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One Hour Dress (Book 2) -- 17 Vintage 1924 Dress Designs with Detailed Instructions for Sewing
by Mary Brooks Picken
{softcover, 16 pages, 5.5x8.5, 2008, ISBN: 1934268798}
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Mary Brooks Picken, Director of Instruction at the the Woman's Institute of Domestic Arts & Sciences, developed the easy-to-use sewing instructions for her infamous "one hour dress." WIDAS was the largest school of dressmaking and design in the 1920s and produced a number of home study courses to teach sewing and millinery skills. There are three One Hour Dress books -- two from 1924, one from 1925. You can find all three One Hour Dress books under our "Sewing" book category.
The two 1924 issues of this book contain different designs and different features. This book, the second of 1924, contains step-by-step detailed instructions for completing the one piece dress, two piece dress and a slenderizing one piece dress as well as instructions for 15 other variations on the original designs. A few simple steps complete the dress:
- taking your measurements
- preparing the material
- cutting the dress (folding the material, cutting the neck
opening, shaping the shoulders, completing the cutting)
- making the dress (sewing the seams, finishing the neck opening,
putting in hip dart and side plaits, etc.)
- cutting and applying long sleeves
Instructions for the two piece dress include:
- dividing the material
- cutting out the blouse
- proportioning the skirt
- making the blouse
- making the skirt
- joining the skirt and blouse
- making the pockets and belt
(see more details below)
