I'm drowning

Drowning, I tell you.  In patterns.  Vintage and new, men's and women's, 1940s up until last year.  I just got done photographing and listing all (or what I believe to be all at this time) of the patterns I had in the "to be sold" box, and there are 85 of them on Etsy right now.

You heard right.  85 patterns.

 Many of them never even opened.

Please, please, for the love of all the sewing gods, take some of these off my hands.  The bulk are priced at $4.99 apiece (with a few exceptions).  If you buy 4 or more, you can use the code FREEPATTERN to get $4.99 off your order (technically a free pattern).

You can see all the pattern goodness here.

Pattern Sale

I've put quite a few new vintage patterns up in the Etsy shop lately, but I kept a few aside to list here since I don't think Etsy shoppers are likely to be searching for secondhand indie patterns.

These have been in stash for quite some time, and never even met up with scissors or tracing paper.  My procrastination is your gain.

First up, two Colette patterns, the Ceylon and the Oolong dresses.  Sizes 0 to 18, uncut.   SOLD

Next, Angela Wolf's Angel bootcut jean pattern.  SOLD  I bought this when it came out, because I met Angela at Patternreview Weekend in Chicago and really liked her -- and her jeans.  But I don't have the time or attention span right now to make jeans, and someone else will.  Sizes 0 to 16, again uncut.

Last ones:  J. Stern Designs Khaki pants, sizes 6-16, uncut, SOLD, the Islander Sewing Systems City Western Shirt pattern, sizes XS - 4XL, uncut.  The khakis were a great idea, and they're a cute pattern, but I'm hardly in an office anymore and I don't see the need for them.  The shirt's also great, but why am I going to reinvent the shirtmaking wheel when I can whip up a KwikSew shirt for Mario in the time it takes for him to obsess over the election cycle on MSNBC?  

All patterns are $5 each plus shipping.  Discounts for taking more than 1 of these off my hands.  

Vintage Pattern Alert!

So the one resolution I've been able to keep so far this year is my vow to seriously declutter the house.

That even includes patterns.

Somehow, I have three large plastic bins of vintage sewing patterns.  Don't ask me how; I've probably only purchased 15-20 of them personally.  Others have been found in free boxes, donated by friends, handed over by complete strangers who said, "Oh, I heard that you sew," a few were even in the attic when I bought the house.

And I'm never going to use them all.  I know that.

Plus, there's a huge number of them (at least 25-30) that have 30-32" bust measurements, and I'm never going to do that kind of pattern alterations.

So I'm slowly going through them to make sure they're complete, photographing them and getting them up on Etsy in the hope of finding new homes for some of them

Link to the Vintage Sewing Section is here -- please go take a look.  All patterns (unless they're something absolutely spectacular and rare) are listed at $5 per, with $2 shipping and $.50 shipping for each additional pattern.

Surely there's something that makes your heart beat faster.  And if not, check back tomorrow.  I'm going to try to post 5 patterns a day until my patience runs out or my camera battery dies.  Whichever comes first.

Almost Ready

So when I left work last Thursday, I had 44 pieces finished and waiting for the craft show.

I had off Friday.

When I went back to work Monday morning, there were  67 pieces finished and waiting to be priced and tagged and inventoried.  I got that done last night, and tonight, I set up my little corner of the gallery where the show will take place.  Being early has its privileges; I scored a table end, with a nice bit of wall overhead that will be taken advantage of before I'm done with it.

It was warm in Santa's little sweatshop this past weekend, yes it was.  But it was productive, as well.

I wish I didn't put this work off until the last minute, because I do enjoy making things, I just don't feel like working on those particular projects until I have to, and then I realize it's nearly too late and hey, I'm actually having fun with it and now it's almost over.

The continued challenge of working with recycled fabrics and remnants is trying to find enough of any one fabric, or finding several that coordinate (or fight nicely) to make up a specific piece.  Some of the most rewarding time spent in the workroom is laying out bits and pieces from various old projects or things I've pulled from the donation bag, walking down memory lane while piecing together something new.

Not all of the photos here are my stuff, obviously.  I'm only the top photo, and it only looks a little minimal because half my stuff is reserved for the second show on Saturday afternoon (which means I'll only look minimal at this show for the members-only opening night, which is usually lighter than public opening, on Saturday - and by then, I'll have added all the stuff that didn't sell on Saturday afternoon.  Unless - if the sewing gods are smiling - it all sells.

