At my local funky used bookstore this weekend, I picked up this awesome $2 find: a "modern" sewing manual from 1932. "Sewing Secrets" introduces all the basics of professional sewing for the modern woman. Sigh ... it makes me nostalgic for a time when creative ability was an expected part of life.
This book dates from a time when a woman HAD to sew if she wanted to afford the dresses she saw on the silver screen or in magazines. Sewing was practical: a way to save money AND get the style she wanted.
"Our Grandmothers and Victorian Great Aunts hoped that their becoming costumes would appear to be happy accidents, and perhaps they were. The modern woman does not leave the matter to chance, nor does she waste time on sentiment about her stitchery and fine needle work. It is smart and becoming clothes that she wants and smart, well-finished things for the house. If all her reasons for sewing could be boiled down, that and her instinct for creative work would be the essence of them."
The booklet is packed with sweet line drawings of all the skills you need to sew your own wardrobe.
Embroidery stitches:
Different finishes for seams:
And the slightly creepier section on "Seven secrets of the professional furrier":
About 30 years ago, with the export of garment production to countries like China, the price of clothing in US and European stores began to drop through the floor. Now you can go shopping every weekend and spend $20 for a pair of jeans. No matter that they don't last through the year because they are made so cheaply; we aren't interested in keeping clothes in our wardrobes like the "modern woman" of 1932. We now live in an age that can afford disposable fashion.
To me, the saddest thing about all of this is summed up in the first paragraph of this booklet: the modern woman sews because of "her instinct for creative work".
In today's world of cheap fashion, we have lost our sense of creative expression. In choosing to shop based on whatever is on sale at the mall, we give up our freedom of choice. We buy what is already picked out for us. So few people today understand the thrill that comes from creating your own piece of clothing. Even a simple pattern is made personal by the choice of fabric, the last-minute whim to add a bit of embellishment, the satisfaction of solid craftsmanship.
As the anonymous writers of the booklet summarize: "It is her awareness of her self and her exact needs that helps her most when she goes forth to choose patterns and buy fabrics." Let us "go forth" with that same awareness!
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