I'VE LEARNED TO SEW AND LOVE IT from Woman's Home Companion

Woman's Home Companion, a monthly ladies magazine published from 1873 to 1957, began as The Home Companion, then Ladies Home Companion and finally settled on Woman's Home Companion in 1897. Woman's Home Companion was a fitting name for a magazine that would bring not only useful homemaking tips, recipes and sewing and needlework patterns to both rural and urban women, it also brought articles about fashion, health issues, marriage and fiction. An amazingly long life for a magazine. You can find past issues for sale on the internet and they are well worth the price. They are packed with still useful information and the graphics alone are a delight to revisit.

This "Companion Picture Book" from September 1954 is an illustrated journey that Barbara Schultz embarked on. Through these pages, Barbara shares how she began and how she quickly became hooked on sewing. The Advance patterns she chose are now rare but may still be available through internet searches. Her advice for purchasing a machine is still relevant 60 years later, though I doubt she would have anticipated the complexities of today's machines. 

Advance 6820

Advance 6837 Advance 6846

Advance 6748 Advance 6836

 

 

Advance 6849 

Find more 1950's Advance and other 1950's dress patterns in my CynicalGirl shop on Etsy.

Learning To Sew

Sewing quality garments that you will be proud of wearing takes time and patience. Finding the right fabric for the pattern you choose is no less important. There is nothing more frustrating than investing your time and resources sewing a garment only to be disappointed with the results. Often those little errors that cause the garment to pull or sag can be avoided by a little pre-cutting preparation.

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This 1962 booklet published by Advance pattern company, details every aspect of your experience from finding your body type and choosing a pattern that will fit to preparing your fabric and your cut pieces. Only 20 pages in this Bishop Method of Clothing Construction booklet but it is packed. Grain lines, staystitching, directional stitching and unit construction are a few of the lessons covered. 

Success can never be guaranteed but it can weigh in your favor with some basic preparations before you begin to sew. Avoid frustration and make something you will be proud to say "I made this" with a little help from Advance patterns and the Bishop Method of Clothing Construction.

Keeping Your Scissors Sharp

Several years ago I inherited a box of buttons and bits that belonged to my grandmother. Orphaned at a young age in the early 1900's when her parents succumbed to the Great Flu Pandemic, she and her sister grew up in Saint Rose's Orphanage on the East side of Milwaukee. There she learned to sew. And she was an avid sewer and a doll doctor in the 30's, 40's and 50's. I remember her magnificent and intricate doll clothes on the porcelain dolls in the curio cabinets with the glass doors. Not to be played with. 

She was my greatest inspiration. And though she never taught me to sew or crochet, I remember that whenever I saw her she had a project in her hands. Her industriousness was her gift to me. The OCD I could do without but perhaps the two go hand in hand.

In this wicker box, with a leather cover, all cracked and aged, along with some of the tiniest glass and brass buttons I had ever seen, was a little oval stainless steel (or nickel silver) scissors sharpener. This little object intrigued me. A little over two inches long, thin and lightweight, I experimented with an old pair of scissors and was pleasantly surprised at how well it seemed to work ... for cutting paper. But surely it should work for fabric cutting as well. After all, it must have been her handiest method for sharpening her own scissors. And she cut a lot of fabric sewing clothes for her 8 children. 

My Grandmother's Kenberry Scissors Sharpener

I started doing a little research. These little sharpeners were produced and either sold or given as promotional objects by a vast array of companies like this from the Sealtest Milk Company. I found this one on an Etsy shop.

Promotional Scissors Sharpener c1950's

They also came in a variety of shapes, like these cardboard and hammered metal sharpeners with a stainless steel honing rod.

Or this plastic paddle shaped sharpener with a ceramic honing rod.

The ease of use of these small hand held sharpeners must have been part of their charm. I remember the traveling sharpener man who made the rounds to our neighborhood about once a month. He would sharpen my mother's knives and scissors. Before such services, the self sharpeners were an asset not to be parted with.

I purchased this Gingher sharpening stone 30 years ago. As you can see it has not been used a great deal. I found it difficult to control the angle and it's awkward managing of the pitch and pressure seemed like a sure way to ruin the edge of my precious cutting shears. 

 

Imagine my surprise to find these little portable sharpeners available again. These little Fiskars sharpeners have a ceramic honing rod and work the exact same way as the little sharpener in my grandmother's button box.

However you manage to do it, keeping a sharp edge on your shears is a must for ease of cutting the cleanest edges of all of your fine fabrics.

There are all sorts of u-tube videos suggesting sandpaper and tin foil as quick methods. Try them first with your paper shears. Just to be on the safe side.

Simplified Sewing Series - Cornell Extension Bulletins

1961 Cornell University Extension publications for better sewing.

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Thomas Wilson & Co Lace

 Lace Frosted Balloon Sleeves

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This 1950's insert for packaged lace from Thomas Wilson & CO., Inc. Wilson Maid Laces, includes instructions to "Make a sleeveless jumper or dress seem new and different. Add 1.5" Nylon Val Galloon on standard balloon sleeve pattern. Elasticize both ends."

Trio of Neckline Changes

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Use detachable collar. Ruffled yoke effect achieved with Nylon Alencon Edge, 2.25" width. Scarf that ties-on for jabot effect is edged with 5/8" Nylon Val lace. For ingenue look, add row after row of 5/8" gathered Nylon Val Lace to collar.

Thomas Wilson Lace & Co., Inc. New York, NY, was producing fine lace as early as 1902 and perhaps earlier. Known for it's lingerie lace, Warner Brothers Company was one of it's important clients. After a dispute over infringement of it's 1964 copyright on a pansy lace design first embodied in an elastic "spandex" and later a rigid nylon fiber, and a labor dispute in 1971, the company dissolved in 1986.