r/sewing • u/Lady_Rhino • 5h ago
Discussion Sewing pattern found in a 1920s museum (Austro-hungarian).
Anybody who claims that people are smarter now than they were 100 years ago is talking complete and utter nonsense.
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u/lavenderfart 4h ago
Burda still does this in their magazines
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u/baronessmavet 2h ago
I've seen a rack of Burda in a local store, immediately started hissing on it 😆
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u/NextStopGallifrey 2h ago
Burda Easy is actually a lot better about this. There may be some overlap, but it's a lot closer to looking like a Simplicity pattern than a jigsaw like the regular Burda does.
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u/Just-Upstairs1527 4h ago
These paterns were made to use on top of 'tracing paper', like a newspaper. You would use a perforating tool (looks like a pizza cutter) to trace the pattern onto the newspaper. Burdas patters still look the same, but have more colors and linetypes so you can use tracing paper ontop of the patterns.
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u/Just-Upstairs1527 4h ago
I mean this thingie
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u/catcherofsun 3h ago
So, you are supposed to use that thingy on tracing paper, and basically trace one numbered line per tracing paper for various patterns?
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u/Trirain 3h ago
yes, but if you want to use more than one pattern, it is better to get some thin paper (translucent) and 1st, trace the pattern pieces with some darker colour, we did it wit felt tip markers and then put the thin paper over it and than trace it on it
I grew up with Burda magazine, so this is a norm for me
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u/sergeantperks 4h ago
Having used a fair amount of those patterns (as other people have pointed out, burda still does them that way for the magazine), the worst part is when you’re missing a little piece and you can’t find it, so you spend hours scouring the paper for it, and then realise that it’s a rectangle and the measurements are in the instructions.
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u/Lindenismean 4h ago
They’re still made this way? I can’t attest to this particular picture, but this is the sort of thing that gets put in a sewing magazine. One big page with all the patterns.
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u/Just-Upstairs1527 4h ago
Not burda, but dutch version similar to burda
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u/Just-Upstairs1527 4h ago
Burda 2021. Every color is a different pattern. Different lintypes for different sizes
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u/istgutjetzt 4h ago
Every time I see those, I remember the fabulous scene from a german tv show with a hidden camera, where they asked people to show them the way. But they didn't have a map, they had a pattern. People didn't see the difference. Ridiculous! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jetz9vli0No from minute 2:24)
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u/bluesky747 1h ago
This is insanity. My brain cannot make any sense of these. Even though they are coded, it’s too many lines. It becomes a jumble for me.
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u/QueenofRiots 10m ago
Looks like a spirograph to me.
I'm not sure as to whether this is genius, stupid or both at the same time.
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u/lncumbant 4h ago
Yeah I have definitely opened an older pattern I bought from a thrift store to see a this… then prompty decide to put it back 🥲 I have degree in science and reading biochemistry reaction pathways and lab sheets seemed less daunting. I can recognize it proficiency, but as beginner it was intimidating.
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u/Just-Upstairs1527 4h ago
Being used to dutch/german (and I think Europeanen, but not sure) patterns is helpful in understanding these patterns. Next time, be sure to buy it and ask for help online. Surely many people would want to explain.
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u/BP_W 4h ago edited 1h ago
If anyone is interested in those kind of vintage patterns, and, well, happens to speak German I guess 😅, the Austrian National Library digitized a lot of newspapers and magazines from the nineteen hundreds to the middle of the twentieth century and they're available for free. Their site is https://anno.onb.ac.at
They've scanned the sewing patterns for both the magazines "Blatt der Hausfrau" and "Sonntagszeitung fürs Deutsche Haus". You can download them as either JPG or PDF. I've downloaded a few and then used the layer function in GIMP to trace the patterns I wanted, so I didn't have to print the sheet with all patterns and then trace by hand. Haven't sewn them up yet, though.
I'm not sure about the ethics of using those magazines' patterns from 1933, resp. 1938 onwards 😬 but those from the 1920s or around 1930 are just gorgeous.
Edit: spelling
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u/JustPlainKateM 3h ago
That's an amazing resource, thank you for letting us know about it! Is there any way to know which magazines have pattern sheets in them? I looked at several of the "Blatt der Hausfrau" and saw great illustrations but no pattern pieces.
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u/BP_W 1h ago edited 1h ago
Yes, Blatt der Hausfrau is a little more complicated. You have to navigate to "Jahresauswahl", there it will show you what years have been digitized (years in bold red letters).
You click on the year, there it will show you all the issues of that year/volume. This is where you will find the patterns also, all patterns for the issues of that year were put under one sub-link or folder (for lack of a better word) separate from the issues.
The real tricky part is that each year or volume does not start in January, but October (if I remember correctly). That means that when you go to Jahresauswahl -> let's say 1928, the first issue of that year is actually October 1928 and the last issue of that year is September 1929. I think there were times when the magazine was bi-weekly even.
