Make It With Towels - Cannon Towels Pattern For 1950's Playsuit

The Educational Department of Cannon Mills produced booklets with sewing patterns and decorating ideas using Cannon linens such as towels and sheets from the mid 1940's to the mid 1970's. This late 1940's booklet features clothing and accessories for women as well as toys, baby items and this fabulous playsuit pattern for a stole, shorts from a 1948 Simplicity pattern and a tutorial for making a washcloth bra top. 

Download the entire booklet for slippers, apron, drawstring bag and more made with towels HERE!

Visit my CynicalGirl shops on Goodsmiths and Etsy for more vintage and newer patterns.

The Potholder

Cast iron pans are my favorite to fry or saute with. My pans have been handed down from from my grandmother to my mother and to me. Plain black or enameled. They conduct heat evenly and maintain the heat at a lower flame. No scorching if you are attentive. The downside of these sturdy vessels is that their handles are usually of the same material as the balance and thus get hot. 

Enter the lowly potholder. Two pieces of fabric with a couple of layers of flannel sandwiched between and tacked or quilted to place between your hands and the hot handles. Of course, as a child the potholder loom with cotton loopers was all the rage. But In my thrifting searches I have occasionally happened upon fanciful shapes that were from an earlier era. Some were crocheted with multi-colored pearl cotton, others were fabric.

McCall 1940 Potholder Pattern

This 1940 McCall pattern with instructions to make these fun potholders for fish and chairs and granny's panties must have been popular. My copy was well used and in the envelope were multiple tracings on brown paper, newspaper and tissues from other patterns. Few of the original tissues have survived but I have included the Strawberry and the Fish patterns for a free instant download for you to make for gifts or to brighten up your own kitchen. Download HERE. 

Find more apron and accessory patterns at my CynicalGirl shop on Etsy.

1940's Cotton Day Dress

Rochelle from Lucky Lucille and Tasha from By Gum By Golly teamed up to host the Fall For Cotton Vintage Sew Along. I found myself with a free weekend and decided to tackle this lovely 1949 Advance dress pattern for my entry.

Advance 5185

I had been checking patterns to be sure they were complete to list in my Cynical Girl shop, and found this flared skirt dress pattern in a great size (though a little big for me), lacking instructions but still in it's original factory folds. This was the one. It was, after all, a vintage sewing challenge sew-along. I doubled up on the challenge part. An unprinted pattern with no instructions. Let the puzzle begin.

7:00 AM. My husband had just left for a writer's conference so I began, keeping the experience as vintage as possible. The fabric I chose was a piece of Cranston cotton I purchased over 30 years ago to make a copy of a vintage dress I really loved but never got to. It was perfect for this day dress. 

By 8:30 I had my pattern pinned, cut out, notched and marked.

I tried to find an 18" metal zipper in navy blue from my vintage stash but had to settle on a 22" navy or an 18" in cloister brown. I went with the blue.

Then the sewing began...... By 2:00 PM I had much of the larger pieces put together. The front facing and front of the bodice joined to make a shawl collar. That is one of my favorite types of collars so I had little difficulty figuring that part out without instructions. My 30+ year old Athena dress form isn't standing so straight any more. She is padded now with Fabulous Fit for that little extra I am carrying around now. It was a lot less expensive than purchasing a new dress form.

I decided not to serge my seams and instead use seam binding tape.

By 5:30 I had everything but the detail work to do. My pockets and buttons are pinned in place.

The buttons are vintage shell buttons upcycled from a vintage jacket that had seen better days. The buckle is shell as well. I will use white crochet cotton for the saddle stitching.

By 9:00 PM my dress was finished except for the marking and hemming.

And so I completed my Fall For Cotton Vintage Sewing Challenge. I entered it into the Flicker Fall For Cotton Group Page. So many lovely and just plain delightful entries into this challenge. I look forward to participating in another.