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.

1950's Aunt Jemima Face Apron Pattern

In 1955, ads for a series of mail order "Face" or "Girl" aprons appeared in Newspapers across the US. This "Mammy" or Aunt Jemima face apron was available through Laura Wheeler and Alice Brooks pattern companies. For twenty-five cents you could have this pattern delivered directly to your door.

1950's Aunt Jemima Apron Pattern

Get this 1955 apron pattern for free.

What strikes me as curious is that the same face apron was also issued but with a fair skinned "Girl" represented in the newspaper ad. 1955 was the year Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to vacate her seat in the front of the bus in Montgomery Alabama, which was the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement in America. Odd that these images, which are such blatant stereotypes, would be so available.

Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia at Ferris State University

But the "Jim Crow Mammy" image had been in use since the 1800's as a commercial identity for selling a vast array of household goods from baking soda to coffee to dishes and linens. It was in the late 1940's when Quaker Oats enlisted their third Aunt Jemima, an image that would become a American Icon. The more recent figure of Aunt Jemima is a much altered figure from the earlier version and certainly less racist.

We may consider the images of the "Dutch Girl" less racist but still represents a stereotype image.  So how about downloading this simple "Santa Face" Apron Pattern to celebrate the holidays.