I was wondering about the prices of fabrics in my Grandmother’s day, so I pulled out the old catalog my husband got for me at the Antiquarian Bookfair. I got sidetracked from the fabrics and noticed this clever gadget:
There are still similar gadgets on the market today, but this one looks like it might really work. I’m sure that the ones available now cost more than 15 cents.
The trims were very pretty then, too, and looked like the patterns available in the old crochet manuals.
A lot of the household linens you see in antique stores now were made from stamped goods that were bought in needlework shops and from catalogs like this one.
I have to admit that I am not drawn to the fashions of the 1920s since they look kind of saggy and unflattering, even the clothes for kids. The clothes must have seemed very new and modern after all the long skirts, corsets, and complicated clothing of past decades. Fashions really started to get pretty again in the 1930′s.
