A History of the Paper Pattern Industry: The Home Dressmaking Fashion Revolution

The History of the Paper Pattern Industry: The Home Dressmaking Fashion Revolution by Joy Spanabel Emery is a book that fills a gap in fashion history research that has been needed for a long time. Because of the multitude of companies, and the fact that they often sprang up, merged with other companies, or simply disappeared within a few years, tracking the industry has been somewhat difficult.I’m going to start out by saying that this book is probably not for everyone, not even for everyone who sews and enjoys fashion history. One thing I learned from teaching history to ten through twelve year-olds is that the most effective way to make history interesting is to concentrate on the story aspect. In some cases this is simply not possible, and what Emery has produced is a straight-forward history with a minimum of story-telling.While that is not necessarily a bad thing, it does mean that you have to want to be surrounded by lots of facts with very little sense of a narrative. Personally, I found the book to be of great interest because it cleared up so much about the history of sewing patterns, and also of the story of home sewing.

This is someone's dissertation. If you've not read one before, it's going to seem pretty bloodless.Yes, this is a survey of the American pattern business. It's not in depth, it covers a long time period. It's a great overview. I do wish it were more fleshed out, there are stories that are not told here that will be lost if someone doesn't get them down soon.It's a very good reference book for identifying changing pattern houses and styles of pattern marketing. I finally know what a 'Deltor' is (a brand name of Butterick for a set of full instructions vs brief overview of techniques) and I have a good time line for identifying vintage pattern lines. A library read to be sure, a good inhouse reference for vintage pattern sellers.

A fabulous book filled with information that you would never be able to find in one source. This book would be a fabulous gift for anyone who is sewing or pattern collecting. The years of research that Joy Emery has spent to share it all in a book is a treasure. I am a vintage pattern seller, a home sewist by hobby who loves all things vintage and all the fashion history that goes along with it. I find this book a great resource for my hobby and business. I bought this book the day it became available.

This book is what I expected. It’s a written history which is what I wanted. It’s well organized and written very well.

As a vintage sewing pattern collector and seller, I find this book to be indispensable! Joy Emery's writing style is easy to read and contains detailed information. Other reviews mentioned that it didn't have many illustrations. I would have to disagree. This book has 200 illustrations. There are few collections as extensive as the one at URI and few people as dedicated to preserving the paper patterns and educating the next generations.The Book is organized in chronological order starting with the publication of a tailors manual in the 1580's. Each chapter covers a new frontier or challenge for the industry.

Fabulous history. Well-written, engaging, great illustrations though there could never be enough on this subject. My goal is to visit the archive the authors established at the Univeristy of Rhode Island. I will try not to faint with joy.

I had hoped for a "History of the Paper Pattern Industry" - sadly this book - by its own admission in the introduction - only really traces English language publications. I purchased it to learn more about the early full size paper pattern industry (mostly located in France and German speaking countries) and this book does not even mention the largest publishers (like Der Bazar/La Mode Illustree). Even modern companies that publish in 99 countries in 16 languages (Burda) are dismissed in a few sentences as "being difficult to use". If the title had indicated the limited nature of this work I would not have purchased it: it is so biased as to totally skew the picture and is pretty useless to the serious researcher.I suggest that the future imprints be named "History of the American and English Paper Pattern Industry".

What a wonderful book to have in my library! I love patterns and this is a great compliment to my collection.

An interesting history of the paper pattern industry though is mainly about American patterns.

excellent

finally a book on pater pattrerns

If you are a sewist and you like fashion history, you will love this book. Such a great resource. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Nothing to say, great book arrived in good condition