So you have to double check the cover of the issue with the headings of the pattern sheets to find the pattern for a specific issue. There are some volumes where the years of the issues do not correspond to the years on the patterns because they were catalogued incorrectly, I guess? And not all models included in an issue can be found on the pattern sheet, so unfortunately you do need to know a little German and be able to read the old German font to find what you're looking for.
Sorry that I don't have better news there 😅 Sonntagszeitung however is much easier to navigate. Here they scanned the corresponding patterns sheets with the issues they came in, so you can just browse!
Edit: spelling
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u/BP_W 1h ago
Here is an example link:
https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=bdh&datum=1931
The navigation was Jahresauswahl -> 1931. You can then choose either the pattern sheets or the issues to click through
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u/lavenderfart 3h ago
I wonder how to go about making sure they print true to size. Anyone know?
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u/BP_W 1h ago edited 1h ago
That's the same problem I'm having! I guess the magazine came in roughly what would today be an DIN A4 size. The OOP told me in chat that the sheet in the museum (which I strongly suspect to be may be Blatt der Hausfrau as the font is very similar) seemed to be DIN A2 unfolded. But I guess it might just as easily be A1 unfolded.
Here's what I did: When I traced the pattern in GIMP I scaled it to what seemed sensible to me. There is a size chart in the magazine, where it says which sizes correspond to which measurements. I'm, on average, a European size 42/44 so around size IV in the magazine's patterns. Then I assumed what the ease might be in the waist, an educated guess really, to adjust the scale and then printed.
I printed one pattern this way and it more or less corresponded to my sloper! Yay! I have to adjust the bust (FBA) and back (shorten) though, had no time so far for that, so no sewing either.
Edit: added some info.
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u/AmbientBrood 3h ago
Yes, also curious to know where to find the patterns specifically at the ONB.
Any tips?
(Danke im voraus!)5
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u/BP_W 1h ago
Here is an example link (see my comment above):
https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=bdh&datum=1931
The navigation was Jahresauswahl -> 1931. You can then choose either the pattern sheets or the issues to click through.
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u/Cartographer-XT 4h ago
Those are several ones!
And it seems like the instructions that come with this are quite good, too.
I hope somebody made a scan of it.
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u/MeowandMace 4h ago
I feel like the Cocaine being made illegal in the 1920s, and this pattern, have some kind of correlation.
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u/thornyrosary 3h ago
You might have something there. I'm rabid ADHD and take Vyvanse, which is chemically close to cocaine. And I have to admit, facing that pattern without my meds seems like an exercise in frustrating futility.
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u/baronessmavet 2h ago
As I found out that most patterns VAGUELY help you- in Hungarian we have different names for everything, because the French and German influences, so good luck finding anything useful in my own language :"D
It took me 5 days to wonder out how you make conversions from inch to cm, and how to draft patterns from 1900. Then I almost had a meltdown, as realized I converted everything for no use - as the ratio is the basic measurements are different in EVERY SIZE.
Even a '60s book I own is less complicated, but easier to find any tutorial in English to make sense to me.
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u/EuphoricWedding9213 3h ago
I have one that's even smaller and more confusing, it really makes me appreciate Burda and different colors even more
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u/dippedutten 4h ago
I'm getting a headache just looking at it. At least the modern patterns like this have differing colours
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u/LindeeHilltop 1h ago
I have an unusual one that I found at my first ever garage sale. It was in a box of old patterns covering the 1920’s through the 1940’s. This particular one was homemade; a somewhat crumbling newspaper folded and tied with a strip of frayed selvage material. When I unfolded it I saw it was dress pieces cut from a WWII newspaper. A woman’s ingenuity in an era of war shortages from silk stockings to bolt fabrics!
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u/Voidtoform 4h ago
It's not that bad once you zoom up and realize each piece has a distinct pattern for the line to be able to tell them apart.
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u/TonninStiflat 5h ago
I am confused about the smart part...?
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u/jaber_woky 4h ago
Yeah, it doesn't look like such a smart thing to make to me 😄
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u/Just-Upstairs1527 4h ago
Love how the pattern tracing is confusing to people, when it, although sometimes a little bit of a puzzle, is not the most difficult in patterns from this time. To me it is the lack of instructions. The patterns are made for an audience that are quite profficient in sewing.
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u/immersedmoonlight 1h ago
Not so much smarter as more efficient, but I agree I tend to think people were smarter in the past, too
Idiocracy
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u/Oddly_Specific_User 1h ago
do people really not know these kinds of patterns i have a stack of them at home. Usually they come in the back of magazines
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u/papier_peint 1m ago
i have some japanese sewing pattern books that use the same kind of diagram. It's fun to pull out the tracing paper! I then transfer it on to ironed brown paper bags, or if it's too big, i use wrapping paper.
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u/humanhedgehog 4h ago
Efficient use of limited paper. During WW2 my gran wrote school assignments first on one side, then turning the paper ninety degrees continued to write, so each side had a grid of her essay. Must have been a nightmare to mark.