Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Sewing - Sunbonnets and a Clothespin Bag from 1916


"In Fig. 40 is shown a neat clothes-pin bag. Although the making of such a receptacle may seem to be out of place in a discussion on aprons, it was deemed advisable to consider the bag in connection with the clothes-pin apron, for in many instances women prefer to have a bag instead of an apron for holding clothes pins. This sack, or bag, is provided with a handy opening and with a hanger--an ordinary coat hanger--which makes it possible not only to hang the bag on a clothes line while hanging up clothes, but also to slide the bag along, and in this way always have the clothes pins handy. Besides being a time saver in hanging up clothes, such a bag protects the clothes pins and keeps them always fit for use."


In addition to instructions for drafting the pattern and making the clothes-pin bag (and what a treat if you can get your hands on a vintage wooden clothes-hanger to use for this), the final twenty pages of The Woman's Institute of Domestic Arts and Sciences 1916 booklet, Fancy Aprons and Sunbonnets contains patterns for one plain sunbonnet, one fancy sunbonnet, and a fetching but completely impractical eyelet sun-hat. They can be downloaded from my Flickr account.

I am still not able to get the hang of loading pictures into Flickr in proper numerical order, so be warned; you will have to download these to your computer and then put them straight.

6 comments:

Not Important said...

When I was a kid, my parents saved some money by hanging clothes out to dry in the warm season. We had a clothespin bag that also had vertical stripes. I wonder if that was some kind of convention.

Lydia said...

Impractical, perhaps, but I love the eyelet sun bonnet. So pretty!

Lidian said...

That clothespin bag looks really useful for small bits and accessories, too - I'll bet my elder DD would love it.

The bonnet lady looks like she knows a few good jokes, doesn't she?

T-Mom said...

My mom and grandmother always had clothespin bags--very practical.

And with all the information about how damaging sun is to the skin, sunbonnets might just make a comeback--much easier to wear than those big-brimmed hats! ;-)

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