if more of these pamphlets or the directions sometimes detailed in magazines could be found on the web for simple projects like these. Well, they could! These articles provide instruction on creating your own pattern with measurements, a ruler, and tracing paper, though I use butcher paper instead. To save you some trouble, here are the ones that I was able to find: If you know of others, please let me know! Enjoy!

Australian Home Journal, January 1926 1926 beach wrap/cape dropped waist tea frock with flared skirt ladies "jumper" (tunic) with middy collar

Not only that but you can see complete issues (April 1 1949 - Sept 1 1952) of the Australian Home Journal on the Internet Archive here. Bizarre vintage ads, questionable recipes and knitting patterns included.

Woman's Weekly, June 27, 1936 A simple tea frock with cut-on (Magyar) sleeves and an inverted pleat in the skirt, and variations


Fashion Service magazine, August 1931 The Magic Bias slip


Draping and Designing With Scissors and Cloth, a WIDIS (Women's Institute of Domestic Arts and Sciences) publication, Simple draping instructions for a dress


Fashion Service Magazine, September 1928 A fairy-like dance dress


Source: Christine’s Costume page; Dressmaking Research

Another Retro 1920s treat!

Available at Dressmaking Research I found this great poster of 100 dresses from the 1920s. Close-ups and back views of all the dresses (plus sewing lessons like the ones below) can be accessed from this page and the poster can be purchased here for $20.

1924

Lookee here! Draping with two straight edges, an instructional page explaining how to make this dress from Draping and Designing with Scissors and Cloth, a book published by the WIDAS (Thanks again, Mary Brooks Picken!) in 1924 and now available through Bramcost Publications at Amazon.com.

Two more outfits illustrated and explained in the sewing lessons are below; the New Draped Vogue of 1926 and the Magic Dance Frock of 1928:

1926 1928

Other Vintage Dressmaking Joys

As I was researching Ms. Mary Brooks Picken, I found that the entire contents of four of her instructional books, including The Mary Brooks Picken Method of Modern Dressmaking are available online at the Home Economics Archives at Cornell University. This archive, whose full name is actually Home Economics Archives: Research, Tradition, History (HEARTH) is a great resource, as many of the educational books created at WIDAS and many other vintage publications on home sewing are available there.

I tried a few search terms and here are some of the books I found that HEARTH has available:

Pattern making by Agnes K. Hanna, 1921.

The dressmaker: a complete book on all matters connected with sewing and dressmaking from the simplest stitches to the cutting, making altering, mending and caring for the clothes Butterick Publishing Company, 1916.

The elements of dress pattern-making: Magyar dress-cutting for technical classes, home workers & professionals by Amy J. Reeve, 1912.

The dress you wear and how to make it by Mary Jane Rhoe, 1918.

Note to Gertie: Don't think I wasn't secretly hoping that Vogue's New Book for Better Sewing was among these free downloadable books!!

The One-Hour Dress...

The One-Hour Dress (in three books)

Mary Brooks Pickens was founder of the Woman's Institute of Domestic Arts & Sciences (WIDAS) in Scranton, PA. She also developed a method of constructing wearable dresses in one hour. She published three of these particular instructional booklets, two in 1924 and one in 1925. They are small booklets, about 16 to 20 pages each, that take one through the steps of using one's own body measurements to cut the appropriate fabric pieces; no paper patterns were created.



Downloadable copies of these booklets are available here, here and here. I've now seen them all over the Internet, priced from $22 to the cheapest version found here at Emailed Vintage Patterns for $5. (However, I have not ordered this book or any others from these retailers so I cannot guarantee what you will receive from any of these links. As always on the Internet, tread lightly.)

Other mentions of the One-Hour Dress:

Wonderhowto.com has a video series of tutorials using one of these booklets