May Manton 6599 - Boy's Base Ball Suit

1910. This patterns seems to have been advertised in the newspapers only in 1910, but appeared in newspapers across the country, from St. Albans, Vermont to Butte, Montana.

The ad from Butte provides some nice details in the ad copy.

Note the padded pants, a feature that seems to have originated in the 1880s and disappeared around the first World War, as far as I can tell from looking at high school team photos of the period. (1)  The advertisement notes that "padded trousers mean smartness and correct costume quite as well as protection, and they are sure to be in demand."

The pull-over shirt is a pretty standard outing shirt design, with three sleeve options: long, short, and convertible. (We've seen these convertible sleeves before, with Pictorial Review 5969) According to the advertisement, the lower sleeves are removed when the game is in progress. 

The advertisement recommends serge, flannel, and khaki as appropriate materials.

Although the uniform could be made for team play, a baseball suit could simply be made for a baseball-mad boy, in his favorite team's colors.

Despite the ad copy's assertion that "There is really very little labor involved in the making of such a costume..." consider the amount of work involved in making this uniform: colored facings are sewn to the shirt; button holes must be worked (by hand) for the convertible sleeves, the shirt, and the fly front of the pants; the pants must have padding sewn into them; the cap is lined, and team insignia patches or appliques would be sewn on.

Could you buy boys' baseball uniforms? Indeed you could. In Wichita Kansas, F. G. Orr Book and Stationery Co. could set you up for as little as 98 cents.

The D. B. Loveman Company in Chattanooga, Tennessee put their boys' baseball suits on sale in August, with both the $1.00 and $1.25 suits going for only 69¢

Chattanooga (Tennessee) Daily Times, Friday, August 5, 1910, p. 10.

A few years later in 1912, Sears Roebuck offered stock uniforms for boys for $1.50 on p. 923 of their catalog.

Using the same 1912 catalog, the cost of the materials for making a uniform looks like this:

Item                                        Cost

May Manton Pattern 6599                     10¢

White wool flannel 27" wide @ 18¢/yd        95¢

Buttons from the 2¢ sale page                2¢

Spool of Clark's sewing thread*              4¢

TOTAL                                    $1.11  

* Sears sold thread by boxes of a dozen spools. Assume a single spool could be bought locally for about 4¢.

This excludes the padding for the pants, which could probably be made from odds and ends of quilt batting, and of course, the value of the time to sew the uniform.

And because I know you'll ask, here is what the cap pieces look like.

 

The three perforated crosses in the brim indicate where it's placed on the fold of the material.  It's interesting to see that the cap sections are shorter toward the fronts, which will give the cap a jaunty set. I've been told this is a "Boston" style cap, but it looks like it could also be a "New York" style. May Manton were based in New York City.

This pattern was available in sizes for 8 to 14 years. I wonder if an adult pattern was available that would fit older boys in high school as well as men playing in their local leagues.

"B C", I assume, very cleverly stands for "Ball Club,"  but wouldn't it have been fun if the illustrator had had the imagination to use "M M?"

(1) See the history of baseball uniform pants on the web site for the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Originally posted on May 5, 2012. Updated on March 16, 2025.

May Manton 1015 - Design for embroidering a case for rubber over shoes

19-teens.

Another entry for the Pointless Handwork category.  As the autumn rains have started here, my mind turns to keeping my feet dry.  I don't possess overshoes, but if I did, I might make up and embroider a case for them.

It's not too late to make up a few rubber over shoes cases for Christmas giving.  Astonish your friends and family with your thoughtfulness and stubborn disregard for reality.

May Manton 906 - Embroidery for Corset Bag

Best guess is the 19-teens or a little earlier.

This one is in the category of "Who knew?"  Who knew that ladies made bags for their corsets? Who knew that they then embroidered them? (and even spent money on transfer patterns for the designs!)

Interestingly, this pattern for embroidering a long, narrow bag probably dates to a period when corsets had reached a rather extreme length.  The Metropolitan Museum of Art dates this fine example to 1917-1919.

