No. 18 · Spring & Summer 1952 · Three Cents the Card

The Pattern Cabinet

Sixteen new envelopes from Simplicity, McCall's, Vogue & Butterick — chosen and tested by the neighborhood

Hello, friends. The new envelopes are in and the table by the window is stacked three deep. I sat down Saturday and worked through every one — pressed the tissue, walked the seams in my head, checked the notion lists against what's on Mrs. Halberg's shelf at the dry-goods store. None of these will leave you stranded.

Click any card to read it through proper. Click the little spool to keep one. If you make something this season, write us — Mrs. P. reads every letter and the best ones get clipped to the bulletin board upstairs.

Sort the Drawer

Difficulty —
Garment —
showing all 18 patterns

Mrs. P.'s Notes from the Sewing Table

  1. Press as you go. A flat seam is a kind seam. Set your iron warm, not blazing, and let each seam cool before the next.
  2. Walk your pattern. Lay the tissue out the night before and read it through with a cup of coffee. You will catch the dart you missed.
  3. Buy notions all at once. Twelve buttons and a card of hook-and-eye is one trip, not three.
  4. Mark every notch. Tailor's chalk, a snip in the seam allowance, or a thread tack — pick one and stick with it.
  5. Trust the grain. If the fabric pulls funny, it's the grain telling you something. Listen before you cut.
A black sewing machine resting on a length of pink floral cotton, ready for the next seam.
The good machine, threaded and waiting.
A treadle machine set up on the kitchen counter where the morning light comes in best.
By the kitchen window, where the light is honest.
A well-loved cast-iron machine on a wooden table — the kind handed down from a mother to a daughter.
Aunt Rosalie's machine, still going strong.
try typing S-I-N-G-E-R