Finds

'vintage' patterns---3 for 99 cents

I did at last manage to drag my sister-in-law to Value Village this morning for a quick trawl. Apologies for the crummy camera-phone pictures, the real camera’s battery is dead at the moment.

Nothing stupendously amazing. A nice sundress pattern with similar detailing to a 30s

A cute sundress with some nice details

nightgown (wonder if I could cut it on the bias and omit the zipper?)

They have this technique where they stuff two ugly patterns in a baggie with one nicer one for 99 cents (the same price as the individual patterns, by the way). So I got this cute 70s empire-waist, princess seam dress and a couple of so-so kids patterns. I really liked the dress, though.

Here’s the kicker. Can you make out what it says in the red writing above the size? Maybe not, the pictures are spectacularly sucky. It says…

Maternity!  I just scored a 70s maternity pattern! (And my mom swears all 70s maternity wear was awful!). Oopsie. Since I have no intention of including any further procreation in my life plan, this is fairly amusing, but hopefully I can just reduce the amount of gathering at that bottom front panel and have a wearable, non-maternity dress. (For the record, I don’t think those girls on the pattern envelope look pregnant at all—or even old enough to be pregnant, for that matter!)

Wool plaid and herringbone, and a 70s maternity pattern!

I also grabbed a couple of smallish pieces of wooly fabric, a lightweight plaid with some pink in it and a heavy grey herringbone. There might just be enough of the plaid for a pencil skirt, or maybe an A-line jumper for one of the kids (assuming I can get them to wear anything scratchy like that!). The herringbone wants to be a jacket but I strongly doubt there’s enough of it there (plus grey is probably not the best colour near my face), but maybe a longer or flaring gored skirt. Something with some girly detail to offset the boring colour.

You will note that neither of these fabrics is even remotely suited to the patterns I picked up. /sigh.

So anyway, that’s the story. We’re off to the lake tonight so I will be incommunicado for a few days and probably have nothing to say for a few more after. What do you think should be the first thing I sew when I get back? I’m thinking the next set of jeans, but there’s also another whack at the Lydia T-shirt pattern, or a skirt. It would be fun to do a skirt. I’ve never done one.