HOME DRESSMAKING BUREAU

The month of February is dedicated to home dressmaking. Inspired by The Pictorial Guide to Modern Home Dressmaking, a beautiful 1940s book, I present a bureau collection of old clothes making items.

Bureau contents: The Pictorial Guide to Modern Home Dressmaking by Catherine Franks, c. 1940,  Home Chat magazine, cotton bobbins, buttons, ribbons, scissors, tape measures, clothes making patterns, home made dresses, aprons, gloves and dress accessories, name tapes, bias binding and old photographs of ladies in pretty dresses.

Below throughout February I focus on some of the contents from the Home Dressmaking Bureau.

Picco Pinking Shears

Picco pinking sheers from St Christopher's Hospice in Sydenham. Thanks to Just For You Zine for this beautiful addition to my Bureau.

Betty Holt, Spirella Corsetiere

This photograph is dedicated to my nan, Betty Holt. She was a Corsetiere for Spirella Corset Company during the 1960s. Spirella's products were made to measure and only available to buy from the corsetiere, who travelled to her clients homes to measure and fit them. My nan worked in Blackpool and used her trusted bicycle to carry her wares around town. I remember her Spirella business plaque which was proudly attached to the wall by her front door, indicating her trade to passers by.

Workers were encouraged to wear the garments they sold and show them off to their clients. Nan wore her corsets with pride and even added her own unique touch by sewing a secret pocket inside the lining, this was for keeping a spare house key and a spare fiver just in case of an emergency. She was a handy sewer and always very resourceful. I am not sure how she constructed the secret pockets or if she used a button or zip to fasten them. You can find out more about the wonderful world of the Spirella Corsetiere at corsetiere.net.

Wearwell Ribbons

Cash's Name Tapes

It is always pleasing to find garments marked with a name or initials, it gives old clothes an even greater sense of history, conjuring up stories of the wearer. I found name tags belonging to S. M. Fishman and Tami Chessher on Deptford market  a couple of years ago. The Cash's Woven Initial letters came from The Cloth House.

Vintage linen handkerchief with woven initial letters from Labour and Wait. 

                                    Handmade work apron with the initial  S. M. sewn inside. 

                                    I am not sure what O. DE LVs stands for. 

                                    

Cash's are still in existence today, they have provided name labels for clothing since 1846. Back then the company was a silk ribbon manufacturer. Here is one of their adverts I found in one of my 1940s magazines:

Stitchcraft Magazine Nov. 1940

                                                         

                                              

M is for Monthly Bureau

I found this letter M, which is made from embossed paper, hidden in the depths of an old Victorian sewing box. I think it would have been used as a template for embroidering onto fabric. It was quite common in those days for initials to be sewn onto household linen such as tray cloths, handkerchiefs and tea towels. I have been collecting hand embroidered handkerchief holders, here are a couple from my collection:
                               

                                                   MB, from Leftovers, Brixton Village.

                                                   LD, from Le Grenier, Bethnal Green.

The Singer Sewing Machine

I found this photograph album some years ago at Preston Flea Market. I was drawn to the images of the Singer sewing machine photographed on the sideboard in its beautiful wooden case. It was obviously loved and cared for by the family who owned it. The album contains photographs of a glamorous young woman posing in her stunning dresses, I am curious to know if they were made with the Singer sewing machine.

Ribbons and Rosettes

 A dainty dress front of organdie 

and a carnation buttonhole.

                                                               Instructions for making ribbons
                                                               and rosettes.

                                                               Double net ruffled and wound 
                                                               into a "carnation."

Collars and Cuffs

Image from The Big Book of Needlecraft by Annie S. Paterson, 1935.

Dress Decoration

Woven plastic wire brooch, 1940s

Handmade felt brooch, 1940s

During WW2 jewellery was considered a luxury and new pieces were scarce and unaffordable. As a result many women had to make their own jewellery. Handmade buttonholes made from felt, wool, wire and plastic were common as well as concoctions from old, broken pieces of jewellery. Women who worked in the munitions factories made wire brooches from pieces of scrap wire found on the factory floor. There were even instructions for making them in women's magazines of the day.

In addition to making jewellery women also made collars and cuffs to decorate a simple dress or jacket suit. Their are instructions for how to make dress decorations in The Pictorial Guide to Modern Home Dressmaking:

Perivale Paper Bag

Handmade Striped Shirt

1950s Fabrics

This is a photograph of my mother, Janice, taken on her school allotment in 1959.

Here she talks about this photograph and memories of her mother Edith's interest in dressmaking:

'My mum made this skirt I am wearing. She had a Singer sewing machine, it used to have a treadle but then it was made electric. The skirt had bows and ribbons and I used to wear a white blouse with it, it was my summer uniform. We could wear our own summer skirts, we didn't have many clothes, in those days they were more expensive.'

1950s aprons from my handmade clothes collection. 

Dress Pattern Book

A book I have made using delicate papers from an old dress pattern, bound together using the Japanese stab stitch technique.

The flowers are from the 1940s and handmade using felt, wire and embroidery thread. They would have been made to adorn a lapel, dress or hat.

Buttons for shirts

The Autumnal Dress

This dress was made in the 1940s, it has been handmade and has a simple utility style. The cut
and colour of the fabric reminds me of autumn, especially the beautiful leaf shaped neckline.
For a wartime dress the attention detail is immaculate, even the arrow head at the darts has been carefully stitched. Arrow heads were used as decorative strengthening, neatening the awkward corners of garments. I have found the instructions for sewing them in The Big Book of Needlecraft by Annie S. Paterson, 1935:

Patterns in the post

I found J H Markham's clothes patterns in The Salvation Army charity shop in Blackpool a couple of years ago. They are from the 60s and 70s and include the following: a button through dress, a trouser suit, three skirts and a pinafore dress. They were ordered through the post from various sources including People's Friend and D. C. Thomson & Co. LTD.. Paper Pattern Department. I like the way she has created her own collages by scribbling reminders of fabric measurements and gluing the pattern pictures to the covers of the envelopes.

Home Chat

   

                               Home Chat magazine, February 23rd, 1946

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