LyrebirdVintage

Vintage downloads & collectables from down under

Brisbane, Australia 106 Sales On Etsy since 2019

5 out of 5 stars (19)

LyrebirdVintage

Vintage downloads & collectables from down under

Brisbane, Australia | 106 Sales

5 out of 5 stars (19)

Shop owner

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Demi Spehar

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Demi Spehar

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106 Sales
105 Admirers
 

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Average item review
5 out of 5 stars
(19)

About LyrebirdVintage

Sales 106
On Etsy since 2019

Crazy about vintage sewing

There's something incredible about clothing designs from the 40s, 50s, and 60s. Stuff you can't really find in clothing or sewing patterns anymore. Pizzazz, uniqueness, creativity, call it what you want, I'm crazy about it.

A few years ago, I started collecting Australian Home Journals, a local magazine produced from the early 1900's that went out of business decades ago, and I recognised that I had found something really special. They were no McCalls, Butterick or Simplicity, they were simply magical.

I have a huge collection of the magazines at home but in my personal opinion, the catalogs are where it's at. I am proud to boast I have one of the largest AHJ catalog collection in the country, with almost every edition from 1941 to 1965 (and I'm not done yet!). These catalogs captured my imagination as a seamstress, with their never-before-seen designs and gorgeous, colourful illustrations evocative of those times.

This shop was a long time in the making, and it took me years to fill my collection to the degree where I'd be happy to start selling their digital reproductions to the world. As rare as they are, I don't think it's fair that only a few people in one country get to see them, so here we are.

That being said, I do have a lot of original sewing patterns, catalogs (not necessarily Home Journal), and sewing or fashion magazines in storage as well that I will be sorting through and selling as well, so keep an eye out for those in the future as LyreBird vintage expands!

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  • Demi Spehar

    Owner

    G'day from Australia, and welcome to my little shop! As you might have guessed by my name, I have a passion for vintage collectables, especially sewing patterns and magazines from mid-century Australia.

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Last updated on May 2, 2019
Frequently asked questions
I bought two PDFs from you and they share a couple of pages, what gives?

Sometimes, as a cost-saving measure, the publishers would duplicate entire pages from publication to publication (usually not more than 2 or 3, and almost never women's patterns). Generally, this is more common with men's, babies' or children's clothes. If a woman's sewing pattern was very popular and appeared in more than one magazine, they would usually redraw the outfit in a different pose instead of just duplicating entire pages.

How are the pages divided between ladies', men's and children's fashion?

In a typical Australian Home Journal catalog, you'll find that approximately half of all the pages are women's fashion. The remainder are split between teen, children, baby and men. They're usually very uniform (give or take a couple pages) in structure. First half is ladies', latter half is children's fashion (usually with some ladies and men peppered in).

There will always be more ladies' fashion pages than children's.