Tuesday, February 17

Vintage Thread & Sewing Advertisements

I enjoy reading old advertisements and today I ran across these.

An ad in a magazine for Coats and Clark's Thread.
This one is for Wilcox and Gibbs Sewing Machines. The company was located at 720 Chestnut Street in Philadelphia, PA. I wonder if that address is still there.
The two above are for Willmantic Thread. I have never heard of this brand of thread. Have you?


The one above is very pretty and has an old treadle machine like the one Grandma taught me to sew on. Just seeing that machine brought back a lot of memories.

Kerr & Co's six strand thread. Black is fast dyed, which means it won't run and it is specially adapted for all sewing machines.
J.P. Coats. This is the brand that Grandma and Mom used when I was young. Coats colored thread was guaranteed not to fade. It was the best thread available here at that time. However, I'm wondering if this advertisement is politically incorrect. I'd love to hear your opinion.
Clark's thread. That was another good one. If Coat's wasn't available, then Grandma and Mom bought Clark's but much preferred Coats. I think that the two companies amalgamated at some point. Both were good thread. Coats & Clark have a website HERE.

Belding Bros. & Co's Spool Silk Advertisement.

These types of vintage advertisements appeal to me a great deal. Possibly it's because I know the product, but advertising in those days was a form of art. I wish that today's advertising was more like it was back then, instead of being full of sexual innuendos and stupid men that pretend they are cats. I tend to avoid products that use that type of advertising. What about you? ~Blessing, Mary~

21 comments:

  1. I love your postcards and old ads, the first one made me laugh...

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  2. I love seeing those old ads. I agree that they are very much preferable to the ads of today and like you I avoid the products when the ad is "raunchy".

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  3. I've just been catching up on sewing, black history, and taxi's.

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  4. I also much prefer the older ads. The ones today make me shudder and wonder what we are teaching our kids. These are precious but I do think the 'black' one might be a problem today. Where did you find these?

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  5. I too like looking through old ads, so many of them bring back memories. I am familiar with the Coats thread, but not the others. As to politically correct, you need to put it into the time frame. When I was small one of my favorite books was Little Black Sambo. I also had the record to go with it. To me I loved the songs, and never connected it in a bad way to anyone except the tiger. More recently there was a huge uproar about books like that. Thing is that many groups have and continue to be stereo typed. Did I spell that right? I remember reading about the signs in the windows, No Irish need apply, etc. Makes you wonder what makes us tick that we can be so cruel to our fellow man.

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  6. Call me crazy....but I like to go through old newspapers in the library and do just this...look at the ads. Compare prices and even try to remember a certain company that may be defunct today and not 'yesterday'.

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  7. In the ad room for the clowns on the spool, someone said, "Will people think that is bad?" and others said, "They won't think a thing of it." And we didn't then but oh dear today that would be on every comedy show.

    These are so neat. Your blog is so neat! Thanks for sharing.

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  8. Hi Mary,
    What fun to see some of the old ads and products. I totally agree that advertising back then was more of an art form than the ads we see these days.
    Thanks for sharing these..
    xo

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  9. I absolutely love vintage ads, too. I even have a few framed ones I bought back before I was married....
    These were wonderful!

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  10. I have a 1924 Ladies Home Journal that has the greatest ads - I'll hae to share them sometime.

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  11. mary...how delightful! Our local paper runs articles from 80 to 100 years ago...items such as police report and classified ads. Such a different world, the women were never called by their own name; they were know as Mrs. John Smith. Thanks for you for this little walk into history!

    ~AM

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  12. Where in the world do you find those old pictures! Those are wonderful.. I have a huge plastic box full of sewing notions and there are some old needle cases with the old pictures.. I will try and scan one or two of them ........... I have some old Time magazines somewhere. They are full of fun ads........

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  13. Hi Mary! My Mother had a old sewing machine too. She gave it to my daughter Carrie and it was stolen out of their van years ago!! We all miss that old machine. I have heard of Coats and Clark's.
    Love Grams

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  14. How fun! I recently found a couple of vintage magazine's at a thrift store. I'm going to go back through them and see if there are any sewing ad's now. I love that Coats ad, but sure it would cause quite a stir if it were to run today!

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  15. I also learned to sew on my grandma's old treadle machine. I still have some of the old spools of thread, too, in my sewing basket! You brought back some good memories, Mary! NOthing like those old ads.

    You can look up that address on yellowpages.com/maps. It's a fun site to check out.

    Have a great weekend!

    ((( HUGS )))

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  16. I don't recall what type a thread my mom used.
    But I do recall her sewing and a lot. She made most of my clothes and made also my dad shirts.
    She found sewing to be relaxing and great therapy.
    Not I.

    Coffee is on and I hope your day goes well.

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  17. I relly liked all of these. Thanks so much for sharing them with us...m..

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  18. Thanks for the walk down memory lane. Hope the puppy is doing well.
    Hug and blessings,

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  19. Like you, I so love seeing those vintage ads, much better than what they call ads now! My mom use to sew all her clothes, as well as mine, while I was growing up and I remember her using Coats thread all the time:-)

    My Godmother, my aunt Delima, had one of those treadle sewing machines and she used to let me do the foot pedal part which I thought was so cool! lol

    As for that one ad being politically correct, no it wouldn't be today but it was back then. That's what I mean about things having gone way overboard where things like that are concerned. It's gotten to the point you're scared of opening your mouth in case you say something wrong...I so wish we could go back to those more innocent days!! xoxo

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  20. Clarks and Coats were the tread used by Mother and I have never heard of the other brand either. I think classes should be given in cooking and sewing again for all young people. The art work on those old ads are wonderful. That when you had to have talent to get someone to buy something. I also miss the jingles used for old TV and radio ads. Peace

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  21. I love old advertising. Any thing old, antiques, primitives. My sisters and mom have an antique store. I love to go there an browse!

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