1930's McCall Bubble Dress Kit

Thought I'd share another vintage kit today. :) This one was made by McCall in the early 1930's. I first saw it in one of my McCall counter catalogs. After some fruitless research I assumed one would never be found. It first appears in the 1932 catalog and seems to have been discontinued in 1936.

A few years ago I bought a big lot of antique baby clothes on eBay for $4.99 that had a finished version in it. The auction photo looked like it was taken from mars, so I really didn't know what I was getting but for 5 bucks I couldn't resist. It was a pleasant surprise.

It's faded and very worn, but I still ♥ it. 

The day after Christmas last year a complete, uncut kit appeared on eBay. I HAD to have it so I prepared to squander a good chunk of my Christmas cash and got up ridiculously early so I could place my bid at the very last second so (hopefully) nobody could outbid me. I'm sneaky like that. And then nobody else bid. It was kind of disappointing. I won for less than $30.

The box is the same size as the pattern envelopes from the 20's thru the early 30's.

It comes with everything you need to make the dress!

The pattern is printed directly on the pieces. It also includes the basic tissue instruction sheet that came with the regular printed patterns at that time. 

Originally it cost $2.50 which seems high. 

A regular McCall pattern with transfer cost between 30-35¢ and a yard of "Sears' Best Printed Lawn" would only run you around 17¢. Other companies were offering kits that were precut for 75¢ and a brand spankin' new cotton lawn dress only cost $1.25 in the 1936 Sears catalog.

So maybe they weren't popular because of the price.

Sorry for the lack of posting. :( I've been trying to pick up this mess...

La Toilette des Enfants

La Toillette des Enfants was a French children's fashion periodical from the early 1900s. Each issue is around 20 pages with a hand tinted fashion plate, a tissue paper pattern for the garment(s) illustrated on the front, and usually a pull out section with more patterns and embroidery designs.

They seem to have been published quarterly from 1902 until 1919ish. I was going to share several issues but my camera battery died before I could get photos of them and my charger is MIA. :( So you only get one. It is from September 1906.

Vintage Inspired Sewing Shopping

I should have put more thought into my blog title. That banner up there should actually read Vintage Inspired Shopping since that is all I seem to do. Last weekend I hit up the International Quilt Festival in Houston, Texas and as usual it did not disappoint. One half of the convention center is a quilt show, which I would tell you about if I had seen it. I didn't because the other half is an ENORMOUS vendors market which I would tell you about but the video below explains it better than I ever could.

I don't quilt. I don't want to quilt. I wouldn't even quilt if you paid me. Well, maybe if you paid me. So why in the cat-hair was I at the International Quilt Festival? I've got two words- Old. Stuff. I'd guesstimate that 75% of the vendors are quilt shops, 15% beads and random junk, and the other 10% are antique stores that cater to the sewing/quilting crowd (e.g. ME).

This is the majority of my purchases. I saw a lot more I wanted but nobody wanted to give me anything. They all wanted money in return. People can be so petty. 

1920's Stamped Embroidery Kit (obviously I can't think of a catchy title.)

Long time no post. No anything really. I haven't touched a needle and thread in ages mainly because it's FOOTBALL SEASON! I stay fairly busy Monday thru Friday and football season means my Saturdays are devoted solely to going to games and screaming my guts out. But I can always make a little time to hit up estate sales and peruse ebay. So, since empty blogs are sad, I'm going to share one of my latest finds. :)

I've been collecting stamped embroidery packages from the 1920-30s for several years now. I have kits for everything from toys, to dresses, to curtains, and throw pillows. I just love them! They come with the pattern and embroidery design stamped right on the fabric. Most of them come finished to some degree, but I have never found one that was completed and still with its envelope until today.

The fabric is lovely. It reminds me a lot of geiger Swiss batiste. 

The neck is finished with buttonhole scallops and trimmed with a slightly gathered french lace and embroidery. Buttonholes have been worked along the neckline and sleeve so ribbon can be woven through and tied in bows. I love the coral/seafoam color combo. 

The hem is finished with hemstitching and scalloped lace.

These are some of my other antique kits. I'll have to share another one sometime. 

Finished!

The sunnysuit is finally finished. I'm the slowest sewer ever. It was started before Christmas! It's not perfect, but not terrible for my first try at sewing something bigger than a dress for a 5'' doll. The buttonholes were traumatic for me. On the bib you can see that one buttonhole is slightly higher than the other. I briefly thought about ripping one out and repositioning it, but after studying the dense, minuscule stitches I realized ain't nobody got time for that. So it stayed put. And it drives me NUTS.

This is the base pattern. I added the Madeira appliqué and the embroidery. Hopefull I'll have some time to finish my version of the pattern soon so I can post it here (for free of course!).

*The base pattern was printed in 1936 and was never filed with the US copyright office. It is in the public domain. 

Jumping on the blog-wagon

Just to have a place to chronicle my full size sewing endeavors and hopefully share my patterns with others who will find them useful. In the past I made teeny doll clothes. There are only so many details you can squeeze on a 3 inch long dress, so I'm branching out to bigger things. :)

I'm currently working on a little sunsuit made from a reworked antique pattern and inspired by this vintage romper I saw on pinterest.