Sew in Love with Vintage Sewing Patterns

I haven’t done any dressmaking for a long time, and I don’t suppose I will start again any time soon, but that didn't deter me from buying these. I saw them in a charity shop priced at £2.50 ($3.58 US) for the four, and it was love at first sight. I've seen patterns for sale at vintage markets, but they can be quite pricey, and I've always felt I needed to know more about them before splashing out. However, these were so inexpensive that I figured it was a good way to start a collection.  

Home economics was mandatory when I was at school; one week we cooked, and the following week we sewed. I preferred sewing and continued making my own clothes throughout my teens and early twenties.

There is something very satisfying about opening a pattern, pinning it to the fabric and watching as a new creation slowly takes shape. Mini dresses were easy and fun to make. Fitting zips was the most difficult bit, especially as all my sewing was done by hand. Mum had an ‘old-fashioned’ sewing machine, but it and I never got on.

This is something completely new in the collecting line for me, so I've been doing a little online browsing and found a super website called Vintage Stitching. If you are into sewing or collecting patterns, you might like it too. 

I have a lot to learn, but I'm eager to start collecting and these are at the very top of my ‘want’ list…

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I also like some of the menswear ones like these sharp suits

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and these bell-bottom slacks.

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There is an interesting article at Collector’s Weekly for anyone wanting to find out more about vintage patterns. 

Thanks for your visit, your comments are always welcome. 

Oliver Herford's Book of Animals - Part Two

A second helping as promised…

The Tortoise is, to say the Least,

A very Contradictory Beast.

Though he may walk the wide world o'er

He cannot step outside his Door.

The Slowest Creature 'neath the Sun

He's Noted for a Race he Won.

Ignoblest of Created Things

His Shield has Many Quarterings,

and Lastly, though Devoid of Hair

His Combs are Famous Everywhere.

This noble Beast - But, why discourse 

Upon the Virtues of the Horse?

They are too numerous to tell

Save when you have a Horse to Sell.

No Beast has done so much as He

To elevate Society.

How could Society Get on

(Or off), my child, if He were gone?

We owe him Much, yet who can say

He ever asked us to Repay?

Ah, Child! How Bright the World would be,

If Creditors were All as He. 

Oh, shun the Crocodile, my child;

He is not Tractable and mild,

Nor like the Dog, the Friend of Man.

He's built upon a Different Plan,

He is not Diffident or Shy,

He will not shrink whey you say "Fie!"

and though he's said Sometimes to Cry,

Be not Responsive to his Wail,

Nor Pat him if he wag his Tail.

This Picture's true to Every Line

Except the Smile. (The Smile is mine.)

This Pleasing Bird, I grieve to own

Is now Extinct. His Soul has Flown

To Parts Unknown, beyond the Styx

To Join the Archoeopteryx.

What Strange, Inexplicable Whim

Of Fate, was it to banish him?

When Every Day the numbers swell

Of Creatures we could spare so well:

Insects that Bite, and snakes that sting,

and many another Noxious Thing.

All these, my Child, had I my Say,

Should be Extinct this very Day.

Then would I send a Special Train

To bring the Do-do back again.

The Devil fish, or Octopus,

Has often been Held Up to us

To typify the Greedy Lusts

Of Grasping Syndicates and Trusts.

This Picture (from an Early print)

Gives us, if true, a Fearful Hint

Of his Great Size, and throws some Light

On his tremendous Appetite.

But let us, Child, whate'er we do,

Give the poor Devil fish his Due!

The Picture, I forgot to say,

Is Quite Untrue in every way.

The Moral's Plain as Plain can be:

Don't believe Everything you See. 

Oliver Herford’s Book of Animals

With pictures by the Author.

Published by Bickers & Son, London, 1906.

This one hundred and ten year old book is not in the best of condition. It has been used and enjoyed over the years, and that is what gives it its character. If you would like to know more about Oliver Herford, please see last weeks post here.

Could this be the 'early print' referred to in the Octopus poem?

*Pierre Dénys de Montfort , 1810

Thanks for calling in, have a great week.

*Pierre Dénys de Montfort  was a French naturalist, remembered for his pioneering inquiries into the existence of the gigantic octopus. Wikipedia 

Oliver Herford's Book of Animals - The Dachshund!

I can’t resist giving you a sneak peak inside this recently found book. I will be sharing more pictures soon. In the meantime, please enjoy the four parts of a lackadaisical Dachshund!

The Dachshund is the longest dog in the whole canine catalogue.

He is so long -
to show him here he must in Serial Parts appear.
This is Part One - observe his air of lack-a-daisi-cal despair.

I fear he finds it does not pay...

To wag a tail so far away!

Oliver Herford

Oliver Brooke Herford was born in Sheffield, England on December 2, 1860 (not 1863, as is widely stated) to Rev. Brooke Herford and Hannah Hankinson Herford. Oliver's father, Brooke, was a Unitarian minister who moved the family to Chicago, IL in 1876 and to Boston, MA in 1882. Oliver attended Antioch College in Yellow Springs, OH from 1877 to 1879. Later he studied art at the Slade School in London and the Academie Julien in Paris. Afterward, he moved to New York, where he lived until his death. Herford's cartoons and humorous verse appeared in journals such as Life, Woman's Home Companion, Century Magazine, Harper's Weekly, The Masses and Punch. Over 30 books illustrated by Herford, and frequently written by him as well, were published from the 1890s to the 1930s. He also wrote plays and was known for his humorous and pithy bon mots. Herford was a longtime member of the Player's Club in New York City. He married Margaret Regan in New York on May 26, 1904. Herford died on July 5, 1935 and his wife died the following December. [Source OhioLinkFindingAidRepository]

More pictures from Oliver Herford's Book of Animals coming soon…

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If you go down to the woods today… 

The trees are in bud, and the woods are carpeted with anemones, wild garlic and bluebells. 

Pamphill a village near Wimborne, is a hive of activity in April and May. People flock to this small corner of England to enjoy some of the best displays of bluebells in Dorset. 

Last year we visited on a bright sunny day when the woods were alive with the sound of – people. This year we went on a dark, rainy day and had the place almost to ourselves. We got wet and we got muddy, but we wouldn't have missed it for the world.  

The Fairy Tales of Perrault Illustrated by Harry Clarke

My bookshelves are lucky enough to hold a scarce dust jacketed copy of this beautiful book.  At time of writing, there is only one comparable copy (with the very scarce jacket) advertised on-line at a price which makes my eyes water!  Not wishing to make your eyes water I thought it would be a nice idea to share some of the beautiful images with you.

The Fairy Tales of Perrault with pictures by Harry Clarke (1889-1931), published by Harrap in 1922.

"He brought them home by the very same way they came"

"Fanny would rather be fair in drugget than be a queen with an ugly face"

I’m rather puzzled by the use of the word drugget in the above quote.  My understanding of drugget is a wool or partly wool fabric formerly used for clothing or a coarse cloth used as a floor covering or a cotton and wool rug. French droguet, diminutive of drogue trash.

I think it must imply that Fanny (rather an unfortunate name) would rather be fair and dressed in rags than ugly and dressed in finery.  Is that how you read it?

"Am I come hither to serve you with water, pray?" 

"The marquis gave his hand to the princess"

"He asked her whither she was going" 

"Away she drove, scarce able to contain herself for you" (Detail from)

"Any one but Cinderilla (Cinderella) would have dressed their heads awry" 

"Little Thumb was as good as his word, and returned that same night with the news"

"Riquet with the tuft appeared to her the finest prince upon earth"

"This man had the misfortune to have a blue beard"

Blue Beard

Thanks for calling in I hope your week is going well...