# Sewing advice from 1949 **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 9, 2012, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sewing-advice-from-1949/627729 "2012-07-09T19:50:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2012, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sewing-advice-from-1949/627729/1 "2012-07-09T19:50:49Z")
[Advice from a Singer Sewing Manual from 1949](http://quiltingbeargal.blogspot.com/2011/01/singer-sewing-manual-advice-1949.html). We’ve come a long way, baby! ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/22080_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2012, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sewing-advice-from-1949/627729/2 "2012-07-09T20:18:52Z")
I guess I can’t sew today - I don’t have any lipstick in the house… 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2012, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sewing-advice-from-1949/627729/3 "2012-07-09T20:40:38Z")
I’m skeptical. [This site](http://sewing-machines.blogspot.com/2008/08/singer-online-manuals.html) has scans of several vintage Singer sewing machine manuals. None of them have anything even remotely resembling that. ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2012, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sewing-advice-from-1949/627729/4 "2012-07-09T20:57:27Z")
> [@Doug\_K](#): > > I’m skeptical. [This site](http://sewing-machines.blogspot.com/2008/08/singer-online-manuals.html) has scans of several vintage Singer sewing machine manuals. None of them have anything even remotely resembling that. And that’s obviously been transposed from wherever they “found” it by that Tater quilt place in Oregon. Seems like just another email forward to me. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2012, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sewing-advice-from-1949/627729/5 "2012-07-09T21:01:09Z")
> [@Doug\_K](#): > > I’m skeptical. [This site](http://sewing-machines.blogspot.com/2008/08/singer-online-manuals.html) has scans of several vintage Singer sewing machine manuals. None of them have anything even remotely resembling that. Not only that, but while the image looks oldy-timey, as if it were supposed to be an original, at the top it says: “Advice from a Singer Sewing Manual From 1949.” It seems to me that an actual 1949 Singer Sewing Manual would be unlikely to have such a heading. This thing is all over the internet (here’s [another](http://delawarequilts.blogspot.com/2012/03/really.html)), but no-one seems to actually have a scanned copy of the original (alleged) manual. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2012, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sewing-advice-from-1949/627729/6 "2012-07-09T21:12:05Z")
OK, according to [this blog entry](http://glassoffashion.wordpress.com/2010/01/27/theres-something-about-mary/) it’s actually from something called the _Singer Sewing Book_, by Mary Brooks Picken, from 1954. The language certainly seems like something a 1950s housewives’ advice giver might use, especially if she was already elderly herself (Picken was born in 1886), and had founded something called the Women’s Institute of Domestic Arts and Sciences. ([Wiki entry.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Brooks_Picken)) It’s not clear to me whether the Singer company actually endorsed or unwrote the book, or whether Picken just wrote it for women using the machines. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2012, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sewing-advice-from-1949/627729/7 "2012-07-09T21:19:01Z")
Crap, missed the edit window. Cornell University has a few of her books digitized and available online, including [Harmony in Dress](http://hearth.library.cornell.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=hearth;cc=hearth;q1=picken;rgn=book%20author;view=toc;idno=4088770), [The Mary Brooks Picken Method of Modern Dressmaking](http://hearth.library.cornell.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=hearth;cc=hearth;q1=picken;rgn=book%20author;view=toc;idno=4116088), and [Dress and Look Slender](http://hearth.library.cornell.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=hearth;cc=hearth;q1=picken;rgn=book%20author;view=toc;idno=4216142). ---
**Author:** ![Tamex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ccd318/32.png) [@Tamex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamex)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2012, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sewing-advice-from-1949/627729/8 "2012-07-10T02:10:25Z")
Reminds me of this list, which I thought I had read in an old Betty Crocker cookbook, but perhaps it was just somewhere on the internet, since I found it on [Snopes](http://www.snopes.com/language/document/goodwife.asp). ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2012, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sewing-advice-from-1949/627729/9 "2012-07-10T02:41:32Z")
I’ve rehabbed several ancient sewing machines, including a model that goes back at least to 1890 and possible earlier. I personally own a 1910 Singer. I’ve seen many Singer manuals and none of them had anything like that. Color me high skeptical. ---
**Author:** ![rocking\_chair](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocking_chair/32/2918_2.png) [@rocking\_chair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocking_chair)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2012, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sewing-advice-from-1949/627729/10 "2012-07-10T11:09:31Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > OK, according to [this blog entry](http://glassoffashion.wordpress.com/2010/01/27/theres-something-about-mary/) it’s actually from something called the _Singer Sewing Book_, by Mary Brooks Picken, from 1954. > > The language certainly seems like something a 1950s housewives’ advice giver might use, especially if she was already elderly herself (Picken was born in 1886), and had founded something called the Women’s Institute of Domestic Arts and Sciences. ([Wiki entry.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Brooks_Picken)) > > It’s not clear to me whether the Singer company actually endorsed or unwrote the book, or whether Picken just wrote it for women using the machines. wow! made it to 95ish! i guess sewing in full make up and dress keeps you young. i don’t remember my mum sewing in full regalia. i mostly remember the sound of the machine chugging along, and the squeak of the drawer in the cabinet. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2012, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sewing-advice-from-1949/627729/11 "2012-07-10T15:21:43Z")
I have to admit, I prefer to get a casserole in the oven, or a soup cooking, or have something in the slow cooker, if I’m going to spend a lot of time on a project. I don’t want to have to fuss with dinner when I’m sewing, and that includes doing anything more than maybe giving the soup a stir. I also don’t want to wear make up or ANYTHING which is likely to rub off onto my fabric or machine or notions, including hand lotion.