Thursday, February 5, 2009

Working up the courage to try my "murder patterns"

Remember my yard sale boots - or more appropriately, my murder boots? Well just after I stumbled upon those lovely boots, I found these old patterns. They are made by Advance, a company which ceased operations in 1966, according to cemetarian.com, totally boosting the vintage coolness of them ;-).

I am not much of a seamstress. To date, I have made two pairs of lounge pants (in 7th and 8th grade home economics), and a few Simplicity skirts (I'll post about one of them tomorrow). But, for some reason, I have this need to learn how to sew clothing.

It could be because my mother and I had so much fun designing and making (she did all the making) all of my high school dance dresses. Or because my aunt carefully created my wedding dress. It could be leftover genes from that French taylor that my mother insists is in our lineage. Or it could be blamed on my obsession with Project Runway and sewing's newfound popularity.

Regardless, I am longing to sew.
So when I spotted these patterns, I couldn't resist their fabulousness. They were 25 and 35 cents apiece originally, so I think the old lady selling them to me actually made money on them. The one above has been drawn on but if you look closely, the actual pattern is really cute.

I love this bow on the shoulder. I think I would add it to the short-sleeved version of this dress.
Now if I could just work up the courage to move away from Simplicity and to try these out...

8 comments:

Trisha said...

I'll be the first to admit that I don't know anything about sewing with patterns, but when I pulled up the pics I was shocked to see the size in the upper r corner. I think for those measurements nowadays the size would be something like 0 or 2 or XS.
Funny how sizes have changed over the years:)
I really like the green dress pattern and also the black. A lot. I may have to borrow them. When I figure out how to sew a little better too!

Taryn said...

do it! i love the patterns...they'll look fab on you.

i (and mel) were the same as you two years ago...had sewn a few simplicity skirts and lounge pants...but longed to sew real stuff. so we just bought patterns and started doing! by trial and error i would say we got pretty good. it is now my absolute passion. be prepared for it to get addicting!

Anonymous said...

Good luck with this new hobby. I love it. If you need help, there are many tutorials on the web. The most helpful folks are at PatternReview.com. You don't have to pay, unless you want to join. Most of the info is free.

Tauna said...

good job on the blankets they look so good. I'm very impressed. that was funny about the anna. what did you end up doing. I think I would have just given it to her anyway. seeing your bright nail polish makes me want to go paint mine. i love the choice of color. good luck on the dresses. I'm sure you could do it. just give it a try- it won't hurt right! just don't wear it if it doesn't turn out!

Anonymous said...

Megan, I am coming!!! I will coach you - they are fabulous!!!

JJ said...

1. Please take me along on your next yard sale/flea market/junk yard adventure
2. Those dress are fabulous, I can not wait to see what fabric you choose
3. Re the murder boots: I drove by the police tape that morning on the way to work and was obsessed that there were so many cops and a house tapped off in our neighborhood! What a great story for a killer set of boots ;)

A Erickson said...

You could totally pull them off too with your slender little long body. They would be oh so classy and vintage! Do it!

Unknown said...

My favorite is the blue one too. I love that bow.