McCall Fashions for January 1918

Illustration of two women skating on the cover of a McCall Pattern Company news leaflet, winter 1918 (McCall 8125, 8130, and 8121) — *McCall Fashions*, January 1918.

Now that the temperature has dropped, I wanted to share a near-antique McCall News from winter 1917-18.

The cover illustration shows two women skating on a frozen lake. The fur-trimmed dress on the left is McCall 8125, with ‘aviation cap’ McCall 8130; the dress on the right is McCall 8121.

Inside the leaflet are some interesting patterns for war work. You may recognize overall suit McCall 7860 from my Great War post. Here we see the sleeveless view worn over a blouse:

World War 1 McCall 7860 overall suit pattern in McCall Fashions leaflet — McCall 7860 overall suit in *McCall Fashions*, January 1918.

‘The Conservation Uniform,’ McCall 7970, is a dress apron designated “Official Food Conservation Uniform; for the use of women signing the Conservation Pledge of the Food Commission.” (Often called a Hoover apron—for more, see witness2fashion’s post.) The cap and cuffs were included in the pattern:

World War 1 dress apron / conservation uniform pattern McCall 7970 in McCall Fashions leaflet — The Conservation Uniform: McCall 7970 dress apron in *McCall Fashions*, January 1918.

The ‘aviation cap’ from the cover is shown with McCall 7897, a ladies’ military dress with optional cape:

World War 1 patterns: Military dress McCall 7895 and aviation cap McCall 8130 in McCall Fashions leaflet — Military dress McCall 7895 and aviation cap McCall 8130 in *McCall Fashions*, January 1918.

4 thoughts on “McCall Fashions for January 1918”

Apparently all the women’s magazines carried the Conservation Uniform pattern as part of the war effort. It was sometimes called a Hoover apron or Hooverette, after Herbert Hoover, then Food Administrator for the U.S. You can see the Delineator magazine’s photo of the Conservation Uniform, etc., here.