Young creative moms on the lookout for fun and fashion were typical readers of Good Housekeeping magazines in the 1960s. Each issue would devote a few pages to sewing and needle crafts. A popular mid-century trend was to make matching outfits. If you are going to sew a cute dress for yourself, why not make a matching one for your daughter? Such was the case with this article found in the June 1963 edition of Good Housekeeping. It told readers how to embellish matching gingham dresses with embroidery.
The squares of the gingham can be used to create the pattern for a cross-stitch style of embroidery. The editors told how to make the dress special.
. . . there’s nothing like a hand-done design to add individual charm to the simplest dress.
The article suggests making tiny pleats while doing the embroidery for the little girl’s dress. For the mom’s gingham dress, they stitched the design on a small print gingham and appliqued it to the dress. Rickrack was used as an edging for the applique.
The article provided diagrams as a guide for the embroidery.
Typically, the magazines would provide additional information to the reader with a published booklet. Here they gave the reader the option to put thirty cents in an envelope to request and pay for a booklet.
To obtain booklet #GHN 750 entitled Gingham Embroidery, send 30 cents to: Good Housekeeping Bulletin Service, 57th Street at 8th avenue, New York 19, New York
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