Can you identify this needlework method?

So these are a pair of little baby booties made for my mother-in-law's mother by her mother and they're just gorgeous. However I can't figure out just how it was made. It doesn't look quite like either crochet or knitting and it's not macrame. I know that DH's great-grandmother was skilled in embroidery and tatting and DMIL has stories of her knitting things she'd seen without a pattern in the space of a few evenings so that doesn't narrow the options too much. Still, it's gorgeous workmanship and it was a priviledge getting to pour over some of the items she made.

More of her work -

Baby bonnet also made for DH's grandmother - look at how tiny the work is!



The edge of a lingere piece. She made a set of three lingere items all from the same pattern and not a single machine stitch on them. I'll show off the full set in a future post but for now a taste of how she creatively used embroidery as a utility stitch to hold on the lace. Gorgeous, gorgeous work.

Very vintage doll pattern: or, A Taste of Things To Come

We've moved in, most boxes are unpacked, and hopefully next weekend I'll finally get a table for my sewing area and be up and running! I even managed to find the only Joann's within an hour's drive without deliberately looking for it - just turned off the highway for a mid-day treat and there it was. And so impressive - all the fabrics I loved from my Dallas Joann's plus many more! And the clearance section! And the yarns! All swathed in wide, clean aisles and nice bright (albit florescent) lights. Happiness!

Anyway, more of all that later. For now, a taste of the long-promised photos of my mother-in-law's grandmother's sewing treasures.

The treasures included a couple embroidery patterns, a small trouseau of entirely hand-sewn lingere, all from the same basic pattern, and, my favorite, a doll dress pattern dating from the early days of patterns.

Unfortunately the best of the pics are still trapped on my home computer which lacks internet access and will have to wait for the weekend to get any. But until then, this is a taste of what I got to see:



This shows the back (sorry, no pic of front at present - coming!!) of the pattern envelope which was, if memory serves, from the early 1920s. It's far smaller than standard pattern envelopes today - maybe 5" in hight and 3" wide? One thing I didn't do was measure it, though I know I have a picture with a penny for comparison. Somewhere. If you look you'll notice how excited McCall's is to offer printed directions. :) And look at all those pattern pieces! The pattern is for what seems to be a very basic little dress and bloomers for an 18" doll - apparently the definition of "basic" has changed over the years. :)


The directions and, I believe, the pattern pieces themselves were printed on one long piece of tissue paper in blue ink. I took a panoramic series of photos to capture every last line but, naturally, in the short bit of time I had to upload to my photo album only a few made it. The rest are waiting patiently and I promise you will get to see them! Click on this photo to get a far larger view and enjoy all the wonderful little details!

Here's part 4 of the directions with the most gorgeous illustrations. And look at the techniques apparently used on a basic doll dress! So amazing.

Like I said, this is just a taste of the treasures I got to see and preserve digitally over the week with the in-laws. And MIL was probably very happy to have someone as excited about all the items as she was. :) I've also been commissioned to make a beautiful day dress for her grandmother's doll, something I'm very much looking forwards to as it's a great chance to really have fun with some vintage styles and nice fabric. I think a trip to Gayfeathers is in order!

Some vintage goodies

Some pretties from my vintage pattern box.

This instruction sheet was found inside another pattern's envelope.  Unfortunately I don't have the pieces but the pattern shapes wouldn't be too difficult to recreate from a sloper.  Well, in a relativistic sense.  Compared to, say, recreating it from just a drawing.  But anyway, I absolutely love that second view, the dress with the gorgeous bishop (?) sleeves.  Isn't that utterly glamorous?  


This reminds me of pictures of my grandmother, so pulled together and just slightly sporty.  I can't really wear that high neckline and the points would probably annoy me, but I still like it.  Imagine it made up in a gorgeous hunter green twill with contrast topstitching on the pockets. 

This one is, without a doubt, my favorite.  Unfortunately it didn't have the pattern piece for those fabulous sleeves but it does have line drawings of the pieces so, once again, it's not impossible to redraft.  I'm not certain how I'd make this up for myself in this decade - perhaps as a nice coat with some redoing of that back to make it more heavy-material friendly?  Or should it stay a dress.  Hm.  I really don't plan on making it up anytime soon but it's fun to dream.

Laundry and dreams of big fluffy dresses

Laundry day! So can't wait to have our own washer and dryer. Not such a fan of having to fight my neighbors for laundry time. Or having to continually recharge the laundry card.

