If you're like me, one of the rabbit trails I've definitely gone down on the internet is the vintage drafting books that are past their copywrite dates and are in the public domain. This is one example of what you can find on the internet if you dig hard enough. Various archive websites have these nice viewers that you can embed anywhere such as this book: 

My FAVORITE book on the internet though, was part of a website that existed many years ago and through much digging, I was able to find it on the Internet archive website Wayback Machine.

This next one is a fantastic book on drafting by Frederick Robert Morris that I have YET to find in print (in the US). Many years ago, I took the time to print off all the pages for personal use, but if ANYONE ever finds this book, LET ME KNOW IN THE COMMENTS!! 

Ladies' Garment Cutting and Making

This is the same author, with a pocket reference guide for the cutting system for menswear.  I believe there are longer volumes, but not that I can find the text of on the internet. 

There are many others that I could share, but I'll leave you with one more for now. I did manage to find this one in print and it is referenced in more modern books like Palmer and Pletsch books on fitting patterns. Here's the link to that same Vintage Sewing site on the Wayback machine, but also I found the copy below on Internet Archive.

Modern Pattern Design

Anyway, I thought I'd share a few of my favorites. I literally dug out Modern Pattern Design this week to explain to the sewists in my shop how I was headed to alter a dress with statement sleeves and break it down into what the original pattern would have looked like. 

Don't get too lost down the rabbit hole! (or do... 🤪)

P.S. Let me know in the comments if you've tried some of these vintage methods! I'd love to see photos of either patterns or garments!

Topics in this post:#DayInTheLife, #SewingTechniques

Kristen sews because clothes don't come shaped like humans and people often think their bodies are the problem, which is a problem.

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