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Plastic buttons quickly took over and have remained popular ever since.  Nothing is quicker to bring out a “aww…isn’t that cute” reaction than a beautifully made realistic button.  There are a number of artisans making realistic buttons today from kiln fired or Fimo clay.  Here are some examples from etsy.com. 

Kiln Fired Clay Realistic Buttons

Fimo Clay Buttons

Vogue Designer Pattern

Vogue Patterns are known for their exclusive couture designs–the first pattern company to license and reproduce the designs of couture designers. While other pattern companies have tried to imitate Vogue with designer patterns, Vogue still epitomizes the finest in designer patterns.

Vogue Pattern Company is one of the oldest still surviving pattern companies. It began in 1899, when VOGUE magazine published a weekly pattern feature, purchased by mail order. By 1905 the publisher established a separate pattern department. In 1909 the company was purchased by Conde Nast who formed the Vogue Pattern Company in 1914. Department stores started selling the patterns in 1916. World War I had halted the production of French couture designs and Vogue featured American designers. In the 1920s, Vogue magazine covered designs from French designers like Coco Chanel and Jean Patou.

Vogue Couturier

While Vogue Pattern Book  featured “couturier” patterns as early as 1937, these patterns were not exact reproductions of actual styles. Vogue Patterns made news in the fashion industry by announcing the availability of Paris Original Models in 1949, featuring leading French Couturiers Balmain, Schiaparelli, Lanvin and Jaques Fath. It was the first time originals from the Paris couture had been duplicated in pattern form. Vogue Patterns became the only pattern company licensed to produce designs from the world leading couturiers, establishing a precedent which continues today. Since that time Vogue has continued to produce highly desirable couture designs. Here’s a brief synopsis:

• 1960s – Fashion’s trendsetters emulated the minimal elegance of First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy. The popularity of American designers led to the introduction in 1967 of Vogue’s “Americana” patterns, a collection of signature styles which include Oscar de la Renta, Teal Traina, and Chester Weinberg. Customer favorites include Calvin Klein, Donna Karan, Anne Klein, Geoffrey Beene, Bill Blass, and Oscar de la Renta.
• mid-1970s  – Italian and English designers, including the popular Bellville-Sassoon, were added. Styles by Yves Saint Laurent and Hubert de Givenchy are still among the company’s best sellers.
• 1984 – “Vogue Individualist” program created a showcase for emerging young designers whose international style appealed to a more fashion-forward customer. Many of these designers, including Issey Miyake, Isaac Mizrahi and Claude Montana, later joined the ranks of fashions established innovators.
• 1990 – “Vogue Individualist” was replaced by “Vogue Attitudes”, a program which introduces today’s home sewers to the current generation of fashion talent. Designers like Anna Sui, Byron Lars and Isabel Toledo have a unique approach to addressing the needs of their specific customers, and are attuned to the demands of busy, clothes-conscious women of the 90s.

Vintage Crochet Doily Pattern

lately. The first thing that comes to mind when looking at these old patterns are our grandmother’s homes, which were filled with these decorative gems everywhere. Many of us associate them with old fashioned charm, but don’t see them as relevant for today’s crochet. However, what’s old becomes new again. I believe that we’re about to see a revival of the old patterns, repurposed for new uses. The same basic designs can be made into a fashion bag, or worked into a vest or sweater. So put on your thinking cap and look at these patterns in a new way.

The old crochet doily patterns are made in one of three ways:

• Filet crochet Filet crochet is worked in panels. Panels can be joined together to make up your garment or bag project.
• Crocheted Doily Pattern in rounds To make doilies in rounds doesn’t mean that all of them have to have a round shape. Using crocheting in rounds technique you can make doilies of different geometrical shapes: round, rectangular, square, triangle, ans etc. These can be joined to make larger items.
• Crochet a Doily from motifs. There are no any restrictions for your creativity when you use patterns of doilies of motifs. Zillions of shapes, techniques, ways to connect motifs together, possibility to combine different materials allow you to create unique art work. Just don’t be afraid to experiment.

Inspiration for this post is due to Smart Knit Crocheting. Feel free to visit this site for more inspiration.

The term “rockabilly” of course comes from the music world, with Elvis, Buddy Holly, Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins,and Johnny Cash as leading creators of the rebellious sound. The fashion for men followed the dress and hairstyles of the musicians with Daddy-O shirts,baggy jackets, slacks and creeper shoes.

Form Fitting Blouses-Rockabilly Style

But the women were a different story. They were rebellious and sexy. They literally wore the attitude that rules are meant to be broken. Many fashions of that day included form fitting blouses (gingham was popular) and straight mid knee skirts that showed off sleek long legs.

