Tuesday 17 April 2012

Fabulous Forties Fabrics

Well, the Easter break is over and Mr Y went back to work yesterday.  We’ve had a lovely couple of weeks but I haven’t done half of what I was meant to do, and I've eaten far too much chocolate!!!  Before the holiday began, I had made plans to re-decorate the living room, catalogue my ever increasing pattern collection and actually read something other than Enid Blyton!  In reality, I didn’t manage any of those things – there’s always June I suppose :o)

One thing I did manage to achieve over the break was to have a sort through some of the books and patterns that have been mounting up over the last few months.

I love 1940’s fashion source books and a couple of years ago, was given a copy of “Everyday Fashions of the Forties As Pictured in Sears Catalogs”.  It's an American publication and contains amazing images taken from Sears Catalogs of the 1940s.  I remember how enticing I’d found the cover and the inside images are amazing!  However, I was disappointed that there were no colour images inside the book.  I love looking at the designs of the time, but without the colour, it’s not as appealing.  That is why I was ecstatic when presented with this amazing book by Mr Y.

Released in 1998, I’m not sure how I hadn’t happened upon it before!!  It is simply brilliant.  It has the most amazing photographs of actual fabric samples from leading textile manufacturers in the 1940s.  The book features floral, geometric and, my favourite, novelty prints of the era.

The book has over 100 pages full of multiple images of stunning 1940s fabric - it’s positively bursting with colour!  It isn’t possible to pick one favourite so I’ve photographed a few random shots of what can be found inside.                                      








If you’re into the 1940s and get the chance to take a look at this book, I highly recommend it.  There are others in the series including a couple about 1950s fabric, one on handbags and another on hats.  I believe there is also one about Art Deco fabric but can’t seem to track it down on Amazon at the moment. 

In other news, I’ve been doing some serious corsage making, here's a sneaky peak!! 


The pattern comes from an original 1940's magazine, there will be more to come soon :o)

6 comments:

  1. ooh that book looks fabulous, what a wonderful resource, and your corsages are beautiful!

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  2. Hello just found you through Josie's blog and I have now put a link to your blog on my side bar so will pop back for a good read soon.
    xxx

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  3. Book looks amazing! Love your blog!
    Liz @ Shortbread & Ginger

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  4. Hello, just stumbled on your blog and just wanted to say what a nice read it is. I love vintage knitwear (not just 40s but 20s and 30s too) and have a slowly growing collection of patterns which I am intending to knit up eventually (though sadly am a very slow knitter), so thanks for sharing photos of your ones! Also didn't know about this book which looks fab - will see if I can source a copy for myself.

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  5. Wow that book looks amazing, I'd love something like that! Don't worry we all eat far too much chocolate over Easter! XxxX http://thesecondhandrose.blogspot.co.uk/

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