There was a time when most women had some degree of dressmaking skill and this was reflected by the wide array of patterns.

These were printed envelopes showing the finished product on the cover, with the paper patterns inside ready for cutting. Millions must have been sold.

Among the publishers were Style, Jiffy, Butterick, Burda and Simplicity. Now that the art of home dressmaking has made a big comeback in the past decade, it's no surprise original dress patterns are very collectable.

This resurgence covers all generations. The collector hunting for 1970s patterns could well be a 17-year-old looking for something unique to wear for her formal.

These patterns are also collected by fashion designers, as well as students of social history. They represent an era when women (and possibly some liberated males) would happily sit at home with the Singer and make clothes for all the family. The most prized patterns are those with a complete quota of instruction and patterns. The most valuable are the patterns that have never been used.

Still, all except absolute rarities should be available for $20 or less.

Dress patterns were once so common they were given away as promotions by magazines and newspapers. The pattern of the week, or month, would be sent to subscribers in plain envelopes and examples of these are also collectable.

These patterns tended to be kept, regardless of changing fashion. One recently snapped up by collector Jacqueline White (see My Collection) was sent out by the Woman's Mirror magazine on October 24, 1933. It was for a floppy beach hat that is now very much back in vogue.

Less fashionable these days is the 1970s set of patterns by Simplicity for a toilet-seat cover and mat, even a complete cover for the cistern. The recommended material was a bright-green plush fabric.

Most patterns are English, American or European but there is also a fascinating Australian influence. Patterns by Madame Weigel are perhaps the most prized of all. These were produced in Richmond.

Johanna Weigel was born in Prussia in 1847, then emigrated to New York and worked as a designer at McCalls, a leading paper-pattern manufacturer. In 1876 she and her husband, Oscar, came to Melbourne on their honeymoon. They decided this was the place to start their new life.

Johanna cut patterns from her own clothes to give to friends. These were so popular she and Oscar decided to start their own business in Lennox Street.

In 1880 they started Madame Weigel's Journal of Fashion, a subscription publication claimed to be Australia's first locally produced fashion magazine. A feature was the mail-order dress patterns.

Author Miles Franklin wrote that her mother was a regular subscriber: "Madame Weigel was to me a figure of legend as Mrs Beeton or the Ingoldsby Legends."

Paper patterns made the Weigels rich. In 1890 they built Drusilla, a two-storey mansion with 26 rooms, at the foot of Mount Macedon. When the house burnt down in 1903, they moved to South Melbourne. Madame Weigel Pty Ltd continued after her death, until at least the 1960s. There's an impressive monument to the Weigels in Brighton Cemetery.

While private collectors get excited if they find an original Madame Weigel pattern, she is also considered an influential figure by museums and libraries.

Post-war examples sell for $30-plus on eBay. Weigel's pre-war patterns would be worth even more. Are any 19th-century patterns still around? If so, they would be well worth preserving.

A typical Simplicity pattern from the 1970s still has a practical purpose. The retro designs on the cover can be made at home by dressmakers.

A rarity is this example from the British Vogue Couturier series. Produced in the early '60s, its cover girl is a young Jean Shrimpton.

Worth slightly more are patterns from the 1940s and '50s, now difficult to find. Those with instructions and unused paper patterns are the most valuable.

My Collection

Jacqueline White has appeared on this page before as one of the founding contributors to the Historic Houses Trust's "Living in the Seventies" Fair.

Part of her impressive collection on that occasion was a set of nine unused tickets to a Linda Ronstadt concert in 1979. These were still in the original Computicket envelope, the infamous booking agency set up by Harry M. Miller that collapsed soon after.

White is also a collector of interesting dress patterns from any decade. She has about 200, the earliest from the 1920s. Most of her collection has been sourced from op shops, garage sales or church fetes but she has recently noticed that the old ones no longer appear, a sure sign that she is not alone in seeking them out.

Retro clothing is one of her many passions. As well as the patterns, she collects associated memorabilia like old fashion magazines. One of her favourites is a 1950s Australian edition of Vogue that includes photos by Helmut Newton. The model is a very young, very slim Maggie Tabberer.

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