adore love lust

One of my favorite things to do is to go to thrift shops and find cool vintage patterns. Like all thrifting, my visits to the shops are hit and miss, but here are a few of my most recent finds. If I come away from a shop with an armful of patterns, there is rarely any buyers remorse since most of them are priced between $.10 and $.50. Some of the patterns just become a part of a collection, but others I use. Some I use as they are, others I take bits and pieces from to make my own custom pieces. They are also helpful just to learn about how a sleeve style looks as a flat pattern before it's sewn. I learn a lot about construction from these patterns.

There are a few things that I have learned to do over the years, and I thought I would pass these tidbits on to you.

1. Check the contents of the envelope to see if all the pattern pieces and instructions are in there and check if the pattern pieces have already been cut to a certain size. These could affect if the pattern will still work for you.

2. The sizing on the front, for ex: size 6,8,10, is relative. I have found that most of them seem to run small. Be familiar with your body measurements and use the "standard body measurements" table on the back of the pattern to make sure the pattern will work for you.

3. Repair the original envelope if possible. A lot of the patterns I buy have envelopes that are worse for wear. I use a light-weight magic tape to reinforce the seams of the envelope. ALWAYS keep the original envelope, even if you need to move the contents into another envelope of some kind, put the original envelope with the pattern pieces.

4. For more compact storage, if the pattern has been used and then the pieces folded and stored, pull out the tissue pattern pieces, and get your iron out. Press the folded pieces and then put them back in he envelopes. They will fit better in the envelope and take up less storage space.
Make sure you iron the pattern pieces flat when you are ready to use them.