Sassy Sewing

Crikey, you could have someone’s eye out with that!

Tuesday, August 12th, 2014

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Hunting for retro patterns in a flea market last weekend I came across these ancient women’s magazines from 1959. That’s, er, 55 years old from a world before the Beatles, before the mini skirt and when good Queen Lizzie was a long way off celebrating even ten years in the hot seat.

The contents are charming and only slightly patronising. Like modern magazines they are full of fashion tips, lifestyle advice and useful hints on ‘how to please your man’ although these latter ones are more to do with polishing a skirting board properly than anything involving being within three feet of said square-jawed smoking hunk.

Not that you’d want to get that close wearing one of the dozens of deadly pointed brassieres advertised throughout the mags. Mr Sassy’s wisdom on the matter was ‘how do you fit those into there?’ He’s so romantic.

There’s not as much sewing stuff as I’d hoped – obviously the late 50s was for knitting, not stitching, but there’s a good chunk of homeliness in each edition. The biggest difference to modern magazines is an almost complete lack of celebrity…unless it’s royalty (obviously, someone was missing a trick by not advertising…’Playtex, the mammary manager of our amazing monarch’.

Strangely, the biggest similarities are the brands we buy. Washing powders, chocolates and all manner of everyday goods that I could nip out and buy today. And the more I read, the more I like these innocent reminders of the world our parents grew up in. Wouldn’t you love to see how they managed the swinging sixties? I’m heading back to the junk shops.

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A very useful sewing site

Welcome to Sassy Sewing

Here it's not just about 'how to' but also 'why not?' We're not experts, more like curious enthusiasts and this is the place where we can all learn to be successful at sewing together. Helpful (hopefully), inspiring (ditto) and we promise not to take ourselves too seriously. Let's put some fun into fabric.

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