McCall's Sewing in Colour

If you haven't already discovered Gertie's new blog for better sewing you'd better get out of here and get on over and check it out - Gertie's inspirational blog is well known and well loved. Her inspiration is Vogue's New Book for Better Sewing and if you read her blog regularly enough you'll know that sewing each of the outfits in the Vogue book is the basis of her blog.

Now I've long wanted a similar manual because Gertie knows how to do things that I don't, like altering patterns for a better fit in ways that are more than the routine lengthening and shortening that most of us can work out for ourselves. No, Gertie knows how to really fit a garment and I want to too. But buying old school sewing books that tell you all this stuff are hard to come by and modern books are short on detail. So I was over the moon today to discover McCalls Sewing in Colour (1965) in my local second hand book store. It's my holy grail and I intend to spend my weekend indulging myself. But before I go I just want to give you a flavour of why these books are so enchanting. The first section of the book details for the modern, mid- twentieth century woman, how to build a wardrobe and in particular what to wear for each occasion. Here we have advice for what to wear when shopping: 'By this we mean in a city department store. Slacks and shorts are taboo. Again simple dresses and and suits are best.' Folks - a suit to shop. Goodness! Here in the UK many supermarkets have recently banned shoppers from turning out to shop in their pyjamas which I can understand - but banning slacks... I can't wait to read on.