Mary Brooks Picken Writing in 1953
I found this Sewing Simplified in a used bookstore run by a public library and spotted the unintentional irony in its marketing versus its content. The magazine sponsoring the paperback book was Today’s Woman who must have become, as she was doomed to be, unless she dropped dead, yesterday’s woman too. This magazine clearly sold itself as for the young married woman. In fact, the word “young” appears four times on the back cover. Clearly, they wanted to reassure their readers that despite being married and mothers, they were not like their own mothers, they were still perky and young.
Yet the sewing directions cover everything from the basics of pinning paper pattern to fabric to the most challenging structural and decorative elements, like welt pockets and fagoting. The booklet admits on its copyright page of drawing from Pickens’ writings from the 1930s onward. In fact, I recognized some new versions some of the same ornamental details that I had seen in her earlier books. So an enormous corpus of traditional knowledge was being offered up as well as the then-current circle skirts and other on-trend items from the 1950s. Much as it was for the young woman, this book relied on the knowledge of old women like Mary Brooks Picken who was born in the late 19th Century. In fact, so much of artisanal knowledge works its way from a base of traditions to new innovations which have occurred across centuries. Makers have been making for a very long time.