Metropolitan Museum of Art

In 1910 the magazine The Women's Home Companion offered kits for laundry bags, sponge bags, and corset bags, in stamped linen in pink, blue, lavender, or white.  "A most useful set of bags either for the college girl or for the home girl...These bags are especially useful for traveling and they would make a very pretty gift for birthday or Christmas. The stamped linen bag would set you back 40 cents.  Fifteen cents more would get you the thread and the cord.

Womens Home Journal, 1910

Particularly when packing corsets for traveling, the laces, stud-and-loop busks, and the garters all had the potential to snag, so the corset bag protected a lady's frillies from her corset.  But protecting the corset itself is important as well.  Good quality corsets could be quite expensive, and a lady might have several.  As well as an "everyday" corset, a lady might have one suitable for evening clothes, or a flexible, lighter-weight model for summer or sports wear.  I assume that each bag was design to hold only a single corset.

May Manton's 8815 - Men's and Youth's Pajamas

At a guess, 1915 to 1920.

Chilly weather is upon us, so new flannel pajamas seem like a good idea.  Though one-piece pajamas are common for children, I was a little surprised to see them offered for men.   The option for short sleeves would indicate that some men wore these in summer.  In this case, they'd be made of a light cotton fabric.

The little chart showing chest measurement and the corresponding neck measurement is helpful to have around, since some shirt patterns at this period give only the neck measurement.

May Manton's 7853 - Bathing Suit

About 1912-1915.

This bloomer-and-dress style was popular from about the 1880s to about 1920. The vaguely empire lines of this model are consistent with dress styles of the mid teens.

The June 6th, 1915, the New York Times included a wonderful article about the season's styles in bathing suits. Which starts off "probably the majority of women who love the surf will bathe this Summer, as in other Summers, in suits of black or blue." But in 1915, brightly colored silks were popular. Bathing shoes came in both high boot styles, such as our model is wearing, and low slipper styles.

My edition of The Women's Institute booklet Miscellaneous Garments, copyright 1917, recommends making bathing suits of "Flannel, serge, alpaca and similar woolen materials..." The author states that a successful bathing suit "should be generously full, though not baggy nor clumsy."

Proper headgear is important. According to the New York Times, rubber bathing caps were decorated with rubber flowers, and in 1914 it became fashionable to wear corsages of these rubber flowers in colors to match or harmonize with one's bathing suit.

According to The Women's Institute, over a snug-fitting rubber cap, one wears "...a cap of lightweight material that harmonizes" [with the bathing suit.] Also "...by observing the instructions given for house or boudoir caps...no difficulty will be encountered in developing them." The cap that our model is wearing is very much in the boudoir cap mode.

The booklet also gives detailed instructions for tying a silk square over one's rubber bathing cap in the newest butterfly or "aeroplane" style

May Manton's 8820 - Work Apron

1915-1916.  This is the first pattern I've seen for a front buttoned work apron, making this closer to the smocks that we see in the 1920's than to the back-closing work aprons we've seen up until now.

You can glean some interesting details about May Manton (the nom de plume of  Jessie Swirles Bladworth) in Women's Periodicals in the United States.  May Manton patterns were a sort of spin-off of McCall patterns.  Presumably all the involved parties thought that there was room in the home sewing market for yet another pattern company.  To my eye, May Manton patterns don't have quite the polish of McCall patterns, so perhaps they were aimed at a different sector.

The newspaper advertisement for this pattern provides some interesting details. The pattern is being marketed to both the "housewife and artist."

Rome (New York) Daily Sentinel, Tuesday, November 2, 1915, page 9

By 1915 most sewing patterns included the seam allowances, but the May Manton pattern notes that it also "gives the true basting line." May Manton apparently believed that providing the basting line (the eventual seam line) on their patterns was a worthwhile feature, which they note on both the pattern envelope and in their advertising.

Sewing instruction manuals at this time always include instructions for the different types of basting stitches and guidance on when they should be used.

