If you are a collector of vintage patterns, then you have probably heard of Spadea patterns.  To the collector, these are some of the best patterns produced in the 20th Century.  But most people have never heard of Spadea, as the company has been out of business for some time, and its history largely forgotten.

I've tried to piece together a bit of history about Spadea, using the clues left in their publications and what little I've been able to locate from other sources.  If anyone reading this has any additional information about the company, I'd love to hear from you.

Spadea was actually Jean Miller Spadea.  She was a fashion artist-illustrator and husband James Spadea was a magazine ad man when they met and married in 1925.  In the 1930s they started a publishing venture and launched a beauty magazine, You.  The magazine had been financed primarily by money Jean Spadea made working as a freelance illustrator for New York City stores such as Bonwit Teller and Saks Fifth Avenue.  I really do not what happened with the magazine venture, as I can find no reference to it except for its launch in 1937.

Spadea Syndicate, Inc, was formed around 1951, as a syndicated column of sewing tips, You're Sew Right,  that was published in newspapers.  Jean Spadea developed sketches for American Designer's Patterns, and these were offered through the column.  A lot of the earlier patterns are actually signed "Spadea".

By the mid 1950s, Spadea Syndicate had become Spadea Fashion, Inc, and the patterns were known as Spadea Designer Patterns, and a new line, International Designer Patterns by Spadea was launched. 

The company did not do things the way other pattern companies did.  To begin with, their sizing was different.  Instead of using the "Government Standard Sizing" for patterns, Spadea used sizing that was in line with regular ready-to-wear clothing.  And in the case of international designers, Spadea used each particular designer's method of sizing.

Spadea patterns were cut directly from a master pattern which was taken from the original garment.  Great care was taken to reproduce the original as closely as possible, but to do so in a way that made the construction doable by the home sewer.  Then a muslin garment was made from the new pattern, which was then sketched by Jean Spadea for the newspaper column and the catalog.

Many of the great designers of the 1950s and 60s had their garments reproduced by Spadea, including Claire McCardell, Joset Walker,  Bill Blass,  Ceil Chapman and Donald Brooks.   The designers' sewing and tailoring hints were included in the newspaper column, and in 1967 was published as a book.  In the early 1960s, Spadea worked with the Duchess of Windsor to develop pattern designs.

Even though all the other pattern companies had turned to printed patterns, Spadea continued to make theirs perforated and precut.  They claimed that this gave the home sewer a more accurate way to mark the  fabric. 

Jean Spadea retired in 1967, but the pattern company continued into the early 1970s.  The last reference I can find to it is 1974, from a catalog owned by Lisa of Miss Helene's Vintage.  Jean Spadea died in Florida in 1983.

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