Be A Continental Sensation!

A few ideas from a Simplicity flyer showing the Summer Scene in 1962. You could be super-feminine in hip-riding pants and a be-ruffled toplet. Or belt a chic beach-dress. Then after you enjoy that day at the seashore you can cover your top and shorts with the skirt so you can go marketing! 

Inspiration For Embroidery - Graphics

Our last look at Inspiration For Embroidery by Constance Howard published in 1966. This group are basic shapes, turned with creativity into works of art. Look around you and try seeing as she does.

"Machine Embroidery: an exercise in the use of pure hues. Sister Marie Louie"

"The square and the rectangle divided as a basis for pattern distribution. This may be done symmetrically or asymmetrically, a circular arrangement may be placed within a square and visa versa. These main divisions may be broken down into smaller ones, according to the scale of the design, after which details are worked out."

"Distribution of pattern within the circle and the semi-circle. These lines and areas give only the main direction of movement on which pattern is built up from the broad basis to the fine detail."

"The square. Increased in width by mathematical proportions. The radius of the diagonal gives the next width. Squares spaced equally and unequally. The square cut into squares and rectangles, also divided into squares and rectangles. Embroidered squares using satin stitch and couching. Stitches formed as squares. Fabric cut diagonally and joined. Other diagrams show ideas for using the square."

"Ideas based on bottles. Man-made objects are a good source of designs for embroidery and give an inexhaustible number of ideas."

  

Inspiration For Embroidery - Animals

More wonderfulness from Inspiration For Embroidery by Constance Howard published in 1966. She looks at animals in color and in the line drawings that inspire. Get busy and show us what you create! 

 
"A hedgehog worked in various metal threads and padded gold kid." By Jane Page

"Various birds, simplified from reality into semi-geometric shapes."

"Decorative fishes based on the drawing of the carp."

"Cats, simplified for design. Horses from Greek pottery in the Louve. Primitive animal on a pot in the Louve."

Inspiration For Embroidery

I just got a copy of Inspiration For Embroidery by Constance Howard published in 1966. This is an amazing book and I want to show you many, many pictures. Don't think these are limited to embroidery ideas, she shows you how everything you look at is art and can translate to fabric.
This chapter is called "Special Areas of Design" and she says, "Each area has certain limitations which are a challenge to the designer, in ingenuity of planning and in solving the problem within the limitations imposed by the shape and nature of the particular article."

You Need Not Wear Another Single Thing!

 "Bon Ton Lingerie Plastique and your frock - that's all!" 
"...does away with overlapping thickness of vest, girdle, brassiere, pantie or bloomer."
 No boning this must have been pretty daring. And not too popular since I can't find any other references for the name 'Plastique'. But maybe some of that was the cost. $12.50 in 1929 is about $168.00 today, a bit pricey.  
Found in McCall's Magazine, October, 1929. 

Let's Laugh at the Men

Granted, this is low hanging fruit, everybody in 1972 looked pretty bad. But the poor guys got the worse of it. Especially if they were shopping from the Montgomery Ward catalog for Spring/Summer. Of course that begs the question...who shopped from a Montgomery Ward catalog anyway? But somebody did. And some guys looked like this. 

Summer Fashion 1945!

It may still be snowing at your house, but we can all look forward to summer. The Montgomery Ward Spring/Summer Catalog for 1945 has some suggestions. What's your favorite? 

The Duchess of Windsor's Sewing Patterns

When Wallis Simpson wasn't busy being one of the most glamorous women in the world she found time to design sewing patterns for the Spadea Pattern Company. "I've done two or three hundred patterns so far and I love doing them, says the Duchess. I usually take my ideas from the clothes I wish I could wear - so as not to put every other woman in high round necks and the severe lines I insist on for myself." (The Windsor Style by Suzy Menkes)
If the Spadea pattern company had two or three hundred of her designs they aren't easy to find today. I have had a few, but these images are from the Vintage Pattern Wiki. 

A Look At The Duchess Of Windsor

I just got a copy of The Windsor Style by Suzy Menkes. It's a fascinating book about a level of high life that none of us will ever see. The home furnishings, the art, the food and of course the fashion. There is no disputing how influential Wallis Simpson was in setting fashion trends, both in her dress and her jewels. Her whole life was glamorous, from her embroidered lingerie to her world famous jewelry. But here are some of her chic clothing choices.

 
"The Duchess of Windsor in the square-shouldered 1940's silhouette..."

"Wallis's severely plain crepe dress decorated with bows is by Mainbocher."

"Wallis using the chic bag as the essential 1940s accessory to trimly tailored suits."

"Wallis in Schiaparelli's carbon blue silk jersey dress and jacket embroidered with baroque gilded scrolls, photographed by Beaton at the Chateau de Cande on the Loire just before her marriage."

"The Duchess photographed by Horst in 1947 in a Scarlett O'Hara dress by Mainbocher. The austere high neck is balanced by the panniered taffeta skirt built out over an elaborate crinoline."

Four Stylish Tailored Suits from 1927

From the 1927 edition of the Woman's Institute Library of Dressmaking - Tailored Garments we get a look at some tailored suits of the era. I love the little subtle details that send exactly the right message. 

 

The Basic Tailored Suit

"The coat is cut with a panel effect front and back and with the seam-line joining accentuated by stitching. Such a plan makes the coat perfectly becoming to the full figure; but by the use of a flared effect below the waistline, when such is in vogue, it may be made suitable for the sender type also. The mannish notched collar and the close fitting sleeves are appropriate details."

The Boyish Tailleur

"A youthful style, varying little in outward appearance from its severely tailored sister, is the boyish tailleur or tailored suit...The coat does not lap but is held together by link buttons. The mannish notched collar has a certain appeal, while bound pockets add a trimming note quite in keeping with the general effect. The outfit is completed by a two-piece skirt of becoming length and width."

The Three Piece Suit

"...a suit consisting of a dress having the blouse portion of silk and the skirt of cloth, and a coat of the same fabric as the skirt. The coat is unusual in cut, and so constructed that the seam lines are made a decoration further emphasized by the unusual pockets and trimmings. The wide sleeves and slightly surplice lines of the coat are other interesting details."

The Suit Dress

"In these days of one-piece dresses and a desire for unbroken length of line, many business women prefer to wear the coat of a suit throughout the entire day, feeling that their appearance in a separate skirt and blouse is not so attractive as they would wish. Such a plan is throughly satisfactory, because there is a certain trimness about a tailored suit that cannot be expressed by any other garment."

Singer Sewing Machine Attachments from 1906

This little booklet is the "Instructions for Using The Singer Manufacturing Co's Attachments  - Style No. II for No. 27 Machine" and it was reissued in Oct. 17, 1906. The engravings are beautiful! 

The attachment case would have been wood and rolled into a square, with everything fitting in just so.