Thursday, April 19, 2012

1950s Children's Fashions from East Germany Part 1


I love the fashions of the 50s, and I can see by the poll on the side of my blog that many of you do, too!

So chances are you will be as fascinated with my little east German pattern booklet showing a variety of children's clothing styles.




From what I gather, the Gumprich publishing house in the lovely city of Erfurt put out these supplements to their "Thermo-Schnitt" pattern system regularly, and the types of patterns included these little booklets will often correspond to a certain theme, such as children's clothing or Fall looks for a particular year.


If anyone knows more about this than I do, feel free to correct me, but my understanding is that these booklets were tiny catalogs for separate, full-sized patterns that one could order. The pages are perforated so they can be torn out of the booklet easily.

Here are two pages and their corresponding back sides for today. If you lovely readers like, I can post some more in the near future.





5 comments:

  1. These are so charmingly darling. I've always loved all fashions of the 50s, very much including those for kids. I think the 50s was the decade in which we really say (some kinds of) children's clothes being tailored as smaller versions of adult styles, which I actually rather love.


    Thank you ever so sweetly for your lovely comment on my post about Chronically Vintage's 3rd birthday, I really appreciate it. :)


    Wishing you a beautiful Thursday,
    ♥ Jessica

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    1. You're right about them being scaled-down versions of the adult clothing of the time! Probably many of the patterns in the booklet could be made for grown-ups with just a few tweaks here and there to account for the different proportions and curves of the adult body.

      (By the way, you're most welcome!)

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  2. I think these are the actual patterns. Like Lutterloh, Silver Scissors and Haslam, you stick a pin through the tape measure at the + on the pattern and then plot your point at the specified distance (in cm) by lining up each reference point on the pattern. To make it work, you need the right ruler to attach to the end of your tape. Each system has it's own ruler design so that they are not interchangeable.

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    1. Thank you for this insightful reply! Occasionally I will see entire starter packages for the Lutterloh and Thermo Schnitt systems on eBay which include some sort of a ruler, but I never understood the connection. A quick search just turned up a book from 2010 that explains the Haslam system ("Haslam System of Dresscutting") but nothing substantial on Silver Scissors. Have you worked with these systems before? If so, what is your thoughts on their practicality and the results?

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  3. I think those are the patterns. They looks similar to Lutterloh (Golden Rule), Silver Scissors and Haslam Patterns.

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The Hausfrau eagerly awaits your thoughts.