The Pattern Trustee

 Have you ever been entrusted with something special? My dear friend and former boss entrusted me with these special doll patterns. Connie took a position in Arizona and had a household of belongings to move from Wisconsin to Arizona. She went thru her sewing closet and I was the lucky one to be given these patterns. Connie also gave me several bags of fiberfil for sock monkeys and some quilt batting. The Simplicity pattern above is my favorite. It's for a Skipper doll and the copyright date is 1964.

Of course the larger doll patterns are wonderful also. Did any of you have a Chatty Cathy doll? I can't remember if I did or not. Surely with five girls in the house, one of use had to have had this doll.

Connie, your patterns are in good hands. They are a piece of history and a piece of you. Thank you for these special patterns!

Pattern Shopping This Week

What a week it was for pattern sales. I only picked up a few patterns. The big deal this week was that both Joann Fabrics and Hancock Fabrics had Burda patterns on sale. I honestly can't think of a time when that has happened.

 I was in New York City over Labor Day weekend and I picked up a copy of Burda Style Magazine. That was on my "to purchase" list. I found it at my first stop. The magazine had a feature on Folkwear. I didn't really take the time to examine if these patterns are the same or different than what's in the magazine. They were on sale for $2.49 which is a great price so I picked them up anyway. This little girls dirndl is Burda 9509.

I'm not sure when I'll need a pattern for lederhosen but hey, one never knows. When you're German, you probably should have this in your pattern stash. This is Burda 9508.

 I already in my possession have a ladies dirndl pattern. One of these days, I'll blog about that. Like a said earlier, at $2.50 a pattern, didn't want to pass this pattern up. This pattern does have a wider range of sizes than my other pattern. This is Burda 7443.

I purchase a really pretty lime green chenille boucle at Paron Fabrics when I was in NYC. I think this is the perfect skirt for the fabric. Unfortunately, I bought all that was left on the bolt. I think I have enough for the skirt but not the jacket so I'll have to do some searching to find some complimentary fabric for the jacket.

Finally, this is McCall's 6274. I have some plans in the works for this one but you may not see it until next spring.

Ok, This Time It's for Real

A few posts back, I made the statement "Holy vintage Batman". I really, really mean it now. This is my most recent score off of Ebay. It was more than what I've paid for any of my other vintage patterns. I hadn't been to a fabric store in about two weeks and felt I had a little bit of cash to splurge. I pattern envelope is not in great shape. However, the pattern pieces have not been cut so that's a good thing.

This is a large size. I wish it would have been in the medium but hopefully I can scale it down. The copyright date on this is 1966. Is this not a cool pattern?

Alright, I am horribly, horribly, horribly embarrassed to show this but I'm going to do it anyway. A couple of years ago, my mom packed a bunch of things in a box for my sister to bring up to Wisconsin and give to me. As my luck would have it, my husband and daughter were the first to rummage through the box, not myself. When they came across this, they just howled with laughter and Jeff had tears in his eyes from laughing so hard. It would be like my mom to save really embarrassing things instead of all the other great artwork and writings that I did as a child. I can't remember anything about this. I don't know who would have typed this out. We didn't have a typewriter until I was in junior high. My guess is that I could have been in second grade. What do you think the nuns were thinking when they read this? A six/seven year old discussing having a boyfriend. I can't believe it myself! I don't know, even after all these years, I must be still lusting after Robin. Jeff will always be my real superhero though.

Holy Vintage Batman!

My husband and his aunt Arlene had traveled back to Nebraska. Jeff had called and said that he needed to stretch so they stopped at a large antique mall in Des Moines. His first call was to say that there was a Victorian blouse. This was an interesting coversation between Jeff and I. I'm asking Jeff about lace and fabric content. I didn't want a reproduction. He eventually put it back but called me a few minutes later. He said he stumbled upon some vintage patterns. I think he did pretty good. There are many patterns that do not have the copyright date on them. You can get a feel for the age by the envelope size, the pattern company, the coloring of the pattern front, etc. He brought home 26 patterns. There were a few from 1945. He knew that I really didn't want any 1960's, I'm kind of picky on those. But he brought home some children's patterns from the 60's. I was ok with those choices. I can work with those. Some of the patterns he bought are Hollywood, Advance, DuBarry and Sears & Robuck. These companies aren't in business anymore. Hollywood patterns ceased to exist after WWII. DuBarry was sold exclusively at Woolworths and stopped production around 1947. If you've never seen a vintage pattern, they look a bit different than what we are used to today. There are no seam lines, no dart lines, no markings or printing period. What they do have is little holes punched where the markings should go.

