Meet Angela Clayton, a self-taught seamstress and designer from New York. Her love for vintage and mid-century garments led Angela to come up with a new series in 2018 called, “Sewing Through The Decades.” This project followed her sewing her way through original, historical patterns from the 20th century all while sharing the whole process with viewers.
A Pattern From Every Decade
For every episode, Angela takes at least one original, vintage pattern from a particular decade in the 20th century and recreates it at home. She claims the patterns are good representations of the decade they come from and the fabrics are picked with functionality in mind.
McCall Pattern Company
In this video, Angela chose a blouse waist pattern is taken from the McCall Pattern Company, one of America’s largest printing plants during the 20th century. The Kansas-based printing company closed at the end of 2021. Angela explains that the blouse pattern was never officially patented so the release date is a little ambiguous. However, she estimates that the design was released around 1903 to 1905. The pattern uses nine pieces of fabric and eleven steps to construct it. It’s also cut to a specific size. An assortment of perforations indicates pleats, seam allowances, grain lines, and fold lines to help with sewing the garment.
Check out the sewing video here and click on Angela’s full playlist containing the “Sewing Through The Decades” series to view some interesting vintage patterns!