But anyway, in between loads I've been working on stuff for my shop and watching youtube videos and ran across this MYSTed jem. It's a short put together by Bell Telephone featuring their booth at the 1962 World Fair. It includes an early pager, touch-pad dialing, auto dialing ... all things that so part of life today. And the dress! The teen girl is wearing a wonderfully fluffy, poofy dress that looks so very, very fun.



Since I don't have nearly enough on my sewing plate (wow, couldn't even type that with a straight face) I suddenly want to make a similar dress for my 2010 Easter dress. Never mind that I've NEVER had a special easter dress ... usually it's whatever's clean that morning. But I want a fluffy dress to sashay around in. Actually what I REALLY want to do is wear it to Disneyland since, for me, early 60 fashion and music are indelibly tied with The Mouse's original home. This is what happens when you raise your kid on old Disney specials. Just warning you parents. But we're not going to be anywhere near southern CA anytime soon (or Florida, for that matter) so church and school are second best. I guess I can wear it when working from home but I'd be afraid of mistaking the skirt for part of the fabric I'm supposed to cut.

Anyway, I've already got a great pattern to use, so no excuses for not at least dreaming a bit!



This was from a box in my friend's mom's neighbor's home ... apparently when the neighbor died I was the first person in that chain that sewed so I got a small collection of these patterns. And they're close to my size so all the better! It even came with a petticoat pattern so I can get the full fluffiness effect. :)


So what do you think? Fun post Christmas project or totally insane? Or (my person vote) a little of both? :)

Digging through the old pattern box

I need to dig this pattern out again - about three years ago I made it up with a stiff poly and it's pretty cute. Unfortunately it has the funny armcyce gape that all patterns seem to have on me so I have to wear a little sweater over it but still, cute. And short. See how it hits just above the knee on the model? False advertising, that. It hits a good 3" above my knee and, at 5'4" (ok, the 4" is in sneakers) I'm not exactly model material. And while 3" above the knee is hardly scandelous, it's short for me. I added some beautiful tea-stained lace to the hem and it helps me feel more modest but I still don't wear it as much as I would if it were just a liiiittle longer. But really, those are the only issues I had with this and I made it straight from the pattern, no modifications at all. So now that I know what to expect I really should try it again. Great for summer or, now that I look at it, as a cute jumper with a shirt underneath. Hm...

Oh, and this pattern comes from a group of fun 70 ones from when my mom went through a pattern collecting phase. She was living in southern California at the time and so passed on some adorable little sundress patterns. So far this is the only one of the bunch I've made but just give me time!

Perfect in Purple

My husband's from one of those small towns where everyone went to school together and people live and die in the house they were born in. Completely foriegn to this suburban military brat! However I fell in love when DH took me to the local antique store. So many lovelies! There was a little pattern area with a number of beautiful vintage offerings. None of it was in great shape and all the patterns had obviously been well loved (and used!) but in a way that added to the fun of the hunt. This is one of the patterns I picked up because I just couldn't resist it. Look at those lovely collars! And the sleeves! Sadly it's missing a good half of it's pieces (including the lower part of those full sleeves) but, like most patterns, it shows what those peices should look like on the back of the envelope. So if I do decide to make this someday it shouldn't be impossible. Difficult, but not impossible. For now it's functioning as artwork and being fully appreciated as such. Vintage patterns are my version of jewels, I guess. Not terribly practical but they make my world more beautiful. Or something like that!

Pattern Trail

Ok, time to actually finish my little story that starts with this pattern:



It's a mail-order pattern apparently bought through the Kansas City Star and sent to a Dallasite. Her full name and address was on the envelope but, just in case she's still alive and wants privacy, let's call her Millie. So Millie bought this pattern and did what I do to so many of them - cut out the pieces fairly roughly but never made anything out of it.

Curious to know about Millie I typed her full name into google, the knower of all things there are to know. And it actually found a hit. This picture of the 1960 graduating class of Braniff Flight Attendants:


Now some of you may have heard of Braniff International Airways but this child of the late 80s was clueless. Fortunately Wikipedia was there to help with a history of this Dallas based airline. So let's see, we have a late 50s/early 60s style pattern shipped to a Dallas address and a flight attendant for a Dallas airline starting her career in 1960? While it's not certain, it seems at least very likely these two are the same.

And in many stories this would be the intro to this woman's life, her dramas, her family, and an epilogue of either her death or current life. In many stories. Not in this one. This one picture and one pattern are where my investigation of Millie ends. Yes, I could go through old microfiche of the Dallas newspaper and find record of her marriage or death or something. But honestly ... I don't care all that much. It would be neat to know more about Millie but not that neat. Especially when I'm behind in my Greek collating.

