4577 "Santa Claus" Suit

The earliest date I've found for this pattern is 1923 and 1925 seems to be the last year this pattern was advertised in the newspapers.

This nice newspaper advertisement illustration is all about Christmas, and shows an elder sibling of our Rabbit pattern, here in his fetching new rompers.

Omaha (Nebraska) Daily News, Saturday December 1, 1923, page 5

The envelope and typeface lead me to believe that this pattern might have been manufactured by the Beauty Pattern Company (1188-90 Fulton Street, Brooklyn, New York.) 

The double-breasted coat gives Santa a rather official air; imagine two rows of shiny brass buttons!

Leggings rather than trousers would be quicker, less expensive, and probably fit a wider variety of Santas.

This unprinted pattern does not appear to have been used.

Merry Christmas, everybody!

Updated on December 24, 2024 with new information on the date of the pattern.

Universal Fashion Company 800 - Working Blouse

Universal Fashion Company

I've found several different founding dates for Universal Fashion Company, with the earliest date being 1881, though I've been unable to find newspaper advertisements for them before 1884.

Hartford (USA) Courant, p.1

Monday, January 7, 1884

Camden (New Jersey) Courier-Post,

Friday, March 7, 1884 p.4

Advertisements showing garments are very rare for Universal

The New York Times

Monday, May 4, 1885, p. 15 (in their Suplemento Hispano-Americano)

In the early years of the paper pattern industry there were many companies that flourished for a few years before going out of business or being absorbed by another company, but Universal was still in business in 1894. This advertisement provides a nice list of selling points.

Owensboro (Kentucky, US) Messenger

Saturday, January 6, 1894, p. 8

1894 would prove to be the last year that Universal patterns were advertised in newspapers.  By 1895 Universal was being sued by some of their agents who had been falsely promised exclusive territories, and by 1896 Universal was in turn suing to recover monies owed them by their agents. Universal's legal troubles persisted until about 1899 when they seem to disappear from the scene.

The Working Blouse

The term "blouse" when applied to men's garments confuses people today. When this pattern was made, the term was used for a men's outer garment. In English, the term survives today (just barely) in the term "middy blouse." 

The working blouse is a practical garment. It typically functioned as an over shirt, protecting the shirt underneath. The banded waist makes it safe to wear around machinery and keeps out dust or chaff. (1) 

Universal wasn't the only pattern company offering a working blouse pattern. In 1894, Butterick offered several working blouse patterns in its Delineator magazine.

The Delineator, April 1894, p. x

Note how Butterick uses the term  "jumper" interchangeably with "working blouse." Clothing terminology is always fluid.

The Merchant Tailor Museum has a very similar working blouse in their collection. The extensive piecing probably indicates a home-made garment.

Utilitarian garments such as the working blouse were good candidates for the early mens' ready-to-wear industry, which was boosted by the development of the sewing machine. (2) Levi Strauss offered a working blouse in its catalog as early as the 1870s, and this garment is thought to be an ancestor of their iconic denim jacket.

Several years ago JoAnn Peterson at Laughing Moon brought to my attention an eBay auction for a 19th century fireman's shirt that could have been made from this pattern, the cut was so similar.

Making the Working Blouse

Stay tuned!

Trade Card for Universal Fashion Company

(1) Eventually the working blouse and waist overalls would be combined into a single garment called a "working suit" or "union overalls."

(2) The men's ready-to-wear industry may have been given a boost by the American Civil War (1861-1865.) Once the demand for soldiers' clothes dried up, there would have been both capacity and skills in sizing and construction. Prior to what we understand today as ready-to-wear, garments like the working blouse were probably produced by the slops trade.

Originally posted July 27, 2008, updated September 30, 2024.

McCall 3298 - Men's Overalls

1920s. 

A nice basic bib-and-braces overalls pattern for the gentleman.  More research needs to be done into household management in order to understand the decision to make overalls rather than buy them.

And if you were struggling to decide whether to make these up in hickory cloth or denim (or perhaps white duck if the gentleman is a house painter,) McCall's helpfully offers...stripes or checks!

Whether or not this pattern has been used is a little difficult to interpret.  When I opened out the pattern pieces I discovered that the only pieces that had been cut were the front, the back, and the large pocket. Further, the front and back had been cut only down to about thigh-level.

What's going on here?  One idea that occurs to me is that this overalls pattern was used to make a bib apron.  I haven't yet found home sewing patterns for men's bib aprons as early as the 1920s, but butchers' and machinists' aprons do show up in the mail order catalogs of the period.  If this was the case here, my guess is that the inseams probably weren't cut in the fabric and the maker just dropped a line straight down.  But it's curious that the shoulder strap piece wasn't cut.

Simplicity 4683 - Men's, Boys' and Women's Apron

Mid 1940s.

This unprinted pattern dates to before 1946, as this is apparently when Simplicity started printing their patterns.

A nice, straightforward apron for the Gentleman and his Missus, who has also made Buddy a spiffy apron for his first Industrial Arts class.  Why the illustrator chose to show the Gentleman wearing a shop apron but gearing up for kitchen duty is a bit of mystery.  And that tiny little cookbook he's holding seems to be awfully entertaining.

