The Spadea Sewing Book, 1970
Spadea was a sewing pattern company that featured Designers Patterns and were sold in newspapers as well as through their own catalog. They also had a sewing column based on this book which was published in newspapers as well. The subtitle tells you all: A Collection of sewing tips by World Famous Designers including the one I am featuring here: Irene Gilbert.
Gilbert was new to me when I found this book and several of her tips struck me. Perhaps because I am contemplating some lovely woolen multi-colored woven and the question of what to do with it, I was impressed with the one you see pictured here. You undo some of the threads at the edge of the fabric, choosing the color and weight that will work best. Then you thread them onto a needle in order to do simple running stitch around necklines and sleeve hemlines. You can imagine it on jacket lapels as well and any multi-colored woven gives you lots of possible options.
There are numerous tips in here on finishing sleeveless dress armholes which may be because sleeveless was considered younger looking and thus more popular in the 1960s when youthfulness was exalting above all looks. But the tips run the gamut from working with leather to bound buttonholes. While I have seen some of the ideas in more recent publications, this is a worthwhile used book to get your hands on.
