Comments on: Patterns

By: Katie Litchfield

Katie Litchfield — Sun, 07 Aug 2016 21:31:49 +0000

Thank you for these links, they are very useful.

Just a s a note, the site “Sewing Central” is no longer in use.

By: Jennifer Rosbrugh

Jennifer Rosbrugh — Tue, 26 Jan 2016 16:28:18 +0000

In reply to Bridget. Thanks!

By: Bridget

Bridget — Tue, 26 Jan 2016 16:21:54 +0000

Made a mistake. This is the correct address for the archives. This should take you directly to the right page, the part of the website with De Gracieuse's archives. From there you can click "browse collection" then "year" and you'll be able to bring up all the issues from whichever year you pick. Anyone interested in historical fashion should check this out! The fashion plates alone are a great resource, and very fun to look through.

By: Bridget

Bridget — Tue, 26 Jan 2016 16:15:52 +0000

There is a Dutch site that has the entire archives of the fashion magazine De Gracieuse(which is like a Dutch version of Harper's Bazaar, Godey's Lady's, etc. It even has many of the same fashion plates as appeared in those publications). The archives span from 1862 to 1936, and many, many of the fashion plates are accompanied by sewing patterns. Most of the patterns are from around 1870 to the early 1900s. After that they stopped publishing patterns much. The site is all in Dutch, and it can be a bit confusing at first figuring out how the diagram labeling works. The pattern diagrams have many different pattern pieces all on top of one another to save space, which can also be confusing. Once you're used to looking at these diagrams however you'll find they're really not difficult to figure out. And get this, there are literally thousands of patterns on there! And all for free! Patterns for dresses, evening gowns, bodices, skirts, coats, all kinds of mantles, chemises, petticoats, corsets, corset covers, chemisettes, nightgowns, drawers, even some hat patterns! There's also hundreds of patterns for embroidery. For all that, it's worth the extra effort to learn how to decipher the diagrams! So far I've only used some of the simpler patterns for undergarments. Since I don't have a printer, I've had to trace patterns pieces directly off my phone. The patterns I've used so far I've been quite happy with. I expected I'd need a ton of alterations, because period patterns are often tiny. But the ones I've used have been really very good proportionally, and have been pretty much a breeze to fit. There are definitely some patterns in the archives with pieces missing or mistakes, but you can just avoid those. I'm really delighted with it overall as a source The address is geheugenvanederland.nl but I find it by doing a Google search for "Gracieuse Archives" and that gets me to the page I want. The site has a bunch of other stuff on it, art collections and such. And because it's in Dutch, finding the part of the site with the De Gracieuse archives can be tough. By just googling "Gracieuse Archives" you can get directly to the part of the site you want

By: John Richardson

John Richardson — Sun, 29 Mar 2015 17:31:37 +0000

found out about this site by accident. I am thrilled at the quantity of resources available here. This will make my efforts at reproduction clothing way more fun, and will upgrade the results even more. Thanks so very much. I plan to visit here often!!