For this month's Fashion Friday we have a link to a fabulous website with an index of Edwardian to WWI Sewing Books.
Well worth the perusal!
Enjoy
The Victorian Society of Alberta
Free Edwardian-WWI Era Sewing Books
This blog post is meant to be an index for helping you to access free sewing books on Archive.org from the 1900-1910s. These sewing manuals would originally have been used in conjunction with paper sewing patterns of this period.
Why Sewing Books? Can’t I Just Read the Pattern?
Well, you can… kind of. If you have sewn with original sewing patterns, or reproductions of them, you know that they can be very vague. Sewing instructions of this period, if they existed at all, would have been a few short, written paragraphs with no illustrations. Butterick had the patent on the illustrated instructions, and patterns from about the mid-1910s on have a few simple illustrations but can still be quite vague. Short version: Don’t expect any patterns of this period to have in-depth instructions! They were mostly a suggestion rather than a walk-through. I always suggest in my patterns that readers reference the free period sewing books available online. There is a plethora of them!
Using these sewing books in conjunction with the antique patterns is how our predecessors would have approached their sewing projects. Sewing was also a technical skill that would have been passed down through the generations, or part of a home economics program. Since most students no longer have access to home economics, we are lucky to have a written record of techniques. Pre-20th century books would loosely explain technique, but not always illustrate. As printing technology advanced, so, too, did the practical sharing of knowledge. You may find books reaching towards the 1920s have more in-depth instruction, though I have not previewed each link.
Special note: don’t discount books that were addressed towards children. They have valuable information regardless of age, and sewing would have been a skill taught to girls as part of their education during this period. If you’re learning to sew from scratch, starting with the lessons in a girls’ sewing book could help walk you through the basics (and I say girl’s simply because that’s how the period addressed them- I obviously think sewing is open to anyone!)
Please keep in mind that I haven’t previewed all these books and the information and beliefs expressed within are indicative of the period in which they originated (true when viewing any historical primary source documents). Even sewing books can sneak in some cringeworthy content, so don’t be surprised…
Here are a selection of some sewing books available on Archive.org.
1901: Home and School Sewing
1901: Longman’s Complete Course of Knitting, Needlework, and Cutting Out
1903: The Art of Dressmaking at Home and in the Workroom
1904: Manual of Exercises in Hand Sewing
1904: Margaret J Blair’s System of Sewing and Garment Drafting
1905: Hand Sewing Lessons; a Graded Course for Schools and For the Home
1905: Dressmaking Up to Date
...
And lots and lots more at this wonderful site!
Check it out.
Free Edwardian-WWI Era Sewing Books
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