Pattern Purge and Purchase Possibilities!

My Etsy shop, Metamorphpursuit has reopened!! Right now there are over 30 patterns there, more will be added over the next two weeks. I have Vogue designer patterns from the 1980-90s, vintage Advance and Simplicity patterns from the 50-60s, and various others. Go check them out using that new widget to the right!

Buying that small group of patterns at Hancock Fabrics; no matter how cheap they were, still made me feel guilty for all the others I own and haven't used. This inspired me to finally finish a project I started two months ago when I came across a vintage store that had a booth devoted to thrift and antique fair supplies; vinyl bags, stickers, tags, and display stands. I bought myself some 9" x 12" plastic zip bags* after I saw how they packed their own vintage patterns. Instead of getting a bag that just fits the average sized patterns they used much larger bags and placed the pattern perpendicularly in the middle and wrapped the ends to the back and used archival tape to anchor the two sides together. I took a day and wrapped most of my patterns, including all the vintage ones, the oldest, my T-N-T (most used), and the ones I finally decided to sell.

Covered vintage patterns and ex. of what happens without preservation.

I made sure to use the new bags and my original 6 x 9 plastic protectors to make sure that all the vintage patterns have some kind of coverage. Unfortunately, without protection, some of my older pattern envelopes have become crispy, as you can see above. In those cases, I have carefully removed the folded instructions and pattern and placed them in the bags individually so that future damage to the envelopes will be minimal.

This protect and purge session ended up freeing 70+ patterns that I realized I'm either never going to make because of the style or a size I will never fit into again and the idea of reopening up my Etsy store was definitely the way to go.   

To make those elimination decisions, I used this ranked order of criteria:

1. Could I still see myself wearing these items still (or ever) since some patterns had been inherited from others? I had to see these patterns fit into my current and future wardrobe.
2. Could the size range of these patterns fit me? (I'm currently a size 14/16 and I could see being a 12/14 again but I had unused patterns from high school when I was a 6-8!)
3. Do I have the patience or motivation to undertake this pattern? I had some Vogue designer patterns rated Advanced in the mix.

For years, I've kept a photo inventory of the staggering amount of patterns I owned on Flickr. There will always be a few that I keep for sentimental reasons, but once I moved the ones chosen for sale to a separate album my inventory numbers changed drastically:

Vogue: Group of 62 condensed down to 37.
Simplicity: Batch of 54 scaled back to 28.
McCall's: Lot of 31 shrunk to 17.
New Look: Cluster of 21 reduced to 15.
Butterick: Set of 15 decreased to 9.

So from a quantity of nearly 200 patterns I now have a much more usable group of 106.

Of course that still doesn't include the 20 or so downloaded PDF patterns I may also own. But, baby steps, baby steps...

* For archival purposes, make sure they are 2 mil uncoated polyethylene bags.

Volunteer for Vintage Pattern Reproductions!

UPDATE: This pattern has now been reissued as Vogue 9106!

The McCall Pattern Company contacted me about Vogue Special Design S-4305, a vintage pattern that I own. See my post on it here.

I had contacted them a year ago and offered up two patterns for reproduction after reading this post on the blog Pattern-Vault about the author's experience lending a pattern that they had just republished. I sent my email with some pattern images attached in January of 2013 and they just contacted me June 2nd of this year. So if you've also sent them images, hang in there. Hopefully, the delay is because they're getting swamped with excellent submissions!

Another blogger bringing attention to this cause is Lauramae of Lilacs & Lace. She has made up quite a few of the Vintage Vogue patterns in her day. For yet another take on it, check this informative post from the Pattern Junkie in 2010.

I wish I could say the reason I did this was because I'm altruistic and wanted everyone to have a chance at owning this pattern. But no, it was because I had wanted this pattern so much that I bought it even though it wasn't in my size. Therefore, when they reissue it, I will receive a copy that is actually in MY size. Yeah!

So just a reminder to those holding onto awesome vintage patterns from Butterick, McCall's or Vogue that you only take out of their archival sleeves two times a year and dare to pet and/or breathe on for a few precious seconds, perhaps consider packing them up and lending them for a few months to the McCall Pattern Company for reproduction. Especially, if you have any of the ones requiring inside corsets, intricate boning, wildly-shaped pattern pieces and luxurious draped fabric, all those great design details that don't show up that often in modern pattern design (not even in indie patterns). We need those touches of imagination to spur on our own creative sparks.

Please think of us sewists out there trolling eBay dreaming of the vintage patterns going for $100 and up. Some (most) of those prices are ridiculous and those prices drop as soon as Vogue reissues one of those patterns so...

Here are a few I would love to see in my size:

Vogue 5486

McCall's 4331

Vogue 9803

McCall's 7208



McCall's 5883

Do you have any of these and are you willing to lend them to the cause?

All you have to do is email images of the patterns to the McCall Pattern Company in care of leslies@mccallpattern.com If your pattern is selected, they will then contact you about sending the paper pattern to their offices.

From Me to You:

When I found this sweater pattern in my friend's 1941 copy of the British Weldon's Home Dressmaker, no. 562, I decided to type it up and offer it to anyone interested in making it up.

It is a Word document, I can also convert it to rich text or plain text, if needed. If you would like a copy just send me an email via this blog or comment below with your email address and I'll send it to you.

To see more scans from this particular issue focusing on homemade lingerie, The Prettiest Undies, check it out in my Flickr set here.