10 Old Sewing Patterns That Are Secretly Worth A Fortune (You Might Own One)

Most people think old sewing patterns are worthless paper: faded envelopes with a drawing of a lady with a tiny waist, the first thing to go in the trash bag when a house gets cleared. Families keep the sewing machine, argue over the silver thimble, and toss the shoebox of patterns. After forty years running a sewing machine repair and alterations shop in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Lorraine shows why that shoebox deserves a second look. The value is in the words printed on the envelope and the feel of the tissue inside, not in the picture on the front. We start with the common Simplicity patterns of the 1940s and 1950s, from the company Joseph Shapiro founded in 1927, and why the larger bust sizes are the ones collectors hunt. From there we go back to Ebenezer Butterick's graded patterns of the 1860s and the Deltor instruction sheet named after The Delineator magazine. Along the way are Du Barry patterns sold only at Woolworth's, and Advance patterns sold through J.C. Penney until the company closed in the mid-1960s. McCall's introduced the printed pattern in 1921, and before that year patterns had blank tissue marked only with notches and punched holes. Those unprinted patterns came from Butterick, McCall and Pictorial Review. The countdown also covers men's patterns sized by the neck, doll wardrobes sized by height in inches, and Vogue Paris Original patterns that came with a woven label. Number one is the mail-order envelopes from the Anne Adams and Marian Martin newspaper pattern services, whose postmarks can date them to the day. For each one, Lorraine explains what destroys its value: scissors, basement mildew, rusted pins, cellophane tape, a hot iron, rubber bands, lost labels, and a stamp collector's scissors. The drawing on the front tells you the least, and the words on the envelope tell you everything. Sources and further reading: Joy Spanabel Emery, 2014, A History of the Paper Pattern Industry: The Home Dressmaking Fashion Revolution Margaret Walsh, 1979, The Democratization of Fashion: The Emergence of the Women's Dress Pattern Industry, The Journal of American History Commercial Pattern Archive (CoPA), University of Rhode Island Special Collections