Jane sent this fabric, which is on sale at Hancock's of Paducah … she also sent earlier some even better alphabet fabric from Fashion Fabrics Club … which is now unavailable. (I'll take my own pic and post it when mine arrives.) She also sent this text-based fabric, if you just can't get enough typographical goodness.
Kathy found this pattern at a yard sale for 33 1/3 cents (she got three for a dollar). 
Needless to say, I love the pockets.
Speaking of pockets, Kim sends this brilliant Sesame Street video about their social importance. (Watch for the über-Seventies carpenter pants pockets.)
Nancy found near-perfect ginkgo fabric from Marimekko. I can see I'll have to start a special savings fund for this one. (Warning: site loaded badly in Firefox 3.)
Cookie found the fauxlero to end all fauxleros, at the Antique Dollhouse of Patterns:
I think that pattern is also a dirigible hostess dress, for sure, from the late, waning, Pan-American days of the industry.
Heather sent this wonderful ruffly number.
Melissa sent this comma necklace. Want.
Kate in Texas sent this really cute bee fabric from Hart's Fabrics — which doesn't let you link directly to items, frustrating! So search on "bee" if you want to find it. 
I would make a very serious tailored dress out of this … it's $8.99/yard and only 45" wide though, so maybe not this week.
Another "not this week" fabric (I missed the auction!) is this: 
I have not a single, solitary idea what I could have made out of it, though, even if I had gotten to the auction in time, since it was only 4 yards of 36" wide … from seller emt-mom-70.
Marilyn wants to know if there are charities that would take her cedar chest full of wool fabric … and I'd like to know if there are charities that would like a lot of cotton scraps, since mine are getting outrageous, and — let's be honest — the chances of me making that charm quilt I keep muttering about? Are infinitesimal.
I haven't seen the Sex and the City movie yet (I know!) but HotPatterns (spoiler alert) has a related pattern … now I think I really should go see it.
But not today. Today I have 500 emails to answer. Wish me luck!
A Dress A Day 
I love the alphabet fabrics. ;)as for the scraps, you could try leaving it with a Deseret Industries near you. It’s the the thrift store run by the LDS church. Just let them know you want it to go to the Humanitarian Center. The fabric will be used to make quilts and other items for needy people. Most of the blankets that are made go oversees to disaster victims and the ultra poor, like the recent earthquake victims in Asia. They can’t take scraps smaller than 10″x10″ because that’s their standard quilt block. If you don’t have a DI near you, call an LDS church on a Sunday. You should be able to get ahold of a Bishop (they guy in charge of the congregation. ;)) and he can help you get your donation where it needs to go.I’m LDS and our local Humanitarian center has been begging for fabric for months now. People just don’t sew like they used to and they keep running out of fabric donations. I know they would be happy with whatever you can give them. With all the disasters that happen the world over, the need is always there for these quilts.
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I would bet cash money that you could bag it up and show it on your blog and folks here would love to have it. if you’re just trying to get rid of it, that is – I’ve seen more than a few crafters give away bags of scraps to their readers.
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Love the pocket tribute…the tomato juice in the pocket? Priceless. Also love that gingko fabric… I don’t really have to eat this month, do I?
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Fauxlero dress: do the under-bodice in a sheer fabric. Sek-seee!
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Fauxlero dress: do the under-bodice in a sheer fabric. Sek-seee!
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If you are in the San Francisco area, you can donate fabric and all sorts of craft items to SCRAPS http://www.scrap-sf.org/
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i like that the alphabet fabric spells “seam”. i wonder what other words you could find in a larger piece? i’m sure if i saw someone wearing it i would make them uncomfortable from all my staring! very cute though!i, too, love those pockets but wonder how ridiculous they would look on me? i think they would be terrific for carrying a small child. and how perfect would that be?
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Re: AmyThanks for that information! I’m LDS too and wasn’t sure of the regulations for donating fabric, but over the last year or so I’ve sent probably 50 pounds of scraps and yardage to DI, hoping they’d have a use for it somehow! It’s good to know I wasn’t wrong. 🙂
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My goo’ness! Those pockets are large enough to fit a baby kangaroo! Love em!Does this really qualify as a fauxlero? Perhaps not a fakety fake fake one, since the lapels/bolero sides actually move. This is one I’d actually make. Nothing beats the crisp chic of a would-you-like-tea-or-me outfit.
