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.

How Little Can I Live With?

Much more than I thought or want.  Really.


My thought was to purge a lot of unwanted stuff and start over this part of my life by living more simply but I still ended up with...say it again?  Much more than I wanted.  This is what was left after a packed-car trip to the new place!

Does not include the furniture that I will take! 

The biggest space hogs among my moving boxes are the six and a half boxes and plastic totes devoted to sewing books and fabric.  That is even more than the space devoted to my finished items of clothing!  That does not even include the two sewing machines, a table and a wardrobe dedicated to hold everything.  For sure, this is not a hobby suited for minimal living!



I guess I will never be able to live like this:

All-in-one unit. Designer unknown.

let alone this apartment in 300 square feet.


The funny thing is that I really thought I had less sewing "stuff n' stash" than most  bloggers I read until I combined the stuff from my bedroom closet, under the bed, in the wardrobe/armoire, on my bookshelf, and next to and in the sewing table. Yes, in denial, was I.  So can anyone show me a seamster/sewist* that does live minimally?  I'm serious, I dare you!



*Of adult garments, not quilts, children clothing or stuffed animals.

Handmade Wardrobe Overview

The past few years haven't really been that bad sewing-wise. Well, not as bad as I thought. Here are the things I have made (AND still wearing) in the past three years. Not bad. Let's see what these twenty-three pieces can tell me about what I sew for myself.

Eight tops

Eight dresses

Six skirts or shorts

One topper

One thing, I rarely make buttonholes and here's proof, the only item to have them is the red vintage Butterick top that buttons up the back. Also there are only five zippers among all twenty-three garments! I seem to prefer elastic, belts, wide neck openings, and stretch fabrics as opposed to conventional fasteners. Therefore, my wardrobe primarily consists of slip-over-the-head tops and dresses. Imagine if you couldn't use any buttons or zippers as fastenings? Well, it would be no problem for me.

My favorite colors (or the colors available to me locally at Hancock and Jo-Ann) are purple, red, and neutrals of black, grey, off-white, and brown. I also like to use patterns, but I have to be crazy about them and they must include favorite colors like red, purple, and orange.

The pattern breakdown reveals which pattern companies I like to work with and that offer things I'd wear: Simplicity for five items, Butterick has four, New Look and Colette Patterns supplied three each, McCalls and the Built By Wendy Sew U book two each, and Vogue, Pattern Runway, BurdaStyle, and SewStylish magazine are all represented with one each.

The groups also show what is missing from my wardrobe, well at least, my handmade wardrobe.

Looking at my wardrobe, it would seem I don't like setting in sleeves. All of my tops and dresses are either sleeveless or the sleeves are cut-on or raglan. I don't think I even have a pattern for a simple collarless top pattern with set-in sleeves. It seems raglan-sleeved Simplicity 3835 has been my go-to top pattern. I guess I need to franken-pattern something together.

I need more knit tops, hopefully in multi-color stripes so they can go with almost any skirt or pant in my wardrobe. However, good striped fabrics are NOT to be found locally, I will have to order those online.

In the last ten years, I have not sewn pants. In high school I had no problem with them and made at least five pairs, some from pretty intricate Vogue designer patterns. However, now I seem to be timid about them even though I definitely need more, some structured, some loose and in prints and colors that are not black. I never used to worry much about the fit (especially not the cr*tch) until this past year living vicariously through the trials of other sewists.

It also wouldn't hurt to have more skirts, in a variety of styles and lengths. These I also want in colorful prints, stripes, and checks, not solids.

Next post I will reveal what I mean to do about this.

Inspiration from MORE magazine?

Yes, I'm reading MORE magazine. I bought an issue a few months after my 40th birthday and was very upset. That issue had a multitude of articles and ads dealing with plastic surgery that angered me. I expected the mag to be about embracing and loving the age you are instead of trying to hide it. However, I've since read a few more issues left at my local Starbucks and have given the mag another chance. One thing I've enjoyed are the cover subjects and interviews; Patricia Clarkson, Holly Hunter, Michelle Obama, Emma Thompson, all smart, sassy, independent-minded women who would be cool to hang out with.

Well, enough about the magazine and more about why I'm writing. In this month's July/August issue, in an article about actress Julia Ormond there are these few lines of text that hit me.

"A Buddhist friend told me that if you're feeling stressed, get rid of the stuff you don't need and finish the things you've started."

Though Julia then goes on to make a joke about it, I thought it was great advice. I mean I've been sorta moving in that direction, but I guess I really needed to see it put that simply for it to really hit.