So Millie's story ends here but it opens up a whole little world of absolutely amazing stewardess uniforms. You see, Braniff International Airways wasn't content with being just another airline. They wanted to fly with style. Granted, it took them a while to get to this point. Their
uniform for their 1937 debut was nice but, from what I've seen from other airlines of that period, nothing all that special.



This trend continued for a while, though their uniforms in 1943 included "scandalously short" skirts. I mean, just look at these skimpy things:



Horrors! You can almost see the knee! LOVE the shoes, by the way.

In the 50s they began moving towards more designer uniforms with Neiman Marcus designing this beauty which included kick pleats for walking and gussets that stretched from the underarm to the waist for all those times they had to put luggage into overhead bins. Stylish and practical - I love it.



And once again I love the shoes. However those bright white lapels are a bit much for me ...

Moving to the early 60s things got boxier and more subdued. While I like 3/4 length sleeves, those plus the gloves just make my wrists cold. But still, very stylish looks created by Nardis of Dallas. Whoever that is.



All fine and good - the stewardesses (this was long before flight attendants!) looked like nice, tailored stewardesses.

But that wasn't good enough for the new management of Braniff. They wanted luxury, style, and sexiness. For this they turned to Emilio Pucci (hear of him?) and this is what he gave back:





Take special note of those boots.

The fun doesn't stop there. These uniforms just kept getting more and more creative.






And yes, that's a large plastic bubble to protect the flight attendants' hairstyles while they walked to the plane. Apparently this was a concept that only lasted 3 months, longer than some of the other ideas that probably never made it off Pucci's runway. Still, neat ideas. And I love that coat. And no, these pictures aren't in chronological order. These are all Pucci designs spanning the decade between the mid 60s and mid 70s and giving just a hint at what it must have been like to fly Braniff during this time.

Pucci's bright colors and space-age styling lasted until the mid-70s when, for whatever reason, the Braniff suits decided to go with a little less inspiring look.



Listen, I'm trying to be fair and understand the times and all ... but that is NOT a stewardess/hostess/flight attendant look. That's mom heading out for her day job. Mom who never learned that color is good for you. Admittedly, it takes style to make a fluffy shirt and cardigan look good together but after the craziness of the 60s looks ... this just doesn't do anything for me. I don't even like the shoes.

The male stewards, who had until this point dressed like the flight crew, were also given a makeover.



For some reason some song about neighbors is now playing in my head. Can't imagine why.

Unfortunately the downturn of the uniforms was indicative of the airline as a whole. In May of 1982 the airline flew it's last flight. The era of Pucci-decked stewardesses was officially over. Still, while it lasted it was a colorful, wonderful time.



_____________________
If you enjoyed this tour of stylish, modern, and sometimes crazy uniforms please check out the official website of the Clipped Bs, the Braniff flight attendants who were there to serve on every flight.

A Pattern Story

Last weekend my husband and I did our customary Half-Price Books/grocery store run and I found myself over in the tiny pattern section they have. It doesn't matter that there's not much turn over nor that most patterns are overpriced ($4 average for modern costumes and early 90s power shoulder pads suits with the covers half ripped off), I still have to look. This time I lucked out, finding this fun little pattern stuck in the back with a .98c sticker on it. I couldn't resist. No, I don't plan on making it anytime soon (the short jumpers with sailor collar being a little out of my comfort zone) but owning the pattern makes me happy.

What I didn't realize was that this pattern came with a fast-pass to a story about the woman who first bought it and the places she saw and things she did ...

It's not a long story, nor is it really about her but rather about those she worked for and with. And the amazing things they got to wear.

Which I'll continue on tomorrow since this week is absolutely killing me with assignments. But to whet your appitite, can you guess from this picture (without cheating and clicking on it!) what she did? Oh, and this isn't my pattern's original owner, it's one of her coworkers. Still, neat outfit! And just look at that ... hat? turban?

Coming soon...

Coming soon to your computer screen...The drama, the history, the passion...

Or just the story (what I know of it) of the woman who first owned this pattern. It's a mail-order pattern that I found for 98c at Half-Price last weekend and, as a mail order pattern still in it's mailing envelope, it had the name of the recipient still on it. One short Google search later and I've learned a little about the woman who thought this a good idea and a lot about her job including some links to some simply amazing uniforms.

Unfortunately I still have another hour of Hebrew to do.

So stay tuned! Hopefully I can get to this story tomorrow.