The Mail Order Mysteries
Hello to all our Pattern Nerds and pattern collectors in our niche. As most are aware The GASP : The Galleria Athenaeum of Sewing Patterns takes donations of incomplete and distressed sewing patterns, as well as lonely orphaned pattern pieces and empty mail order envelopes.
There are numerous mail order catalogs to research from but we don’t have a reference for this adorable Patterns by Pauline Parade P-284. This girls smocking dress pattern is complete with mail order envelope with brand reference, newspaper clipping, and a postage stamp date of 1963.
Notice this patterns pieces begin with B not A and includes all the sizes.
The previous owner has traced the front and back yoke pieces as well.
What more could you ask for?
From Donor #12 we have a donation of all unprinted pieces, these are my favorites. Most are mail order so we know there is going to be some mail order mysteries happening here.
To my surprise, P-284 is in this batch, not from Parade Patterns by Pauline, but from Kate Marchbanks with the same pattern number P-284. So grateful the original mail order envelope was included and with a postdate 1962. A few other empty mail order envelopes in the mix to be researched later.
All the pieces were present as well in the pile of unprinted pattern pieces. We used the Parade/Pauline version as a reference to make sure they were the correct pieces. Not only are the envelopes important, but the correct envelope can give you important pattern information, such a size, postage stamp date, syndicate brand, possibly a different color way graphic. Sadly if the pattern instruction is damaged and the number or size is torn or faded, the envelope will give you that as well. In this case the Kate Marchbanks instruction sheet is torn and needs repair, we can use the other to restore it digitally if necessary.
We would like to thank everyone who has donated patterns to the library to restore other patterns and preserve them for the future. More Mail Order Mysteries to come, Happy Sewing!!
