Sunday, January 11, 2009

Patterns, patterns, patterns


No, this isn't a picture of my entire pattern collection, it is a picture of the patterns I added to my collection TODAY! You see, JoAnn Fabrics is closing a store near my house (boo-hoo!) and their patterns (regular ones, not Vogue) are all $1.99, NO LIMIT on how many you can buy. They say they are going to open a superstore in our area, I'll believe that when I see it.

I had 45 minutes to kill waiting for an actor to show up for practice so I could measure him (Don't Drink the Water), so I scooted down the hill to the fabric store to look for one particular pattern. Unlucky for me, they didn't have that pattern, but while I was in the drawer where it should have been, I started spotting patterns that were very interesting.

This drawer held the older patterns that weren't even in the current pattern books, so I just went through the entire drawer, picking the ones I thought I might be able to use some day. I especially like Butterick's Retro Patterns, which are dated and have some awesome styles of dresses from the past. I was lucky enough to need to make some retro dresses for an actress in one of the plays I costumed last year, so these were a great choice for me to make her two dresses from. I love Butterick Patterns, they are very true to size from pattern to pattern, not something I can count on with other brands of patterns.

I just recieved some very old patterns (thank you fellow blogger!) from unknown years of the past. All I can tell about their vintage is that the price of the patterns ranged from $.15 to $.35, so you know they are old, because patterns of today cost from $11-$17 list price. Lucky for us seamstresses, nobody sells them at full price, and most fabric chains have a rotation of sales of patterns for $1.99 or $.99. Usually you are limited to how many you can purchase at a time at those bargain prices. So this sale was very inticing to just let my fingers do the walking and pick the patterns I thought I might use.

I chose baby/childrens patterns, other types of costume patterns, men's period costume patterns, and ladies period costumes. I also found some nice dressy gown patterns, just in case I get invited to the ball.

Did I tell you my sister's name?

It's Cinderella!

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