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!

Nautical Chic

 
What are some favorite things from your childhood? Do you still have them? I can't think of anything that I still have in my possession. Two of the things I would give maybe an arm for would be my Barbie's, especially my Midge doll. I tried everything to get the flip in her hair to straighten out but it never did. The other item is my sailor dress. I've thought of that dress often. About a year ago, my mom gave me a couple of shoe boxes with items from my childhood. In one of the boxes, she put this picture in it. I don't know why I was the chosen one to receive it but I can't tell you how elated I was to have a picture of my dress. Also, I love this picture of my siblings and I.

This picture was taken in 1967. We are missing my youngest sister Jodi. She came along a few years later. I will have to ask my sister's if they remember anything about the dresses that they are wearing. I'm thinking that those might have come from Grandma Kennedy also.

Why does this dress mean so much to me? Well for starters, it was one of the few pieces of clothing that I had. I wore this to church every Sunday, really. I went to Catholic school and we wore uniforms so we didn't have a need for a large wardrobe. Also, most kids didn't have the clothing that kids have now. The second reason is that this was sent to me from my Grandma Kennedy. She was the nice Grandma. My other Grandma didn't like children. At all. We saw her once every two years and she wanted nothing to do with us. I can't understand why some mothers and Grandmothers are absent of maternal genes. So you can see why this dress was special.

Long before my mom gave me the family picture, I was collecting sailor dresses. I loved my sailor dress. I love the simplicity of sailor outfits and the sweetness that they portray. The copyright dates in my collection range from 1887 on up to 1995. Unfortunately, some of my patterns are not in very good shape. Hopefully, I'll be able to find nicer replacements in the future but for right now, I'm thrilled with what I have. Here are a few patterns from my collection.

 

 Advance 6807 circa 1950's

 Simplicity 2402 Copyright 1957

 Butterick 2760 Copyright 1963

 McCalls 4384 Copyright 1957

 Butterick 4703 Copyright 1923

Simplicity 3183 Copyright 1950
Alright, I've shared with you a special dress from my childhood. Now, what about you? Is there an outfit from your childhood that you have wonderful memories about?

Fun Stuff at the Bunkhouse

I have two treasures that I've been meaning to show you. The first one, a vintage pajama pattern, I scored off of Ebay a couple of months ago. If this isn't the cutest little thing. Sure the clowns are cute but I bought this solely for the cowboy view. This will be great for either boy or girl pajamas. The copyright date is 1950. I can't wait to sew this up some day. Which reminds me, I need to purchase more Swedish tracing paper. When working with vintage patterns, it's best to trace them and use your copies instead of the original. I also need to quit stalling and order the sleeves to protect my patterns.


The second item that I want to show you is this sweet cowboy and cowgirl flannel. I don't have a clue what I'm going to make with it yet. My friend Barb B. gifted this to me. I had dropped her off at her house after quilt camp. Neither one of us noticed that her coat was still in the back of my truck. I told her that I could swing it by on my day off. I drove over to her house and knocked on the door. Her husband answered and said to wait a minute. He brought this fabric over to me. I was taken aback. What I did was an easy favor for Barb and here she gave this to me for the favor. I told her husband that the gift wasn't necessary, but boy did I clutch that fabric tightly as I walked back to my car.

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.

Are ya tired of vintage?

While on our trip in Minnesota, Jeff and I stopped at a couple of antique shops in Duluth. I found a booth that had some wonderful vintage patterns at a great price. There were a couple of ladies patterns from the 50's but reluctantly decided to pass on them. I did score this wonderful Cinderella apron pattern. That was a little pricey but it was 50% off. I paid $9 for it. But I think it was worth it. The little sailor dress in the picture isn't that old, maybe 1970 or later but I have this thing about sailor dresses. They just say "cute, cute, cute" to me. Sailor outfits make little children look like children. Look out girls, your sons will be getting a little sailor suit from their grandma! I think my favorite, besides the Cinderella pattern is the McCalls dress pattern. The pattern number is 1671 and it's a size 12, copyright 1951. It has a shear overlay on the dress. Very cool.

Speaking of Vintage

I thought I would show some of my favorite vintage sewing patterns. The children's patterns are from maybe 1910. I don't take them out to often as to not to damage them. I don't have very many vintage patterns. I think there may be a few more down in the basement in the pattern boxes. I keep the special ones upstairs. My favorite maybe the Princess Grace bridal gown. I found this at St. Vincent De Paul's one day. I started shaking when I saw it was only a quarter. Several people ask what I'm going to do with it. I may never use the pattern but I couldn't let it sit in the bin with the 1970's patterns.

Today's Thrift Store Score

Every now and then, I try to stop into one of the thrift stores to search for vintage patterns. Today I got lucky. I didn't really find what I set out to find, but a score none-the-less. I happened upon some Barbie doll patterns. Three of them were from 1965. Sweet. I'm not sure why I'm excited about this. Barbie doll clothes are a bitch to sew. They are so small.

I also found a Christmas pattern. I bought this same pattern 28 years ago when my daughter Lauren was born. I have used the Christmas stocking pattern for all the girls and some of the relatives. Several years ago, I discovered that a piece was missing. I had made up two stockings with a piece that I drafted but it just didn't look quite right to me. About a year ago, I stumbled upon the pattern on Ebay. I was thrilled at what I got it for. Maybe $5 plus shipping. Today I saw it for 25 cents. I decided that I should not turn it away. Three patterns would hopefully insure that I could be making these stockings for a long, long time.