Your fifteen cents really bought you a good, thoughtful design.  Note that the Men's and Boys apron is darted at the sides.  This will make the apron set close through the hips, which will probably make it safer by making it less likely to snag, and should also make it more efficient at keeping the wearer clean.

The handling of the shoulder straps and ties is clever.  The straps will adjust to almost any size or shape and don't require any hardware to fasten:

Note that the topstitching around the pockets and the edges make this a very sturdy garment.

No fabric recommendations are given, but the aprons in the illustration surely look like chambray.  Denim would also have been popular, and frequently came in the 35" width called out in the yardage requirements.

Here is the men's apron made up in denim:

Here are the side darts from the inside:

And here they are from the outside:

The instructions call for a small patch of fabric to be sewn in as a backing for the button holes on the sides.  You can see that I've sewn down the patch and stitched a rectangle to outline the buttonhole.  The button holes were worked by hand.

And in the event this apron ever wanders away, I've "branded" it.

In the future, I'd probably use a good-quality twill tape for the straps, rather than making them myself, since folding those narrow strips of denim resulted in a certain amount of questionable language as I repeatedly steamed my fingers.

This denim is wonderful to work with.  Made under the SAFEDenim brand, it's made entirely in the United States by farmers who are trying to produce a sustainable product.  Cotton is demanding of the soil and can require enormous amounts of pesticides, so producing this denim requires a lot of commitment from the farmers.  I don't know where you can buy yard goods, but if you're willing to commit to a 30 yard bolt, you can buy it from the web site.

You can get a free pattern for a very similar apron from the James Thompson web site, makers of my preferred pillow ticking.  (This apron would also look great made up in ticking.)

I'm delighted to report that Simplicity has re-issued this pattern as Simplicity 8151.  Get yours now before it goes out of print again!

Originally posted on June 8, 2011.  Additional material added to show the men's apron made up. Additional information provided on the re-print.

Patrone-Modele - Sport Ensemble

First half of the 1950s.  Mes amis, it is time to get the Citroen out of the garage and take a tour into the wine country to see the grape harvest.  Monsieur will be correctly dressed for the country in this sport ensemble of plus fours and jacket in wool.

The waist length jacket (blouson) is interesting.  In the Unites States, we've seen this style in working clothing as early as the late 19th century, with Cosmopolitan 800, the working blouse, and then around World War I, with Excella 1111, the men's jumper.  In the 1920s, even with the somewhat loose definition of "waist length," the style, now called a "windbreaker" shows up in outerwear for boys, Butterick 7031, and women, Butterick 7068.  By the 1930s, when the waist had risen just past normal to being a little high, the style was still popular, as seen in Pictorial Review 9051.  From here, it's a short hop of a few years to World War II and the British Army's re-design of its battle dress which included the waist-length jacket (also referred to as a blouse.) Today we typically refer to this style as an Eisenhower or Ike jacket, but it turns out that he himself borrowed the style from the British.

This is a nice interpretation, with a zip front closing, substantial pockets with flaps, and the large, wing-like spread collar so popular at the time.

The plus-fours are referred to simply as "pantalon" on the front of the envelope.  The slightly more detailed description on the back of the envelope calls them "culotte de golf," which Google Translate tells me is "knickerbockers."  It seems a slightly old-fashioned look, yet it must have been popular enough for Le Petit Echo de la Mode to produce a home sewing pattern for culotte de golf, particularly as patterns for men's clothing represent just a tiny fraction of their pattern offerings.

Although not visible in the illustration, by looking at the layout one sees that the fullness of these culotte de golf is darted into bands.

Even though it's tempting to explain away these plus-fours as a style for older gentlemen who had worn them in the 1930s and saw no reason to change, some fairly stylish interpretations of plus fours show up in the men's fashion magazine L'Homme in  Summer 1954 for young men, and as late as Spring-Summer 1959 for older men.  (Despite multiple searches in two languages, I've not yet been able to come up with any documentary evidence that french gentlemen actually wore plus fours for golfing in the 1950s.)

Source

Source

This unprinted pattern is unused.

And we're off!

1950s Citroen Traction Avant Six 15

McCall 5040 - Man's Pirate Costume

Early 1930s.  Another nice color illustration from McCall, very likely by the same illustrator who did our deadly handsome Spanish Gentleman.

Pirate movies seem to have been popular from the dawn of the film age - D.W. Griffith made one in 1909.  I'm not as knowledgeable about pirate movies of the 1920s and 1930s as I perhaps ought to be, so I can't tell if this gentleman is drawn from anybody specific.  Victor Fleming directed an adaptation of Treasure Island in 1934, about when this pattern was issued.

However, I think that McCall's pirate is close kin to Howard Pyle's elegant pirates in his Book of Pirates.  I suspect many gentlemen of the 1930s (forced by their wives to attend charity costume balls) would have known and loved Pyle's book when they were small boys swinging through the rigging of apple trees in their back yards.  (I highly recommend visiting the Project Gutenberg edition so that you can see all of Pyle's wonderful work.)

