The Great Depression was an era that created quite a challenge for women who desired to quilt. Not only was money very tight in households, but there were limited supplies nationwide. Women had to turn to creativity and resourcefulness in order to create beautiful quilts. Some popular quilts of today were actually born from The Great Depression.

Patterns such as the Star of Bethlehem, Wedding Ring, Grandmother’s Flower Garden and even Dresden Plate were actually the result of The Great Depression. Women magazines began offering similar quilting patterns for free with each issue to increase their readership. After all, most household budgets could not afford to purchase a magazine, yet alone several quilting patterns.

As a result of The Great Depression, offering free quilting patterns actually became a common marketing tradition that is still used today.
Often women would share one magazine. Quilters would trace the quilting patterns or even a picture from a quilt photographed for the magazine to make their own patterns at home.

The most popular magazines would occasionally offer iron-on quilt patterns. These were extremely well received since several women could share not only the cost of the magazine but could share the iron-on patterns for their quilting.

I found it particularly interesting that what was used to market to women and sell women’s magazines in The Great Depression is still used today. Many companies even offer free patterns in their magazines for quilting and other crafts.

We offer the same service at www.QuiltingResourceCenter to people who sign up for the patterns, even if they don’t belong to the members-only section of the website. Of course, those who do join the members-only site regularly receive original patterns created just for our members.

Isn’t it fascinating that this particular marketing technique we use so freely today really came into use during The Great Depression? You know what they say, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” Happy stitching!