Gertie Sews Vintage Casual: A Modern Guide to Sportswear Styles of the 1940s and 1950s

by Gretchen Hirsch

Overview

The mid-20th century was an amazing time for American women’s fashion! Following the war, women started looking to American designers rather than French couture houses for inspiration and to demand clothing they could move in, even play in. In this follow-up to Gertie’s New Book for Better Sewing, Gretchen “Gertie” Hirsch celebrates the classic casual styles that icons like Katharine Hepburn, Audrey Hepburn, and Rosie the Riveter made famous—think wide-legged trousers, fitted capri pants, beach rompers, shorts, knit tops, jeans, and day dresses. In Part I, Hirsch introduces key techniques for sportswear construction—from working with knit fabrics to the intricacies of pant-making—and in Part II, she showcases a 30-plus-piece vintage-inspired casual wardrobe.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781617690747
Publisher:	STC Craft/A Melanie Falick Book
Publication date:	09/16/2014
Series:	Gertie's Sewing
Pages:	224
Sales rank:	485,079
Product dimensions:	8.80(w) x 9.80(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Gretchen Hirsch is the author of Gertie’s New Book for Better Sewing and creator of Gertie’s New Blog for Better Sewing. She has a pattern line with Butterick and a fabric line with Fabric Traditions, and teaches sewing around the country and on PBS’s It’s Sew Easy, Craftsy.com, and Creativebug.com. Her work has been featured in Sew Stylish, Vogue Patterns, Threads, and Stitch, and on jezebel.com.

Editorial Reviews

Complete with fun illustrations, great photography, and step-by-step directions, the author eases readers in with an illustrated fashion history primer and devotes five chapters to telling us everything we need to know to rock our attempt to sew a vintage wardrobe. With thick paper patterns included in a bulging pack inside the back of cover, this book delivers a massive amount of value well worth the cover price.

Grand Rapids Press

11/15/2014
Hirsch (Gertie's New Book for Better Sewing) brings her love of midcentury retro fashion to casualwear—think sweater-girl tops, Hepburn-style slacks, and stylish skirts—in her latest sewing guide. The coverage of the basics is extensive and a wide variety of techniques are covered before the sewing even begins. Highlights include a detailed chapter on pattern adjustments, with a variety of scenarios given for both tops and bottoms, and the chapter on fitting, which explains exactly what measurements need to be taken to properly fit a garment to the wearer's body. The result is a sewing reference with patterns, and sewists will likely find themselves picking up this book when they need advice on adjusting a pattern or finishing a seam. The designs include a variety of basic garments, many with variations that change the style of the original, transforming them into something entirely different. The garments are modeled by women of a variety of body types, and the patterns range from sizes two through 16. VERDICT The audience for Hirsch's second book will likely be wider than that for her first, since casualwear is more accessible than retro-cocktail dresses. Though a few pieces veer toward the costumey, women will find that the garments in this collection fall well within contemporary workplace and casual styles but with a clever, retro flair.

Library Journal