Vogue’s Book of Practical Dressmaking - part 1, advertisements

The 'Georgian lady' V insignia makes an appearance

I recently added this 1926 publication to my library of old sewing manuals. Like its successor, it only cost one shilling.

Showing the full size

This seems very reasonable, given that at the time Vogue magazine itself cost one shilling per fortnightly issue and Vogue Pattern Book, which was then sold separately and had six issues per year, cost one shilling and sixpence (1½ shillings). Most Vogue patterns cost either one shilling and sixpence or two shillings and sixpence, while a few "last minute especially advanced designs" cost four shillings.

Vogue Pattern Book information

I'm guessing that the low price was because the book was a sort of loss leader, to sell more patterns, and also to sell the pattern book and Vogue itself. It also made some money for Condé Nast by carrying advertisements at the front and back of the book, which are the subject of this post. Click on any of the images to enlarge them.

There are more advertisements than in the 1932 edition. As with later copies of Vogue Pattern Book, they are a mixture of sewing-related and more general female-interest items.

Harrods took out two separate adverts, one at the front and one at the back. The first lists some of the fabrics they have for sale, mostly wools and silks, and is one of the few to include prices.

So many fabrics, in so many colours!

The second is for synthetic 'Celanese' fabrics (made from wood pulp), available in different weights for dresses and lingerie.

"Textures for every fashion need"

The manufacturer British Celanese advertised their relatively new fabric as well, albeit without any details of stockists.

Extolling the virtues of 'Celanese'

Not to be outdone, Courtaulds also advertised, although their fabrics seem to have been exclusively for lingerie.

"Cami-Bockers"?

Clearly there was competition in the synthetic fabrics market, hence the 'Xantha' name being included on the selvedge. A similar tactic was used by Louis Velveteen. I've been able to find adverts for this product going back to 1885, but none later than this one.

Was this the last hurrah for Louis Velveteen?

According to this website, John Falconer and Co was founded in 1928, and was taken over by House of Fraser in 1952.

Tweeds from Aberdeen

Kendal Milne also became part of the House of Fraser group. Now called Kendals it is that rarest of things, a department store which still exists (although I doubt if it still sells fabric).

Samples by post - the internet shopping of its day

There is an advertisement for Darnley's in the 1928 issue of Vogue which I blogged about here, so possibly they were regular advertisers.

All the awkward bits done for you

Unsurprisingly, the only clothing advertisements are for items which home dressmakers could not make themselves.

George West seem to have specialised in rainwear

Corset adverts appeared regularly in Vogue Pattern Book

How to make yourself entirely cylindrical

Shoes only occasionally appeared in the pattern book

But stockings, especially Aristoc, were another regular

Like Aristoc, Ovaltine and Boots are still going strong.

Don't omit to soothe and feed your nerves

When Boots sold laundry soap

Phyllis Earle was founded in 1918, and seems to have later concentrated on hairdressing. If this rather alarming advertisement for its skincare is anything to go by, that may have been a wise decision.

This would not tempt me to buy a product

Sandwiched between these advertisements is about 60 pages of sewing information, but that will be the subject of another post.

Back to school again

I don't seem to have had a lot of time for sewing this year, and now I'm about to have even less. Starting next month, I am enrolled on a single module of the English degree at the University of Chester. Called "Fashioning Fictions", it looks at the role of clothing, fabric, objects and, of course, fashion in fiction.

My reading matter for the next few months

For anyone squinting at the above picture on their phone, the books are:
The Ladies’ Paradise, Émile Zola
Gigi, Collette
The Pursuit of Love, Nancy Mitford
The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
Quicksand, Nella Larsen
The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood
Blue Nights, Joan Didion

There is one other set text, "Girl, Woman, Other" by Bernadine Evaristo. A friend is lending me her copy, but she has just moved house and has yet to unearth it! Fortunately it is studied later in the course. I rarely seem to read fiction these days, so this is going to be a bit of a change. However, the 'historical' texts cover some of my favourite periods, costuming-wise, so reading them with a particular interest in references to clothing and fashion will hardly be a hardship.

On top of that, one of the things which drew me to the module was the fact that there is an option to submit a sewn or knitted piece in one of the assignments. I am hoping that this may be the prompt for me to take up my long-neglected historical dressmaking again. I am also really looking forward to having the run of an academic library once more!

Selling sewing machines in the early seventies

Not much sewing for myself this week, and alterations for friends are only of interest to them, so here's a brief post about sewing machine adverts in Vogue Pattern Book in the early 1970s. One in particular from 1973 caught my eye, so then I had to check what else was out there.

Adverts for fabric and haberdashery were often full page, colour, and ran for several issues, Those for machines were very different. There was at most one machine advertised per issue, mostly Elna or Singer. The Elna adverts were black and white, and usually only part of a page. Click on any image to enlarge.

Summer 1973, combined advert for sewing machine and press

Summer 1974

Spring 1975

This Pfaff advert was full page, possibly part of the message that this was a machine for serious sewists.

Early Autumn 1975

Not only was Singer one of the two firms who advertised in colour in this period, they also ran to double-page spreads.

Autumn 1973

Early Spring 1974

And the other firm? Well, this was the image that started this post.

Winter 1973, it's certainly different!

Leaving aside the idea that your sewing machine and your décor should match - I would have to live in a black and gold house, which sounds alarming - there is the small matter of the, erm, 'Viking'. This was the era when it was normal for boat and motor shows, certainly in the UK, to have scantily clad women draped over their wares to attract attention. So perhaps Husqvana just decided that what was sauce for the goose?

The sewing department at my school had Viking machines and now I'm wondering what, exactly, caused Midlothian Education Authority to go with Husqvana as opposed to, say, Singer or Jones. Hopefully it was for sound financial reasons rather than the sales rep!

Grown-on sleeves, 1960-style

When I made the bodice for my peppermint batik dress from Simplicity 3662, I used modern techniques. After all, it was such a simple design - just two back pieces and one front - that there was no need to consult the instructions. I did a second row of stitching on the underarm seam curve to reinforce it, and machine hemmed the sleeves.

Easy peasy?

For what I am now calling the 'Riviera' dress, after the print, I actually looked at the instruction sheet - and neither of these techniques appears on it!

Just like our current British summer - not!

The cutting layout for the view includes a note to cut two 'facings'; bias strips 1⅛" wide and as long as the lower edge of the sleeves. Once the darts and shoulder seams have been sewn, the underarms are stay stitched, and then the facings are attached*.

The facing sewn along the sleeve edge

The seam allowances are pressed towards the sleeve, and the side seams are pinned. Then the curve is reinforced with either straight seam binding or a selvedge strip of the fabric. I used a narrow cotton tape, and tacked it on to make sure it was placed correctly.

Tape tacked centrally over the seam position

The side seam is then sewn, including the facing.

The seam runs from the facing edge to the base of the bodice

The underarm curves are snipped, but not the reinforcing tape. Then the facings are pressed back - I did mine with a tiny sliver of the top layer folded over to the inside, as I would do a neck facing.

Making sure the facing is invisible from the right side

Finally, the raw facing edge is turned under, and slip-stitched in place.

The finished sleeve edge

On the dressform

I will be interested to see how this reinforcement technique lasts over time. When I was ironing Vogue 5215 recently, which has a similar grown-on sleeve, I noticed that the seam was starting to tear slightly. It's now on the mending pile to be discretely patched.


* -The instructions actually say to attach the neck facing before the sleeve facings, but I am going to leave this step until I have put the zip in - some modern habits die hard!