Friday Fun Fact: 19th century patterns

Let's take a look at some 19th century pattern sheets.

Popular magazines such as Godey's Lady's Book, Peterson's, and Harper's Bazar provided women with fashion sketches, patterns, and often directions for making the garments.

But the patterns were a little different than today's. Often you would only get a simple diagram to enlarge to full size. If you were lucky there would be measurements along the edges to help you with the scale.

Some magazines included inserts of full-size patterns, the lines overlapping crazily. The patterns came in one size, and you'd have to find and trace off just the pieces you needed, then adjust for your figure.



Printed, full-size patterns in different sizes were introduced by Butterick in the 1860s, but they started out with just menswear. Other companies quickly followed.

Even after printed patterns became common, diagrams and pattern sheets continued in popularity for at least another 30 years. 

Interested in more? You can see many issues of Godey's on Google books.

Or check out this Dutch website for an archive of European fashion mags!

Friday Fun Fact: Fibers under a microscope

Let's check out some different fibers under a microscope!

Microscopic analysis is the surest way to determine fiber content, but looking at fibers can also give us clues about fabric behavior.

Wool, alpaca, and cashmere all have scaly fibers, but the smoother the scales, the softer the fabric.

Silk and polyester both have smooth, uninterrupted surfaces, giving them the ability to have a glossy shine.

Understanding fibers and their behavior can help us understand fabric, and ultimately, sew better! 

Friday Fun Fact: Stay-stitching

Let's talk about stay-stitching.

Often the first step in sewing directions, the job of a stay-stitch is to prevent the fabric edge stretching and warping. It's usually done on a curved area such as a neckline, armhole, or waistline.

Here's what you need to know about stay-stitching:

* It's done through only ONE layer - you're not joining any pieces yet, just reinforcing.

* Use a normal length straight stitch.

* Check your directions for seam allowance! A stay-stitch is usually done at a smaller allowance than the seamline, and necklines can specify as little as 1/4". Listen to your pattern.

* Go in the direction of the arrows, if any. This might mean doing two passes.

* It doesn't matter which side of the fabric is facing up.

Friday Fun Fact: What makes a quilt a quilt?

We tend to associate quilting with sewing lots of small bits of fabric together in a pattern, but a quilt isn’t a quilt until it’s quilted.

Piecing fabrics together is a delightful part of quilting, and the possibilities are endless, but a finished quilt top isn't really a quilt - yet.

Quilting actually refers to the stitching done through all the layers. When you stack up the backing fabric, batting, and pieced top into a big fluffy sandwich, you're almost there! It's the step done to join all those layers into a unified whole that makes it a quilt. 

In fact, a quilt doesn't even have to have a pieced top to call it a quilt! Un-pieced whole-cloth quilts were immensely popular in the 18th and 19th centuries, and many quilters still enjoy them today.

Changes on the blog

Hi Treadle fans! We know, we haven't been keeping up the blog as much lately, and there's a good reason. Most of you are seeing all our new fabrics on our emails or social media, and not here.

Plus, we often get asked about fabrics we posted here years ago, that are long gone. That's a bummer!

We're still going to be updating the blog, though! It's still the perfect place for long-form articles like the Friday Fun Fact, project tutorials, and Treadlette Tuesday! 

But for daily updates on new fabric, fun products, classes, sales, and more, check us out on social media, or sign up for our biweekly email newsletter.

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