Vintage Craft Book Feature: Art of Dressmaking (1927)

Another of my many needlework hobbies is the collection of vintage craft books.  Found in dusty corners of second hand shops, in pride of place in used book stores, these old tomes often contain beautiful nuggets of crafting wisdom, and a heaping helping of vintage charm.  Reviving the techniques, tips and retro projects is just one more way for us to bring back the wonders of the handmade.

Art of Dressmaking- 1927

A fair bit older than most of my craft book finds, this one is a real treasure.  This book is small, but filled cover to cover with good advice and instruction on many topics of sewing and dressmaking, and step by step guides for many types of beautiful detail work. It is also filled with wonderful illustrations with a good dose of 1920's charm.

I feel like Paris wasn't then and isn't now the only place that people do this.  Although our dressing rooms are probably a lot less fancy now.

I wish my sewing room and table were this neat and organized, and that I had such a large cutting table to work on.  These illustrations accompany a chapter on how to set up a good sewing space, tips for how and where to cut fabric, and how to hand sew without getting a crick in your neck.  All very good information that I feel a lot of modern books leave out.

Also among the things you won't find in a modern book unless it is specifically about cotoure dressmaking is how to do things such as sewing a rolled seam in sheer fabrics, and gathered darts.  Lots of little dressmaking tips and tricks like these are spelled out with illustrations, and surrounded by guidance on how and where to use them.

While a lot of the fashion advice is nearly 100 years out of relevance, the techniques and instructions are not, and there is a lot of good information to be found in this little book.  Much less of a coffee table visual than some of the other books I've featured, but much more of a solid resource of instruction.

I imagine it was much easier to make dress forms back then when nobody had any curves.