Clothing for Women, Selection, Design, Construction, 1916, page 208

Whether hand sewing or machining, hand-basting has some advantages to pin basting. It's less liable to distort the fabric than pinning, particularly on curved seams like necklines. Also, as long as you've knotted your threads properly, basting is more durable than pinning, as there are no pins to be accidentally pulled out or snagged on other items.

The basting line is mentioned again in the description as being a feature that will allow the garment to be "put together in a very brief space of time."

The description for the illustration calls this a "Work Bungalow" apron. "Bungalow Apron" is a bit of marketing term at a time when Sears Roebuck offered kits to build your own bungalow, then a great middle class aspiration. (1) The earliest reference I've found to the bungalow apron thus far dates to 1909, when it was described as becoming more popular than studio style aprons, though sewing patterns for studio aprons continue to be offered through the nineteen teens. (2)

Finally, the description notes that the garment in the illustration is made up in "checked gingham with trimmings of plain chambray."

In 1915, apron checks from the well-known Amoskeag mills could be purchased on sale for as little as 7 cents per yard. (3)

Beatrice (Nebraska) Daily Sun, Saturday, October 2, 1915, page 6

Assuming these checks were 36" wide, buying enough gingham for an apron would set you back 37 cents. The pattern retailed for 10 cents in stores, or for 12 cents if ordered by mail.

In December 1915, you could buy a Bungalow All-Over apron for 50 cents at the Chamberlain & Patterson Co. (4)

Natchez (Mississippi) Democrat, Sunday, December 12, 1915, page 5

If you were in Fresno, California, you could purchase an Amoskeag Gingham Bungalow Apron on sale for the very reasonable price of 29 cents (regularly 50 cents.) The kimono sleeves (cut in one with the body) indicate a simpler construction than the May Manton work apron with its set-in sleeves.

The Fresno (California) Morning Republican, Saturday, June 12, 1915, page 2

During 1915-1916 The periodical School Arts ("An illustrated publication for those interested in art and industrial work") ran a monthly feature profiling a selection of patterns that would appealing to (and suitable to) high school aged girls.  This pattern was featured in the April 1916 issue as one of May Manton's "practical spring patterns."

Layout is given for 36" wide fabric only. Note that provision has been made for piecing the back.

Originally posted on 3/25/2009, updated on 12/24/2024.

(1) If you watched the series Boardwalk Empire, you'll recall a bungalow kit home project gone horribly wrong.

(2) Even as late as the 1990s bungalow aprons were mentioned with humor or nostalgia as a quaint garment one's grandmother used to wear. "Like a pillow slip with sleeves" is a good description of a 1920s' bungalow apron.

(3) The New Hampshire Historical Society has masses of swatches from the Amoskeag Mills, but alas, they haven't been digitized yet.

(4) The Amoskeag checked aprons mentioned here are surely standard waist aprons.

May Manton's 8904 - Work Apron

The important feature to note here is the cross-over front.  If the company was working through their pattern numbers in roughly sequential order, this one would be about 1915.    I've recently acquired a four page newspaper insert for May Manton patterns dated July 1916 and the pattern numbers are in the very low 9000s.

Notice how similar this pattern is to the uniform being worn by these women. (You'll need to blow up the image a bit to see the cross over fronts, but they are certainly there!)

The same basic cross-over style was used for McCall Pattern 7986, which Past Patterns offers in a blue line copy, and this style will continue to show up into the thirties, when it gets a name of its own.

May Manton 9510 - Comfort Kit

Comfort kits are not all that complicated to make and instructions for them with measured line drawings were published in magazines during WWI, so it's a little unusual to see a manufactured pattern for one. Why the Newark (N.J.) chapter of the Red Cross was favored is a mystery.

This pattern appears never to have been used. The insert of suggested items for filling the comfort kit was still enclosed.

For those of you who'd like to try making your own comfort kit, here are some detailed scans for you to download and enlarge or print out and grid up for hand enlarging.  Notice that the longest dimension is 33", and the layout diagram shows the kit being laid crosswise (selvedge to selvedge.)   The one fabric that I know that is still available in this width is pillow ticking, which is a very suitable fabric for this purpose.

February 7th, 2017 - Added detailed scans.