What I really need to do is to purchase some archival plastic bags to store these puppies in. Big hugs to Jeff and Arlene for such a great score.

Today, Jeff was getting tired of being in the office. Poor guy. All winter long he's at his desk from sun up to way late in the evening. He wanted to go to one of the antique malls nearby. Today, I found the booth that I have previously purchased from. The booth had all items 30% off. The buttons that I bought certainly were cheaper than had I gone Joann's or Hancocks. I picked up two packages of leather buttons for $2.40 each.

The Style of Princess Grace

The last week or so, I've been spending too much time on Ebay. I've been on the hunt for vintage sewing patterns. Mostly for children. But I have been peeking at some of the 1950's evening wear. Was there ever such a glamorous and elegant era? If I could go back in time, I would chose to to live in the Victorian era or the 1950's. Oh to go to the tea's and the parties that the Vanderbilt's put on. I'm guessing that had I lived in this era, I probably wouldn't have been a guest. I more than likely would have been a laundress or a worker in a shirt factory.

My second favorite era is the 1950's. Don't think sock hop 1950's. Think Frank Sinatra, Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly dinner parties 1950's. The fashion designers knew how to dress a woman. The women themselves knew how to dress. In addition to the perfect dress, women needed to wear the perfect foundation or undergarments to help carry out the look. The women and the industry understood this. Now in 2010, unfortunately our fashion sense is reduced to peopleofwalmart.com.

When I'm on Ebay, I always try to take a peak to see if there are any vintage bridal gowns. After looking at a few this weekend, I started to think back to Princess Grace of Monaco. In my mind, there has never been a bridal gown that so epitomized elegance and style. This is my favorite bridal gown of all time.

Grace Kelly's gown was a wedding gift to her from MGM (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) studio. Her gown was designed by Helen Rose who was one of the studio's top designers. In addition to Helen Rose, a staff of 36 seamstresses worked under top-secret conditions for six weeks on the bridal gown. The bridal gown was made up of silk peau de soie, 100 yards of silk tulle, 25 yards of silk taffeta and 125 year old Valenciennes lace that was purchased from a museum. I wish I could find better pictures to showcase the gown.

Her silk tulle veil consisted of thirty 9x4 appliqued lace flowers. On the bottom of the veil were two lace love birds. Is that not totally romantic or what? The headpiece was decorated also with the rose point Valenciennes lace and a wreath of orange blossoms. Orange blossoms were very popular with Victorian brides. Orange blossoms symbolize eternal love, marriage and fertility. Speaking of eternal love, do you remember what a heartbroken man Prince Rainer was at Grace's funeral. It still leaves sadness in my heart thinking about how he looked.

Princess Grace of Monaco's bridal gown was donated to the Philadelphia Museum of Art just a few months after her wedding to Prince Rainer. The silk veil had started to disintegrate and crumble and had to be restored. The bridal ensemble is rarely on display due to color changes of the fabric and lace. As far as I know, the bridal gown and accessories were last on display in 2006 in what would have been Grace and Rainer's 50th wedding anniversary. I hope that someday I will be able to view this magnificent gown the next time it goes on display.

30 Years of Wanting (lusting)

I have been wanting a pattern cabinet for 30 years. Last Friday, I went to Hancock Fabrics to order a dress form. Low and behold, they were selling their cabinets because of remodeling. Of course, I'm always a day late and a dollar short. The Vogue cabinets were already taken and those were really nice. I ended up with a Simplicity that has seen better days. It still is in great working order though. It will certainly do the trick. I really, really wanted a Vogue cabinet. The Simplicity cabinet makes me feel, well, simple. Anyway, Jeff and Nathen were impressed with how sturdy and well made the cabinet was and the cost. I paid $35.00 for it. I called Jeff from the fabric store. Before I even went into my spiel, he's like "ok, what's up. I can tell by the sound of your voice that you are wanting something". Am I really that transparent??? Anyway, he succombed since he knew I've been wanting one forever. This sucker is extremely heavy. We had to purchase a hand truck/dolly to move it out of the store. We also had to call Nathen to help Jeff get it on and off the truck.

As you can see, it still needs to be cleaned up. I thought it was going into the garage but Jeff said the two of us could never get it into the house ourselves. So with Nathen there, they put it right into the room. Jeff asked where I wanted it to go. How can I think in a split second for the perfect spot? So he suggested the corner. Of course as soon as Nathen left, I got to thinking......maybe.......