This printed pattern does not appear to have been used.  Note that the pattern includes pieces for not only the trousers, shirt, and vest, but also for the sash, kerchief, and splendidly floppy hat.

Happy Talk Like A Pirate Day, everybody!

McCall 1597 - Mr. and Mrs. Aprons hat and Mitts

1950

For your summer barbecue season we have another novelty apron.  The theme is consistent with other McCall novelty aprons we've seen - there is always a dog in there somewhere!  (See also McCall 2062 and McCall 957) This pattern shows up regularly for sale on eBay, so it may have been popular, or it may have been recommended for school or other sewing class use.

This is a perfectly good basic apron with nice deep pockets.  The bias binding while cheery, also strengthens the apron and will give the beginning maker some good experience in working with binding.

The maker cut out all the pattern pieces but decided not to tangle with the little upper pocket and just shoved it back in the envelope.

A close examination of the illustration reveals that this pocket is for your pack of cigarettes.

Although the pattern was used,  the transfers were not. (What? You don't want to spend time embroidering silly dogs on your apron?  Why ever not?)

McCall's 689 - Choir Cottas or Surplices

1939

I suspect that right about now there are many church choirs out there that are right up to their floppy bows in performances that involve extended lines of "Gloria" and "Halleluja," and "O Holy." In some cases their beautifully starched and pressed cottas represent the labor of the Ladies' Auxiliary.  With luck, the ladies would have been able to plan ahead and weren't slipping away from the Thanksgiving table to sew a just a few more hems to get the choir ready for the service for the first Sunday in Advent.

The boys in this choir from the 1930s look as though they're on the verge of making a run for the ice-cream truck (or just disintegrating into a scrum.)  Wouldn't you love to know what the photographer had just said?

This printed pattern has been used.

Note the little gussets under the arms - a relic of the ancestors of this garment.

Ullstein-Schnittmuster V 34 - BildhauerKittel

Based on the style of a women's dress pattern that was part of the same lot, my guess is the early 1920s.

Since I have no knowledge of German, I've relied on Google Translate to help me out here, so this post will be of a somewhat minimalist nature.

This is, apparently, a "sculptor's coat,"  which may be as generic a term as "artist's smock," or "shop coat." Available in sizes for both men and young men, this is a nice example of its kind.  Gathering the fronts and back into a yoke provides some additional ease, so that the coat could be worn over a suit jacket or a heavy sweater.  And you can't go wrong with four pockets!

Ullstein Verlag, a large publishing house based in Berlin, published Die Dame, a ladies magazine, and this line of home sewing patterns - a business model similar to that of McCall.

It's easy to imagine this smock being worn in the studios at the Bauhaus.

This perforated, unprinted pattern has been used.

Ladies Home Journal 1139 - Men's Overalls

1917.  What I most like about this pattern (after the brilliantined hair, the jaunty pose, and the spats) is the fact that the gentleman is wearing a tie.

This pattern was featured in an illustration in the November 1917 issue of Ladies' Home Journal entitled "Practical Work Clothes and so Easily Made."

This is an interesting style of overalls as there is no waist belt - the bib and trousers are cut in a single length.

Both the fly and the shoulder straps are buttoned.

This is an unprinted pattern.

When I unfolded the pocket piece, I found this fairly substantial thread of fabric.  Note that it's plied blue and white.  This is not typical of the yarns used to make denim, chambray, or hickory stripe.  If used in both the warp and weft, fabric made of this yarn would have had a mid-blue color, somewhat similar to chambray (even though the construction is different.) Because dyeing adds cost, plying dyed and undyed plies will eventually yield an economical fabric.  This contributes to an overall sense of the thrift of making work clothes at home.

Updated September 2015 with information from the Ladies Home Journal magazine.

Ladies' Home Journal 2452 - Men's and Youth's Overalls or Mechanics' Suit

By the style of the envelope, this one is probably the late 19-teens to the 1920s.

When you unite a shirt with a pair of pants, you get union overalls.  In the UK this garment is called a boiler suit.   The other major style of overalls would be the apron or bib-and-braces style, which we've seen with Pictorial Review 3701, Boys' Overalls.  Either of these garments is also called coveralls.  Confusingly, overall or coverall (singular) in some cases refers to a woman's apron or rarely, a shop coat.

Making a ladies' apron at home offers the maker some opportunities for self-expression, if she has the money for pretty fabric and the time to add embellishments such as rickrack or embroidery.

Making overalls at home, on the other hand, is purely about getting the gentleman suitably dressed for his job.  The 27" fabric width is common for denim at this time.  There is nothing easy about cutting out, basting, or sewing denim.  While treadle sewing machines handle multiple layers well, button holes will still have to be sewn by hand.   In some household economies, home-made overalls must have made more sense than placing an order from the Sears, Roebuck catalog.

This unprinted pattern has been used and subsequently led a hard life in storage - it's been a little mouse nibbled.

Here's a nice variety of overalls worn by the crack mechanical team of 1919 at the Haverford Cycle Company in Washington D.C.

Found at Shorpy