Swing Dress-Rockabilly Style

Also popular were swing dresses that were lower cut at the top to show off a little bustline and a flare to the skirt to allow for movement when dancing. And the rockabilly style brought pants for women into public wear. This was new and rebellious. The form fitting pedal pusher or capri revolutionized women’s clothing.

Pedal Pushers

And then there are the styles made popular by Pinups like Marilyn Monroe, Bettie Page and Jayne Mansfield.  Hoo, boy…They deserve a blog post of their own…to come sometime in the future.

I browsed the catalog and found 341 items of couture fashion clothing plus scarves, purses and jewelry lots. There are 615 lots total. Lots of 60s era fashion eye candy!

Vintage Couture and Accessories
9:00 AM PT – Apr 19th, 2009
3 days
offered by
Leslie Hindman Auctioneers

1338 West Lake Street
Chicago, IL 60607

Such fun to look! and you can register to bid if you just can’t resist trying for an item you can’t live without!

Du Pont and ICI were the giants of synthetic manufacture producing a wide range of fabrics under trade names relating to Polyamide (nylon), Polyesters, Polyurethanes, Polyolefins and Polyacrylonitriles. Polyamide is nylon. It came under trade names such as Nylon 6, Celon, Enkalon, Perlon, Bri-Nylon, Cantrece and others. Polyester was known variously as Terylene, Dacron, Terlenka, Trevira, Kodel, Diolen, Tergal and Lavsan. Polyurethane is the generic name of the elastomeric family of stretch fibres like Spandex, Lycra and Spanzelle.

You can find a list of Advance pattern numbers and the associated image at the vintage sewing patterns wiki.  If you have an image and number to add, you can also do that.

NorthernWarm YoYo Maker

In case you haven’t noticed, yo yo’s are experiencing a revival! 

There are new yo yo makertools out to make yo yos easier to make, and I’m seeing tutorials everywhere on the web showing you how to make them.  The best one that I’ve found is by Heather Bailey.

Yo yos were very popular in the 1930s and 40s when folks made quilts (more accurately coverlets) from them. The lovely scraps of 30s and 40s prints became colorful scrappy quilts. You find these quilts by themselves without backing and mounted onto a backing. Sometimes you’ll find them in a pillow.
Yo yos can be made from any kind of fabric that will lie flat when gathered. Used clothing in interesting prints, scraps from a clothing project or fabric squares bought for their colors are all used in making yo yos. Look for already made yo yos online on etsy and eBay.

NorthernWarmThings

INeedThat

Here’s a quote on use of buttons for the era.

Button use will really depend on the garment; flat trouser buttons work for trousers, but you’d be more likely to see four-hole white china buttons (sometimes called “milk glass”) on a boy’s white shirt or underdrawers, or white or calico buttons (color-patterned with a tiny design) on a boy’s print shirt, for instance. A boy’s wool coat might use a self-fabric covered button, or even (non-military) molded metal buttons. So it all depends on the garment and its use, as well as the economic level of the family. For girls, look at white four-hole buttons for undergarments (petticoats, drawers). White china seem to be the most common for those garments, and four-hole buttons can be stitched on securely making an X in front and a square on the back, which is very strong and stable (instructions are included in the pattern booklets). For dresses, I’ve yet to see any girl’s dress from the period that uses carved wooden buttons myself, or any notes that recommend them. This makes sense once you take into account laundry methods: wooden buttons do not long survive a cycle of boiling and scrubbing! They dry out and crack and crumble. The most common buttons for girl’s everyday cotton dresses seem to be the plain or patterned china buttons, quite small (under 1/2″), and fairly numerous (every inch or so). That’s *IF* buttons are used as the back closure; another totally valid option is closing a girl’s dress with hooks and eyes (not bars) down the back, which makes them a bit more flexible, size-wise, as you don’t have to cut permanent holes into the back placket to set hooks, as you do with buttons. I’d avoid wooden and most metal buttons for girl’s dresses. Small mother-of-pearl buttons can work (from 3/8″ to just less than 1/2″); avoid anything plastic looking, which generally rules out most of the button selection in my town…. which is why I tend to opt for hooks/eyes for my own girls. Ebay can be a good spot for button purchases sometimes, though you’re bidding against collectors in many cases. Vintage store stock of some of the basic calico or white china buttons are quite sturdy, so long as you don’t send them through a modern dryer (gets them hot, and makes them more brittle.) If you’re having trouble finding suitable buttons, just go with a #2 or #3 hook and eye. One exception to the “no wooden buttons” idea is the seed button–but that’s not a generalized item, and fits with late-war Southern Blockade ersatz scenarios, not into generalized norms for girl’s dress closures mid-century.