Vogue 590 - Misses' Dress and Top

Early 1980s. This pattern was also issued by Vogue as number 8826 with the same cover artwork. Today it shows up frequently on eBay and Etsy.

Born in England on October 8, 1928, Erica Wilson graduated from the Royal School of Needlework in 1948 before moving to the United States in 1954. She became well-known for her newspaper column, books, needlepoint kits (some in association with the Metropolitan Museum of Art) and her television show on PBS.  At that time there were few other books available on traditional smocks and smocking, particularly in the United States.

A similar smock was featured in Wilson's 1981 book Erica Wilson's Needlework to Wear, on pages 50 and 78.

This pattern would have appealed to Wilson's fans during a period of nostalgia for "traditional" crafts. Folkwear published their English smock pattern at about the same time as the Vogue pattern.

While the pattern is for a women's garment which Vogue refers to a dress or top, originally this garment was called a "smock frock." Smock frocks, some of them beautifully embroidered as well as smocked, were worn by agricultural laborers in parts of England during the nineteenth century. As farming became increasingly mechanized throughout the century, smock frocks would have been unsafe to wear around agricultural equipment and eventually became obsolete. (1)

A surprising number of the nicest smock frocks eventually ended up in museums. Subsequently, smocking itself has had periods of popularity over the years, often for children's clothes. I recall having a smocked dress when I was a small child.

The Vogue pattern hews pretty closely to traditional smocks' construction composed of rectangles of fabric. The shaped yoke and sleeve are seen in some later traditional smocks and for a modern wearer provide a slightly better fit through the upper body.

In addition to the construction instructions, extensive instructions are provided for the smocking and the embroidery.

This printed pattern is unused.

(1) The best recent work on the history of the smock is Alison Toplis's The Hidden History of the Smock Frock. 

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.

McCall 1886 Ladies' and Misses' Smock

After 1931, as this is the last patent date on the envelope.

Here's another beautiful embroidered smock from the 1930s.  See McCall 4531 for a somewhat earlier and simpler smock, and  McCall 603 for a late '30s offering.  A price of forty-five cents makes this a somewhat expensive pattern.  At this period inexpensive DuBarry and Simplicity patterns were available for 15 cents, while an undecorated smock from Vogue was available for 25 cents.

This version, with its dropped shoulder line, standing collar (View A), and "primitive" geometric embroidery motifs seems to borrow from folk or regional dress.  The shaped pockets unusual.

Recommended materials include linen, cotton, silk, and wool jersey.  The recommendation for silk or wool jersey is interesting, as these fabrics would require some care in laundering, moving us away from a strictly utilitarian garment even without the extensive embroidery.

The embroidery is to be executed with tapestry wool or perle cotton.  The colors recommended for View A are gold, black, and white;  for View B, which is made up in "natural linen," coral, purple, and bright green are used; for View C pale green, orange, and dark blue.  Note that the seams and hems are all embroidered - a lot of work!

This pattern has been cut with the exception of the tie belt.  The transfers are unused.  We saw this preservation of the transfers in McCall 603, so while the beautiful embroidery may have been a selling point, and the buyer paid a premium price for the pattern to get the transfers, not all makers had that much commitment to their projects.

McCall 603 - Ladies' and Misses' Smocks

1938 or a year or two later.

Another fine example supporting my belief that the 1930's produced some of the best design ever.

The white smock is embroidered, while the two calla lily smocks are appliqued with embroidered details.  The addition of the pleats creates a trim line on a garment that is fundamentally the same as most other smock patterns.

This is not a work-a-day smock.  Unlike many of the other smocks we've seen, the layout for this one doesn't indicate a need to do any piecing.  (Even Simplicity 2291, a very sophisticated design of roughly the same period, shows you how to piece the sides.)  The amount of embroidery and applique shown would take quite a bit of time to complete.  Yet the illustrator wants us to remember that this is still a utilitarian garment; Madame Brown Smock is armed with her bowl and spoon (I always wear heels when cooking, don't you?)

As illustrated, this smock may represent economy of materials, but certainly not of time spent in the construction and embellishment.  Note that an undecorated version of the smock isn't shown.  In this case, however, the pattern has been used but the transfers and applique pieces have not.  If the maker was persuaded to buy this pattern because of the decoration, when it came down to it, she didn't have the time or interest for it.

I can never look at calla lilies without remembering Katherine Hepburn in Stage Door, which released in 1937.

McCall 4531 - Ladies' and Misses' Smock

About 1927-1928.  I bought this one because of the beautiful illustration.  I made this up recently in a print fabric, so I didn't use the transfer for the embroidery on the collar and pocket bands.  If I'd been thinking about it, I might have done the collar, cuffs, and pocket bands in a solid color.  Well, perhaps next time.

I can't speak highly enough of the drafting of McCall patterns of this period.  The smock practically put itself together.  The biggest puzzle was the button placement.  The pattern piece didn't indicate where buttons or button holes should be placed.  I looked at a somewhat later smock pattern and from that one discovered that only the buttons closer to the edge are functional; the others are decorative.  I used the illustration as a guide for the buttons.

The sharp eyed among you will notice that the pockets aren't level with one another.  This is why it's probably best for me not to sew too late into the night.  I had cut the pockets without regard for pattern matching and then discovered (after I'd sewn on the bands) that I had a little problem.  I have no idea why I didn't just cut another pocket.  Instead, I matched the pattern for each pocket and let symmetry fly out the window.  It is, after all, a gardening smock and in a year or so should be grubby enough that nobody will notice.

The one thing that struck me as strange was that after the sleeve was pleated, it was then gathered into the cuff.  I don't think I've ever had to do this before:

The fabric is by Windham Fabrics, from their Vintage Euro Garden line.