Fat chance.  It's the holiday season.  The sewing gods are snarky at the best of times.  At the holidays?  They're just like the rest of us: grumpy, possibly a bit hung over, a little sleep deprived, stressed and probably pissed at their co-worker sewing gods for being such godawful elves.

In non-craft show (and shopping) news, I somehow wandered onto the Style Arc pattern site the other evening and bought myself some patterns.  I'm still not sure how that happened, but if I'm going to pay hideous Australian shipping rates, I might as well justify them by buying a few patterns, right?  Dress, jacket and pants coming my way, along with a free top pattern.

To be sewn in January, when I have a brain again and the sewing gods have gone to the Bahamas, to recover.  I'll be recovering at home, with my stash and some new patterns.

New (Old) Patterns

I mentioned in my previous post that we went flea marketing last weekend and I found a few vintage patterns. 

These were found in a little store in Lambertville, NJ, which had a heavy inventory of vintage clothes, jewelry, knicknacks, toys, magazines, and the kind of stuff that can keep you occupied for hours.  The patterns (there were probably about 25) were stuffed, standing up, in an old jewelry box.  Mario pointed them out to me and disappeared off into some back room to look at comic books.

I settled down in a corner and spread them out.  Most were gorgeous - there were a few of those cute romper-with-skirt combos, bathing suits, loads of dresses, a few pairs of pants.  I'm a sucker for a vintage dress, though, and that's where I focused my attention. 

They had two Hollywood Patterns, the Evelyn Keyes 1041 pictured here, and a Betty Grable which I couldn't afford (the random pricing didn't make much sense except for that one).  Despite wanting the Grable because of the photo and the great pattern drawing, I ended up with Evelyn, Scarlett O'Hara's little sister, because it was overall a better pattern. 

Here's the description:  Fitted jacket-blouse with or without square collar. Shoulder yokes in one with center front and back sections.  Bracelet length or shortsleeves.  Slim six-gored skirt.

A little girlish in the drawings, perhaps, but I think it has a lot of possibilities - look at those interesting curved shoulder seams.  They're hidden under the collar on the center figure, buried in floral print on the left, and ruined with ruffles on the right, but the style line in and of itself is interesting.  Best of all, it's a 38" bust, 41" hip.  No grading up, hallelujah!  (Though can you believe that I'm a size 20 in this vintage pattern?) 

The second pattern is McCall 8040, another dress.  There's nothing tremendously special about this one (other than the 40" bust measurement; I might have to grade down) but I liked the plaid version with the collar on the bias.  And I just plain like the shape of the collar which, by the way, is cut on, not a separate piece.  And they give pattern pieces for the shoulder pads. 

I love old patterns. 

The third and final pattern, Simplicity 2780, is my favorite, because I know I'll get a ton of wear out of it.  I may be a sucker for vintage dress patterns, but jacket patterns of any era always pique my interest. 

The pattern description: Misses bolero. The bolero is fitted with darts and the lining is optional.  Style 1 features a shawl collar cut in one with the front.  The lower edge is curved, and the long sleeves are trimmed with cuffs.  A Peter Pan collar edges the high neckline in Style 2, and the lining is in contrast.  The sleeves in Style 3 are three-quarter length.

I think that's a lot of jacket for one pattern.  And for a seemingly simple pattern, ther are - count 'em - 10 darts.  Back darts, bust darts, back shoulder darts (I LOVE those) and 2 darts in each sleeve.  I can't wait to make this one.

Simplicity called this a bolero, but I always think of boleros as really cropped.  According to the measurements on the back of the envelope, the length from back of neck to bottom of jacket for my size is 16 1/4".  Longer than what I think of as a bolero, but also way more useful than those cropped jackets that are absolutely adorable but don't work with the clothes I want to wear under them.

Where was this jacket in January?  It would have saved me three muslins for the wedding jacket. 
These patterns were all in the lower price level ($7 each), which I thought was a little high, but I convinced the seller to let me open the envelopes to confirm that the instructions and all pieces were there, and they were.  The envelopes have had a little wear and tear, but the pattern tissue is still intact and the instructions, if a little brown and crispy around the edges, are there as well. Can't wait to dive in and read them; I always learn someting new from vintage instructions. 

Not bad for a day otherwise spent enjoyably wandering 2 flea markets, looking over everyone's old goodies, getting a nice sunburn,and then having lunch outdoors under a tree that made the sunburn worthwhile.