I had the good fortune to get funding to purchase 25 sewing machines to loan to students who are stuck learning online with my Sp 2021 costume design class. I discovered last March when we went on lock down for Covid-19 that only 2 of my 30 students last Spring had sewing machines at home. One had purchased one before the lock down, and another did so as soon as we were all sent home for the duration of the semester. All the rest had none.

At Diablo Valley College where I work, the Costume Studio only has room for 3 regular machines plus an overlock, but we have a total of 9, (5 Berninas and 4 assorted donated machines) so we move all of them into our 15 seat Makeup Room as soon as my makeup class ends, and the costume class (like the makeup class) is split into 1/2 in the Makeup Room and the other 1/2 watching my instructional videos in the adjacent Men’s Dressing room.

This setup is stressful, but manageable, but it meant I limited the sewing component of the Costume Design class (which by catalog description is actually a costume design and construction class) to four weeks of alternate days. However, most of them manage to get a drawstring bag, a rehearsal skirt, and 1920s “One Hour Dress” in there. Or would have, if we had not gone into lock down just as this last item was to be finished.

So, a faculty colleague Nicole Hess-Diestler kindly offered to write up a grant request for take home sewing machines for my students for Spring 2021. And lo, the Workplace Development head, who likes our Tech Theatre Certificate program because we get lots of them done, funded it!

So here I am in Spring 2021 with a mess of 25 new sewing machines (Bernette B5 Academy machines from Top Stitch Sewing “in the heart of the Versailles Mennonite Community”), and my four used donated machines to loan to my students to send home with them next week, and I’m madly searching through the internet for the best how to sew books and videos, and inevitably end up down a rabbit hole:

I wind up at Hathitrust seeing:

The sewing book,
containing complete instructions in sewing and simple garment-making for children in the primary and grammar grades.
Ed. by Anne L. Jessup.

It has a course of study that appears to be pitched at 3rd-5th grade girls of c.1913 who end up with sewing skills (all by hand) well past anything I have ever learned. It is not as fantasy-filled cute as The Mary Frances Sewing Book; or Adventures Among the Thimble People, but intended for a teacher to do class planning in a classroom without sewing machines. But it underscores my own limitations.

I ended up at Hathitrust searching for a pair of 1919 booklets Shortcuts in Sewing, and Draped Garments both by Olive M. Elrich which are sold in a pair of PDFs on eBay, but which I was trying to find a copyright free link to for interested students.

Searching for Olive, however, did find me this great promotional booklet The Secret of Sewing: Efficiency in Sewing that essentially explains why you really do need every one of those weird fancy sewing machine feet for your 1914 straight stitch sewing machine.

It made me realize that besides all those handy Tailoring Books on Google Books and Hathitrust, there were a staggering amount of of basic sewing, needlework and dressmaking books as well.

Some I intend to share with my students:

• 1911 Educational Needlecraft, by Margaret Swanson and Ann Macbeth instructresses at the Glasgow School of Art; with a preface by Margaret McMillan ; with 6 coloured plates and numerous other illustrations.

1921 Sewing Without Mother’s Help is a combined illustrated story book and sewing instructor for teaching little girls to sew, but not with the paranormal spin of the Mary Frances Sewing Book

1915 When Mother Lets Us Sew, by Mrs Ralston is more a hand sewing how to book, but since it is pitched to little girls it is full of copyright expired illustrations of stitches and silhouettes of girls sewing.

1914 Dressmaking in the School, by J.C. Cooke … and H.M. Kidd is a book for Trade School instructors of girls age 14-16 who are taking a 2 year course in sewing as a trade. Its illustrations are numerous B&W photographs of the types of projects suggested by the authors.

1921 The New Dressmaker; with complete and fully illustrated instructions on every point connected with sewing, dressmaking and tailoring, from the actual stitches to the cutting by the Butterick Publishing Company Pretty much exactly what the title says…..

1939 Home Sewing Made Easy, from the McCall’s Pattern Co. is not exactly early 20th Century, but way too good to skip. It has every stitch, every useful how-to, all with simple clear graphics.

So, I thought I would share. Now, I’d best get back to work!