#sewing simplified

[professorpski]

Quilting has been used so extensively on quilts, throws, and comfortables that many think of it only in connection with them and do not realize how much real beauty it can contribute to garments. Quilting costs little more than your time....

Mary Brooks Picken added that you did have to take time to make it “perfect work,” so attention was needed as well. She gave examples of machine quilting all over on a robe, vest, or “comfortable” which is a little confusing, but comfortables here meant both padded or quilted comforters for beds AND padded and quilted mufflers (thank you, Oxford English Dictionary).  While this was published in Sewing Simplified from 1953, some of the material dated back to the 1930s from earlier books Picken wrote, and the meaning of words has since changed.

She also pointed out that bands along the edge of a garment might be quilted, and I have seen quilted collars and cuffs that are handsome as well. Picken also suggested quilting a coat lining, but I swore I would never take on a large quilting project after I machine quilted a simple-pieced comforter. It was about the most tedious and awkward machine sewing I had ever done.

So, take my advice and think of machine quilting as trim or embellishment. If you are keen on a quilted coat lining, you can buy such fabrics pre-made.

[professorpski]

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.