While looking at local estate sale listings, a little one caught my eye. The person was a very avid vintage miniature sewing machine collector. In the pictures were probably close to a hundred tiny little sewing machines, and lots of cute little sewing throwback knick-knacks from the 80s through the early 2000s.
Although those aren’t really “my thing”, though I do have a few little ones my mom picked up across her travels, I know enough to know where there’s one type of thing, there may be others.
I had high hopes for actual antique patterns (I only found one), but I *did* find a few little antique fashion ephemera grab bags. And tucked inside a few of those were vintage and antique pattern advertisements.
The only issue was… they sort of looked like this.
Decades of being sloshed around, through unknown collections, left them completely falling apart on the fold line. But if you asked someone in 1919 if they thought someone would care about their little newspaper flyer for pattern advertising, it’s likely that they would doubt it!
So, I had a little puzzle. Not a bad one, but one in which I had to match the top side to the lower side of the little flyer.
Pictorial Review Patterns can be a little challenging to date, as the magazine wasn’t in publication as long as those of McCall, etc. The patterns were made from about 1899-1939 (fourty years). So it’s always exciting to find something which can help pattern collectors date their antique originals. The majority of patterns were never marked with the publication date (see this post about patent vs copyright), which can make accurate dating tricky.
Here’s the first four pages of the Pictorial Review Patterns flyer from April, 1919.
The front cover, featuring Pictorial Patterns 8230, 8249, 8253.
The inside front cover, featuring embroidery patterns which could be used to embroider or bead dresses, blouses, caps, collars, bibs, and cuffs. There’s also an advertisement for the “Spring Fashion Book,” which was more of a glossy magazine version of seasonal designs, rather than the newspaper-style monthly that we have here.
As you can see, someone loved a design so the next few pages are missing a chunk. But on this page are listed patterns number 8245, 8211, 8252, 8241, 8240, 8259, 7922, 12193, 8235, 7886, 12426, 8248, 8215, 8254, 7830. Notice that the transfer patterns have five numbers, while the dress patterns have four numbers.
There’s also a slogan at the bottom of each page telling you why you should buy Pictorial Review Patterns. Some of these are themed to the World War, which just had ended.
This is another page of great dresses and blouses. On this page are pattern numbers 8259, 8225, 8256, 8192, 7735, 8209, 8132, and 7926. We also have back views for pattern numbers 8034, 8132, 7910, 8240, 8192, 8209, 7926, 7735, 8225, 8256, and 8259.
Notice the WWI patriotic message at the bottom of this page: “We Must All Help in Reconstruction Work. Read in Pictorial Review What Women are Doing.”
I supply the numbers here in case anyone is researching their pattern collection. That way it has more likelihood of popping up in an internet search.
We will go over the next four pages next time!
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