Mr. McCall then began to design his own patterns and published a magazine called "The Queen" to promote and advertise the patterns. James McCall passed away in 1884 but his company has continued to this day. The magazine changed its name to "The Queen of Fashion" during this time period. You can view pages from the June 1905 'The Queen of Fashion' magazine here.
What I especially love about the McCall patterns is that they are in beautiful color. The McCall pattern company was one of the first that made colored covers for their patterns (in 1920's!) and they made printed patterns even before then (1919). They are so lovely. Here is a pattern from 1939 I got for my birthday that I can't wait to make up:
The other great thing about vintage McCall patterns? They are almost all dated with the copyright year they were produced. I find this really helpful in terms of dating fashions. I've run across a few that are undated and I'm not sure if there is a rhyme or reason to this. But as far as I know, they are the only pattern company to have consistently dated their patterns.
Lastly, I just love their designs. They seem to fit my tastes really well. I wonder if there was a lot of brand loyalty with patterns back in the day? I definitely consider myself a McCall gal. Is there a vintage pattern company that you feel drawn to?
