16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Thursday, January 4, 1912: Such a time as we had this morning. Ma was going to Milton and oh she had to make her train. Thought I might possibly be late to school with all her flying around, but I got there in plenty of time. I must be one of these early birds that you don’t like to hear so much about. I thought maybe she’d get me a nice surprise, but she didn’t.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
What was Grandma was hoping that her mother would bring her? Might it have been a dress pattern and fabric to make it?
A 1912 Ladies Home Journal article showed examples of dresses that could be made for one dollar. (Yes, you read that right! $1. Money was worth a lot more a hundred years ago.)
Well-chosen material, neat sewing, and the careful adjustment of a dress are more to be desired than expensive material badly made up and carelessly adjusted.
This is easily demonstrated in the simple dress of blue dimity above, and you can readily duplicate it for one dollar. Pattern No. 6624, which is ten cents, requires in size 16 years five yards of 36-inch material at fifteen cents a yard, and buttons at fifteen cents. The lawn bow at the neck is not included in the cost, as every girl usually has such an accessory or can make one from fine lawn or net or from scraps of lace or embroidery in her scrap-bag. . .
“Would You Believe These Cost Only One Dollar?” (Ladies Home Journal, February 1912)
A Hundred Years Ago 
Gone are the days when I sewed my dresses and my daughters’ with all the cheaper imports. So many outfits which photos bring back to life! But a dress for $1…that’s amazing!
I think that a dollar is now worth about 28 times what it was worth in 1912. $28 to buy the things needed to make a dress probably is reasonable.
I spent $93 on six yards of a cotton print, plus thee yards of a contrasting print to trim it with, and a piece of cotton knit for undergarments, to make a complete outfit for spring and fall. No, sewing is not inexpensive, but at least you can exercise your sense of creativity and make outfits that are comfortable for you.
I have pictures of my grandmother wearing dresses like that. I wonder if she made them for $1.
I’m so envious of the way our grandmother’s could sew. It’s a skill I never really learned. I have a sewing machine and can do mending. When I was young I sort of knew how to use patterns–but the clothes never seemed to turn out right.
I used to sew a lot. I even worked sewing for pay for awhile and the clothes looked fine on me. I seem to have lost the knack though. I’m thinking it may be my present figure more so then my sewing abilities though. ;-P
I didn’t have much patience when I was young–and didn’t always align the pattern and the fabric grain; tear out mistakes, etc. I think that I thought that little mistakes wouldn’t be noticeable–but of course that’s not the way it works and the final products weren’t very good.
Our grandmothers knew how to sew and mend. They could also tat (make lace), darn (fix holes in socks and other items), crochet, and knit.
I’m an accomplished knitter, but I don’t know any of the other skills. Here during the 21st century, can anyone imagine darning socks rather than discarding them for new pairs?!?!
Your comment made me smile. I knew how to darn socks when I was a child, and I always intended to do a post someday on this blog about darning. I thought that I could get my husband to take photos of me demonstrating how to darn a sock. But somehow I never actually did that post. Whenever I got a sock with a hole that was a candidate for my demo, it was just too easy to discard it and buy a new pair. 🙂
My grandmother was right, a dollar did go far.
Money was worth more in the old days 🙂