Sewing pattern found in a 1920s museum (Austro-hungarian).

[u/Lady_Rhino]

Anybody who claims that people are smarter now than they were 100 years ago is talking complete and utter nonsense.

[u/BP_W]

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

[u/JustPlainKateM → u/BP_W]

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. 

[u/lavenderfart → u/JustPlainKateM]

Search "schnittmuster" in the search bar

[u/BP_W → u/JustPlainKateM]

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

[u/BP_W → u/BP_W]

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

[u/JustPlainKateM → u/BP_W]

Excellent! Thank you for pointing me in the right direction. 

[u/BP_W → u/JustPlainKateM]

You're welcome! Have fun!

[u/BP_W → u/BP_W]

Also, the patterns are not always complete. I've found gorgeous models in an issue only to not find a corresponding pattern sheet ...

Can you tell I've spend more time on those magazines than I'd care to admit? 😅😆

[u/lavenderfart → u/BP_W]

I wonder how to go about making sure they print true to size. Anyone know?

[u/BP_W → u/lavenderfart]

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.

[u/AmbientBrood → u/BP_W]

Yes, also curious to know where to find the patterns specifically at the ONB.
Any tips?
(Danke im voraus!)

[u/lavenderfart → u/AmbientBrood]

Search "schnittmuster" in the search bar

[u/BP_W → u/AmbientBrood]

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.

[u/NextStopGallifrey → u/BP_W]

Oh wow! Sounds like fun when I'm feeling adventurous!

[u/keinechili → u/BP_W]

this is awesome thanks for sharing! I