Customer Reviews

Women's Wear of the 1920's: With Complete Patterns

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This book provides patterns and (very) basic instructions for constructing authentic fashions of the 1920's, made using original everyday garments. The patterns are on regular book pages printed on a grid. To use them one can either draw them out on bigger grid paper, or do what I did and take them to a copy center and blow them up on the oversize copier. This book is not for the novice sewer, but for someone with experience who wants a truly authentic 1920's look, you can't do better.

Similar to the Janet Arnold _Patterns of Fashion_ series, this book presents scaled patterns for all sorts of garments from the 1920s. Patterns include dresses, blouses, skirts, underwear, lingerie, etc. Useful if you know understand pattern drafting for creating period garments, or if you're interested in garment patterning of the 1920s. I especially liked that it focuses on more everyday wear, rather than couture garments.

These books gave me a lot of inpsiration, as well as practical tips for reproducing the clothes shown. For instance, the author used Wolf dress forms for many of these garments and put the size form she used down in on many of the drafts. Be mindful a form size is NOT included for ALL the costumes. Use of a mannequin or some kind is essential for getting the details right. Some of these original garments had been custom made, including a couple of "going away" outfits. As with Janet Arnold's examples, for indiviual women, not standard sizes. Be prepared to use one inch gridded easel pads, the scale is one eighth to the inch.

Photographs of living models are shown throughout, as well as period photos. Alas, no photos of the originals. Claire McCardell's wool knit pantsuit from the thirties is amazingly up to date. Another reason I would have liked to have seen a photo. Both books in this series are well worth the investment.

A useful book with a lot of patterns and illustrations, but no girdles patterns, which is a pity.