Jewelry from your jewel box dregs

I gave away a lot of jewelry at the yard sale. I didn't even bother putting prices on the pieces I gave up. Almost all of the items were things I had been given for free, other people's leftovers, so I felt fine with it. However, if you look around there are so many people creating businesses out of assembling old jewelry leftovers into new pieces.

Maybe I can inspire you to make some magic happen in your jewelry box before you become thoroughly fed up with everything you have.

This is a necklace clipping I've had in my scrapbooks for years. Unfortunately, I can't remember where it was from or how much the maker wanted for it. However, you see this necklace is just a grosgrain ribbon with D-ring belt attachments, like these, looped through it. Yes, the same kind of ribbon and buckles you can get at your local fabric store. I keep meaning to make one in silver but forget all about when I'm actually in the fabric store. Let me know if you make one though, ok?

Then there's this article by Justina Blakeney at Venus Zine, on making a necklace from excess jewelry that you have, the one earring from a set you keep holding on to, that broken necklace pendent, and those loose beads from that split bracelet. By the way, Venus Zine has a great DIY project section, you should check it out.

Other jewelry that shares this hod-podge aesthetic:



Images: Life is Examined, Venus Zine, Glamour, and SELF magazines.

Yard Sale observations and fallout

Observation #1: Do not expect to make money from a yard sale.

I made a total of $5.50 and after buying lunch and a man's shirt from one of the other sellers I had 25 cents left over. But I did however get rid of a healthy amount of stuff from my apartment:

• 2 pairs shoes
• 2 pairs pants
• 2 dresses
• 2 books
• 1 raincoat
• 1 jacket
• 2 handmade vests
• 4 skirts (2 handmade)
• 7 shirts
• lots of unworn jewelry and a red leather jewelry box
  

We did not have a very successful yard sale though we had some pretty cool stuff to offer.

Observation #2: If you participate in a group yard sale, expect to come home with something new.

I came home with: 1 Isaac Mizrahi for Target black blazer, 1 IZOD Jeans man's shirt (never-worn), 6 issues of Victoria magazine (circa 2002-3), and 2 sets of Dr. Seuss card games, and enough ideas for over ten blog posts!

Hurrah and oh la la...

The favorite dress has been found!

It was piled up in my Out Box with all the stuff I'm getting rid of! I found it thanks to the fact that I'm participating in a group yard sale this weekend. I really only looked through that pile because of the sale and it was the third thing I picked up. Hurray! So hopefully I can shift a lot of stuff out of here tomorrow and this won't happen again. Well, at least not anytime soon!



I have loved designer Dries Van Noten for years. I have images in my scrapbooks from the late 80's. I love these pictures of his 2009 Spring ready to wear collection, who knew black and white stripes could be so interesting? Check out the rest of the Paris Fashion Week show here on Style.com.

Possible Domestic Bermuda Triangle

I lost a dress in my apartment.

Not just any dress but my favorite black knit dress with the awesome neckline.

It is a one-bedroom apartment and I live alone.

I noticed it was missing a month ago and really haven't done much about it. I know it has to be here somewhere. It's not like I went on a whirlwind trip around the world and left it at one of my swanky hotel stops. I just have too much stuff! Can you believe it? Losing a dress in a one-bedroom apartment?

Though I DO have eight-foot wide closets that ARE stuffed with so much stuff that I DO double things up on hangers (dresses under jackets) and I DID move a bunch of things to the hall closet as a makeshift Out Box. Also, the dress IS black and my closets ARE dark.

But still...this is getting ridiculous.

The Purge, continued

I finally got to Payless last night to try on the shoes from this post.

Unfortunately, nothing fit, either they were too tight in the toe or too wide for my high arches. I had really hoped to buy a sweet little ballerina flat and retire at least one pair of old shoes today.

I was able to try on two of the styles I posted from Payless, plus one new one. This first shoe is the one from Old Navy, but as it turns out, Payless had a very similar pair with the same "higher heel hidden inside" design. However, I didn't like the fit on this shoe either. I really like the look of the Old Navy pair and they are still my first choice, but I don't like the fact that they only sell them online and you can't try them on in the store.

This shoe retirement has become a more urgent goal since I realized I do not want to be wearing high heels during the wedding that I'm managing in three weeks. I've walked the location; Maymont Park, with it's cobblestone paths and gravel lanes enough times to know I do not want to twist my ankle. On the first day I toured the space, in heels, I found myself cursing their quaint and lovely garden paths.

So, where else can I find a nice pair of ballerina-like flats for cheap? Any ideas?