Plates Serve Up Fashion

If you have been following my posts I mention re-purposing or combining various pieces of patterns or textiles to get the finished result I am looking for. I was browsing for ideas for my blog today and I came across someone else's blog and it immediately brought back childhood memories and perhaps the inspiration for my sewing projects.

I don't exactly remember if I got the Fashion Plates toy as a birthday present or Christmas present but nonetheless it was a present I used for a very long time.

I must have been around 10 when these plates came out on the market but I do remember "playing" with them through my high school years. If you are not familiar with this toy; it comes with several different sized plates of different pieces of one outfit, a set of colored pencils and a frame and onion paper.

After you choose your plates to make your outfit you lay them in the frame, cover with the paper secure the top frame over the plates and use the pencils to color in the design. I made some of the craziest outfits with this toy. I think it would still be cool to have one of these around.

Fashion plates are not a modern means of clothing design. They were used a lot in the late 1900's and early 20th century as pictures in magazines, catalogs and advertising to depict the current fashion to the public. The pictures were not rudimentary but they did have a generic look. They were also used a lot in book illustrating. From my research, before fashion plate illustrations were available to show off the current trend; the outfits were sewn, completed with the desired colors and trim and offered on dolls called berlines. It is said that this is how Marie Antoinette chose her various gowns.

(example fashion plate illustration c1900)

Patterns of Design

Patterns of Design...It just has a sophisticated ring to it. So...engineering-esc.

So much for my sophisticated style of writing, making up words. But, I am not here to blog about writing or engineering. I would like to talk about patterns and pattern making.

I did some looking up stuff (googling) as they call it nowadays...and found out that American pattern making was completely different than that of European sewing. There was no marketplace for homemakers for clothing; with the extremely rich the exception; so a way in which the homemaker could expand their wardrobe was necessary. In 1860, Mr. and Mrs. William Jennings Demorest made fashion patterns for home seamstresses. They sold a magazine, what I would call a catalog, with 100s of different patterns. The patterns were rudimentary for the most part; mostly made in only one size and did not come with instructions.

When I was a kid I used to love to go to the fabric store with my mom. She did a lot of home sewing and most of my outfits were homemade. I loved to sit at desks with the big, ginormus pattern catalogs .Flipping those pages were so fun! Even more fun was opening the big, ginormus pattern file cabinets and searching for my pattern number- sort of like treasure hunting!

I have been altering patterns for awhile now trying to get just the right look- because a pattern for what I want doesn't really exist. I find this really rewarding making my own OOAK piece of clothing. If you read my profile- you will know that I search for vintage patterns and notions. I did a bit of shopping at a local Goodwill tonight and came across a curious pattern.

If you are younger than 30 and know who Mr. Blackwell is than I salute your fashion history knowledge. For those of you who DON'T know who he is; he is most known for being a fashion critic and at the end of every year he would create his "worst dressed list". In the '50s he had his own boutique "House of Blackwell", his own designer clothing line and pattern designs AND he dressed the stars! Yvonne Di Carlo (Lily Munster), Jayne Mansfield and Nancy Reagan just to name a few. So, I thought this was a great find for 69 cents and uncut! A cool piece of fashion history.