Great-Grandma's Sewing Patterns for Back to School

I have a small collection of vintage patterns. Whenever I find affordable vintage patterns that I like, I buy them. I especially love the turn-of-the-century boys' sailor suits and Russian blouse suits and the girls' 1900 and 1930s styles, but my collection includes 1895-1955 or so. Today, I am sharing a few that I think are from the 1920s. It is hard to tell, because they rarely have a copyright date (or any date at all). These all cost around 30-35 cents are are unprinted paper patterns, which means that the tissue is pre-cut into the shapes of the pieces and the only markings are by perforation or notches in the paper. The directions are usually limited to writing on the back of the envelope. As we hit the 1930s and beyond, they may have a one-page instruction sheet. Every time I buy one of these, I wonder who originally owned it and did they make an outfit for someone from this pattern. I also buy them because I hope to make some of them someday. I have actually made 2 vintage patterns: one is a 1940s "housedress" that I made for myself and the other is a 1908 "combination" underwear. I'll share those another time!

I love the front button detail on this dress. It is very simple, but would be a great base for some interesting trim. I just opened this one up and it is dated 1919. I thought it was more recent than that! Notice the fabrics recommended: pongee, chambray, gingham, dimity, batiste. Some of these old fabrics are available again in heirloom sewing stores. We are lucky to have such a variety of beautiful fabrics today.

I can't find a year on this pattern, which has the pieces and the transfer to make a smocked dress, size 6-8. Notice how the bishop sleeves are very fitted and end just under the smocking. The color graphics are pretty, but my favorite part of this pattern is something that horrifies me, too. I was a biology major in college and suffered through organic chemistry. Now, I know you're wondering what this has to do with a sewing pattern! The last part of the directions for this dress reads:
"If necessary to remove the yellow stamped designs, wool goods and silks can be rubbed with benzine (sic), gasoline, or carbora."
Here's the chemistry part: benzene is today known to be a very dangerous carcinogen. You could not go get some at the Village Store to wash your baby clothes! Likewise, can you imagine washing your little smocked dresses in gasoline? Ouch!

Finally, something for the boys. What attracted me to this pattern is the little tabs on the button-on pants. I love button-on suits on boys, even though undoing all those buttons is a bit of a nuisance! Isn't this just a sweet little suit?

Do any of you collect old patterns? I think collecting goes hand-in-hand with crafting. Most creative people seem to collect things that they can use (fabric, lace, etc.) or that inspire them (books, patterns, photos). I will share more patterns in the future. I wanted to give you a little sample today!

An Apple for the Teacher

Well, it's back to school week at Mommy's Apron Strings and today I am sharing these dresses that my girls wore for their first day of school when Rosie started preschool and Katie started first grade. The dresses are Imperial tartan plaids, Rosie's in red and Katie's in blue. They have piping on the collar and cuffs and are hand smocked with a design that I believe was in an old issue of Sew Beautiful (but I'm not sure).

Crazy Bus, Crazy Bus...

This may be the most complex machine embroidery I have attempted yet! As usual, I wasted days "over-thinking" what to do for Davy's first day of Kindergarten shirt. I even loaded my USB stick 3 times with designs that I decided I didn't want to use. I found some to purchase, but Davy didn't like them. Then, at the eleventh hour (the day before school starts), I started searching all my favorite ME sites.

I found this cool school bus design at Sharimarie Creations. I knew right away that this was THE ONE. I showed Davy and he liked it, too. However, I noticed her warning that this fits the 6x10 hoops only and though my Viking Designer 1 has a 6x10 hoop, the stitchable space is a bit smaller than other 6x10s. So, I wrote Sharie Marie an email, hoping she could help me out. She was wonderful; she replied with the actual dimensions right away. It was a bit too big for my hoop, so she re-sized it just for me and sent me the new file! This is the kind of customer service that makes me return to a site!

Everything on this shirt is stuff I had on hand; the shirt, the fabric for applique, the vinyl for the windows, the printer photo fabric, etc.
I thought it would be hard to get the photos the right size, but I stitched the window die-line on my stabilizer and put the photos in Adobe Photoshop, cropped, and printed a B&W sample. It fit perfectly on the second try! Wow, it was a charmed day, because the whole thing stitched without a flaw. I was sure I would catch a bit of the t-shirt in the stitching (who hasn't done that before?) or snip the t-shirt fabric when trimming my appliques, but no...all perfect!
I don't know if Davy is as impressed with his shirt as I am, but I think it will be fun for him to bring his siblings to school with him this way. The bus was only meant to hold 4 children, but I put my oldest in as the driver! Please excuse the blacked-out faces; hubby is a computer security person and we are over-cautious.
I have more back-to-school things to share this week, but it has been crazy around here, so it may take a day or two! Please leave a comment if you like; I love reading them!!
Linking to CSI's Back to School Challenge and Red Ted Art's Kids Get Crafty