The best free vintage sewing books

One of the good things about studying history is: eventually everything about your subject becomes public domain. Because it was made so long ago, there are no more copyright restrictions. And that means, we can all share these books, completely free!

Below are six books on historic costumes and how to make them. To read them, all you have to do is click on them and it will bring you to the digital file

Chats on costume by George Woolliscroft was published in 1906.  It gives a nice bit of information about the history of costumes. the great thing is, instead of the usual chronological approach, this book focuses on the history of different garments.

Next is a History of feminine fashion, publishes in the 1920’s. This is a great book for everyone interested in the late Victorian, Edwardian and early twentieth century clothing. It also focuses a great deal on the house of Worth

Then we go to the actual dressmaking books. And of course the basis has to be underwear. The practical designer for women’s and misses’ underwear by Isidor Rosenfeld from 1918 has great patterns for anyone who wants to make early twentieth century underwear.

The “Keystone” jacket and dress cutter is of course a must on this list. Every historic costumer should have this book at their disposal. Published in 1895 by Charles Hecklinger, this book has wonderful patterns for late Victorian outfits.

Another good book for patterns and dressmaking is From thimble to gown by Ethel Van Gilder. This book is from 1932, so it shows techniques in dressmaking from a little bit later.

And off course a book on embroidery had to be included in this list. Because embroidery is one of the basic techniques to add decoration to a garment, and it was much used throughout history. Artistic Embroidery by Ella Church, published in 1886, is a wonderful book, which gives basic stitches as wel as more elaborate designs, and it is full of illustrations.

Most of these books are from the few decades before and after 1900. This is because these books are old enough to be in the public domain, but not so old they are hard to come by. I am still looking for older books on sewing and historic costumes which are freely available online. When I do find them I will make sure to make another post. If you have any links to good online books, please share them in the comments.