Formal February, 1936

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Just a quick little post today, as I want to squeak this in before the end of February. Here’s a peek at fashionable evening gowns to sew in February, 1936. Can you believe this was eighty nine years ago?

These images come from a spread in Pictorial Review Magazine, February, 1936. Pictorial Review was, of course, the name of a sewing pattern company as well. Although the company was producing patterns earlier, in the 1920s, Pictorial Patterns found a clever way to combine the new innovation of pattern printing (patent owned by McCall for the fully-printed pattern) with perforations (holes for markings). This combination would later be used by Simplicity until they transitioned to the fully printed pattern in the late 1930s/early 40s after the McCall patent expired. For my next post, I may re-post a prior blog post explaining what patents were when you find them on old sewing patterns.

Pictorial Review Magazine featured the sewing patterns in their fashion spreads. Many magazine companies did the same in this period, so this is an excellent way to date home sewing patterns which otherwise do not have a date on the envelopes. Most major sewing pattern companies had some sort of magazine marketing partnership. Vogue had Vogue Patterns, McCall had McCall Patterns, and Ladies Home Journal, previously selling Ladies Home Journal patterns, transitioned to Simplicity patterns and also Hollywood patterns, sometime in the 1930s, I believe.

These Pictorial Review evening gowns, therefore, were ready to be made at home with the accompanying sewing pattern number.

 In this issue we have:

• 8129
• 8117
• 8120
• 8139
• 8126
• 8119 (see the pattern cover on Vintage Pattern Wiki)

As you can see, these do have somewhat consecutive numbering, with the first two numbers being “81…”. Occasionally, you may see a pattern from the months or even year prior, and usually this will have the first two numbers being a sequence which is prior to the majority.

I love that it says, “You may be sure when you make them that they are the smartest clothes in town– but what’s more important is that all this chic may be achieved without the least bit of difficulty and at little expense, if you choose the right materials and make these frocks yourself.”

As someone who has experimented with several 1930s gowns, myself, I can attest that a lot of the success of my various projects did rely a lot on what fabrics I chose. Do you find the same for your own projects?

Luckily, after every description they say what fabrics they have chosen. And although we may not know what “Truhu silk”, “Mallinson chiffon”, “Stunzi silk” all feel like, we can get an idea of what fabrics they suggest for each design.

At upper right are mentioned lame, satin, velvet, sheer crepe, and chiffon.

Of course, being the 1930s, the descriptions are not quite what we might use today, but it’s interesting that they give styling tips for those who would be adapting these styles to their home sewing life, and their own particular town.

That’s all the news for today. Hope you all have a wonderful week!