All About Vintage Sewing Patterns

The above examples of three patterns that date from 1900 to 1905

How old are the patterns?

Most of the vintage patterns we feature are between 65 and 110 year old and we have a few patterns that are even older than that. The majority of the patterns are mail order patterns from the USA, however a few are from Canada, UK and Japan.

Because the patterns are so old and extremely fragile, we go to great lengths to restore them. Most of the patterns we spend hours taping ripped patterns together and then tracing the original pattern pieces to make them available again.

What do the "original" patterns look like and are they different then what you will be mailing me?
Below are a few examples of what some of the original patterns look like. Depending on the age of the pattern they do not look at all like the typical simplicity or McCall's patterns we purchase today. Some of the patterns were hand written on very thin waxy like tissue paper, some of the patterns are just cut out pieces marked with letters and are not printed patterns at all, some of the patterns are hand drawn with typed instructions inside each pattern piece, some of the patterns are cutouts from a news paper or magazine from the original owner to preserve their pattern and some of the "newer" vintage patterns are basic computer/drafted patterns. Some of my favorite crochet and knitting patterns were provided by Coates and Clark to sell their yarn.

We provide exact reproductions of the original pattern (minus the yellowing, mildew smell and tears) in full size. You will not need to take these to the copy store and enlarge our patterns to use them. If the original provided seam allowances so do we however not all patterns did provide seam allowances. Many of the basic patterns were simple drawings that provided an outline for the toy or doll with the embroidery stitches to decorate the toy.

Do all the pattern have color photos of the toy or doll made?

If I had to estimate how many of the original patterns provided color photographs of the finished product I would say only about 5-7%. Almost all of the original patterns we have are printed in black and white. And different than today, many of the actual photo's of the completed toy or doll were printed on a piece of the pattern as shown below. We are have computer generated photo's of many of the patterns so you can see what the finished product might look like. Some of the patterns we have photo's of the finished doll or toy that a customer has made and sent to us---we love for you to do that by the way.

 

Have fun recreating a childhood memory by making a special toy or doll of your youth or help to create and heirloom for your namesake with one of the charming vintage patterns. Honestly, I prefer working with the vintage patterns, they seem much easier and less complicated to make then many of the modern toy and doll patterns. And the embroidery patterns are so much more detailed and beautiful than anything in print today.