1940s Pattern Books from the Home Front

It’s been a while since I dipped into the treasure trove of pattern books I got in an auction.

As I wrote a few posts back, during the 1940s, the original pattern collectors, Minnie and Olive, did quite a lot for the war effort. But they also kept busy with making things for themselves, babies, and homes.

Olive married Minnie’s son Louis in 1940, and in that first year of her marriage, at least 22 books, patterns, and sets of iron-on transfers were purchased.  One book was for women’s accessories (another book on crocheted neckwear), one for socks for the family, two for men’s sweaters, and all the rest were for household goods, ranging from doilies to bedspreads.

Here is one of the books of men’s knits, with famous radio personalities modeling the knits:

I was thinking that Minnie and Olive probably knit while listening to the radio, and that through the wonder of the internet, we could listen to things they might have heard.  So I looked up Rudy Vallee, and oh my goodness, y’all really need to listen to this!  It is called “Plaza 6-9423,” a recording from 1940, and the complexity of the lyrics and the slightly off-color topic really surprised me.

And here is the flip side of that record, “Six Women (Me and Henry the Eighth),” and this song is amusing also:

And here is a whole show from Fred Allen in 1940, in which an eagle flew off above the audience:

Needlework books in the early 1940s reflected the war.  The inside front cover of this Star Book for the home encouraged women to keep creating as usual — “In times like these it is necessary to make our homes bright and cheerful. American needs the woman who keeps her fingers flying — makes every moment count. Beautiful crocheted, knitted and tatted household items can do much to reflect our confident, courageous, and cheerful attitude.”

Well, Minnie and Olive were surely trying to do their part, because from the 1940s I count at least 53 patterns and pattern books in their collection.  (There are probably more, because many of them are not dated.)

In 1941, Minnie and Olive bought a book of patterns for baby clothes, and from then on, they bought about one baby book a year.

Here is a baby bib that looks much too small to be effective, but guess what?  I have that same bib from my own family!

I had never heard of “soakers” but there were lots of patterns for them.  According to this timeline, rubber pants to cover diapers had been invented in 1910, but lots of people didn’t like to use them because they gave the babies rashes, and preferred to use these knitted diaper covers.

And here is a handknit sunsuit to make in either cotton or wool, just as Sue talked about in her guest post.

And as if new parents aren’t anxious enough, there were some stereotypes included:

It must have been hard to get the kids to pose — some companies used dolls, or just showed the garments laid out flat.  I love these photos that capture kids’ behaviors:

I hope you have enjoyed this look at baby patterns from the 1940s.  Next up, we will get into the dramatic and colorful illustrations from the 1950s!