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Enter “donate quilt fabric” in Google and you get lots of ideas for that one. I was going to list them, but there are too many. (Or check at a quilt store for clubs who make quilts for various charities.)As for wool – I needed to figure this out after my mother died and left lots of very good quality pieces. We knew somebody at the local university who was interested in it for some clothing construction and fashion courses.
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Does the woman on the left have flowers growing out of her big pocket? They could be “walking window boxes”! A very green idea. And to expand on the handy child-in-pocket thought, one pocket could hold a toy doggie, and the other treats. Lugging them around would be good exercise, too. The more I look at it (and this is the inherent evil of the fauxlero), the more I like the blue one, buttoned. It would be a subtly distainful outfit to wear to a wedding you didn’t really want to attent…where you don’t want to make the full effort. The outfit sort of says, “I’m here, aren’t I?”
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I know several artists who specifically take scraps of any fabric that others would throw away and make new items out of them (I make purses). I could give you their emails if you wanted. But it sounds like a local LDS church might be an easier option….less shipping.
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If any of the people with wool would willing to email me (msbelle at earthlink dot net)pictures of it, I am on the hunt for wool to make skirts out of. I will most certainly pay for postage and am happy to discuss a per yard price. I would love the idea of a fabric swap via the Friday linktastic posts.
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Love those alphabet prints that keep popping up… I just listed a circa 1940s house dress pattern and on the picture they have used a similar alphabet print, a little softer…Butterick 3895 so these alpha prints have been around for decades it seems!!!! Thank you for a great way to start the day Erin!!!
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I finally broke down and bought some of the alphabet fabric – I’ve wanted it for a while and I can’t ignore that price 🙂 Fortunately, I don’t wear big skirts (they make me look shorter and chubbier than I am) and I’m short so I can usually make a dress with 3m of fabric.Has anyone else noticed that many fauxlero patterns are found in larger sizes? I wonder why the designers thought that the fauxlero would be slimming on larger women – all the bolero benefit without the bulk, maybe? I have to say that I’ve actually bought a couple of fauxlero patterns, because I liked them and didn’t really notice how fauxlero-y they were until I received them. I’ll have to go and add them to the wiki 🙂 I also just received a 4 yard line pattern that I don’t think is dowdy, possibly because the drawing uses plaid fabric and plaid is my favourite colour. I’ll add this one, too.I have quite a few fabric scraps in a variety of sizes as well. Some are cottons, some knits, and some polyester shiny drapey stuff. I don’t quilt, either, and I don’t want to just throw away the scraps. I need to find something to do with them in Canada.
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What a great Sesame St. clip. But didn’t it look like the girl shoplifted that fruit? Didn’t see her paying anyone before sticking it in her pockets. I guess Sesame St. was *really* street-wise back in the day. Heh.
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Anonymous – I thought the same thing. I kept waiting for the line “pockets can help you steal fruit”, but they passed up that educational opportunity.
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I just bought 3 yards of the alphabet fabric (right after I told myself I wouldn’t make any more purchases on my debit card!). I’ve been wanting to make a stunt Duro for the summer for a while now, and now all I need is a white-on-black small-scale number print for the banding. Any ideas?
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Schools! If you can find a school helping the Vast Sewing Conspiracy cause, please donate your fabric to them. LOOOOOOOVVVVVVVVVVEEEEEEEEEEEEE the fauxleros (and the little hat, too!) I so wanna be a hostess.Hey Erin! I think you started a new art and fashion movement: dirigiblepunk!
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I guess I’m just a strange one…I love the dirigible hostess pattern. Oh, for the days of a slimmer body to wear those skirts!The alphabet fabric is really nice. It would make a lovely hat!
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Chantelle: you’re right…I just looked at the 4-Yard-Line collection again at the wiki, and the patterns aren’t specifically “dowdy”. I was too quick to judge. The 2-piece dresses kind of strike me as having a potential dowd factor, though. But I bet anything can be made to look that way. AND I LOVE 2241 (I think everyone knows that by now.) I wonder how many patterns were in the line?
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Ha, I thought the same thing about the girl with the apple! I rememeber being lectured by my Mom never to put anything in my pocket at the store. Ooooooh, the ginko fabric, OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH, the bee fabric!
