Vintage patterns

I have been happily sewing away today at a girls that dress I have made about 20 times before. It isn't the easiest or quickest dress, but it isn't too complicated either. And each time I make it I am just delighted with the result. It is a McCalls pattern from the 1970s, bought from EBay on a whim about a year ago. It has set me off with a 'pattern habit'

I just love everything about them, I don't think I can even confess the truth about how many hours I have spent trawling through the internet looking to see what is about.

The illustrations on the covers are so much more romantic than the awkward photos you find on modern pattern envelopes, I find myself convinced that if I made up that dress I too would have legs twice as long as I am tall, or a waist so tiny. The children always look so beautifully turned out and angelic.

Inside the envelope you get a slightly (delightfully!) yellowed and sweetly fusty smelling instructions with annotations and sometimes extra pattern pieces with the name of a child that has probably long since grown up.

I can't pretend that I have made up every dress that I have the pattern for, but it is such a lovely resource and they are great things to own. As with modern patterns some make up better than others. There is only this one that I made that looked old fashioned,

 although I thought that was rather delightfully reminiscent of the type of dress my Mum made for me when I was small, and it looked really lovely on my friends little girl with white blond hair. Most of the dresses I make just look quirky and unique and rather wonderful, especially in the '30 style reproduction 'feedsack' prints that I so enjoy using.

And there is the knowledge that the dress that you are making up is one that is unlikely to be being made by anyone else, although I do occasionally spend an evening searching on Flickr in the hope that I will find someone else's interpretation of the same pattern.

I suppose in the grand scheme of things there are worse habits to have. When I look on Ebay I tend to overlook the patterns from commercial sellers that cost £4.99 + postage (too expensive) and I would never entertain the idea of buying a digital reproduction of an old pattern, that would not be the same at all! I have so far resisted the temptation to buy anything really old. There are precious looking patterns from the '20s and '30s out there, but I would never be able to bring myself to use them. I don't think I have ever paid more than £3 including postage for a pattern, and on average buy two or three a month, despite the time spent browsing.

I am now off to look through (and I am sorry, yes, smell) the unusually large bundle of 5 patterns that arrived in the post this morning. What a thrill!!!