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And if my babysitter works out.. I’m having COFFEE WITH ERIN in the morning! Hopefully she’ll allow me to share any photos I capture to prove that we’re both real people and not men in drag ;)Since it’s sorta linktasticky today, I’ll share that I’ve just moved about 100+ patterns to a SALE code on http://www.momspatterns.com and you can find the link to them on the main page. Cheap, cheap cheap. 😀
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COFFEE WITH ERIN?? This could be a fabulous book, like “Mornings with Maurey” or whatever that title was. Try to build this into a series, and take notes! Yum!
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Well, I’m glad at least three of you have already performed a citizen’s arrest on that young lady with the pilfered fruit! How lovely to wallow in a bit of Sesame Street again. Thank you!If I weren’t so far away, I’d put myself on the “I Want Your Scraps” waiting list, but that would just be silly, and not the wisest thing to do with fossil fuels these days. But good for all of you keeping tabs on the scrap-hungry of North America – I’m just glad you’re all out there, using increasingly tiny oddments of material. Is there a scrap fabric grading system out there, I wonder? What happens when it’s just a nub of frayed ends – who wants that? Someone will say, I’m sure. Textile artists, surely? Working copiously with Bondaweb (sorry, you call that Wonder Under).
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Thank you for the mention! If anyone would like to send us the problems they’re having with Firefox and our blog we’ll look into it. Works fine for us in Firefox, so we’re not sure…. thanks again!mod {at} alwaysmod.com
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Bee Fabric at Hart’s:http://www.hartsfabric.com/40433.htmlI've been to their store in Santa Cruz, CA. Lots-o-fun. They have a nice selection of Japanese imports:http://www.hartsfabric.com/jaim.htmlCMC
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Another suggestion for the scraps is to contact any church closest to you to see if they have a quilting group or even the local quilt shop for a project Linus group/volunteer as they make small quilts for the preemies. I do like the fauxlero shown, but some are too much…
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My friend was wearing a fauxlero shirt today. i nearly died of the giggles and had to go into a long explaination. I’ve been seeing a lotof fauxleros in the stores…the fashion industry conspiracy is eaves dropping on us!
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I think that fauxlero dress is also a mood dress. Open and freindly / Closed and aloof. But definately a dirigible hostess pattern.And now we know what happened to the coma, I mean.
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Those pockets are so big they would scare small children–imagine being eyeball to pocket with one of those monsters…
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re fabric scraps: maybe a senior center or retirement home? A friend of mine just donated a bunch of fabric from her mother’s estate to a local retirement home (after checking first to see if they wanted it). At my grandmother’s retirement community (not the one my friend donated to) there’s a quilting club, and some very talented quilters/artists.
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Regarding the Marimekko site not playing nice with Firefox: get the IE Tab plugin. It embeds Internet Explorer in Firefox. I generally open links in new tabs, so as not to disturb the pages that are working. If you have a tab open that’s being balky, click the little Firefox symbol all the way down in the right hand corner of the browser. It allows you to switch the mode for the tab.
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cookie, I think you’re right; the 2-piece 4 yard line dresses could be dowdy. Personally, I prefer the 1-piece dresses anyway as the others seem to be a boxy sort of jacket or top atop a pencil skirt. That silhouette looks sort of shapeless.I totally agree with you that 2241 is adorable! I think I might change the sleeves just a tiny bit, though, as they might be a bit long for me. I love how the box pleat ends at the placket.
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I think I need to start a special funding, too. The new Marimekko prints are gorgeous, and, as chance wanted it, there happens to be a shop with Marimekko stuff on the street where I live when I’m at university… so maybe some of them will arrive there! Oh no. But I’ve always wanted SOMETHING Marimekko anyway… so it can very well be a gingko print.
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HmmI dont think those are bees.. European wasps perhaps!
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There is a quilt guild in LaGrange and a Project Linus in Northbrook. I’m sure they would love your scraps. (I would, too, but am trying to contain the habit.)
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I think that first dress would make an awesome pocketed wedding dress. Who needs the bridesmaid to hold the groom’s ring and the bouquet? Just stick it in your pocket.I would wear it.
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I love that sesame street clip on pockets. It is my very favotite. Whenever it was on, my mom would sing along or when she put overalls on me or put her hands in her pockets.
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