I know that this isn't a real sailor collar but the flare + the bow just makes me think of one.

I love how the two regular-sized women are studiously ignoring the tiny woman in the box, who, like a zoo animal, is also trying to ignore her captors. This particular pattern seems to be sized for the bigger women; but since the captured one is wearing the same dress, someone must have scaled it down for her, yes?

In my head the captors have found the smaller woman and are on their way to Fleet Week to make money exhibiting her in a freak show at Coney Island, but are having second thoughts. What's your take?

This pattern is from Jen at MOMSPatterns, who is also having a quick sale: Save 25% off your orders with MOMSPatterns Friday, Saturday & Sunday only using coupon code 'mayday'. (Jen offers free shipping to the US & Canada with the purchase of 5 or more patterns, by the way.)

Labels: collars, McCalls_3285, sales

Question 1: How cute is that bodice? I love the high neck and all those little buttons … sigh. (This button thing has got me bad, and that ain't good.)

Question 2: What the heck is in that box? Unwrapper looks gleeful, looker-on even more so. I think that they have swiped some OTHER girl's box of chocolates, and are planning to eat all the chocolates themselves, then on refilling the box with something hilarious and embarrassing, such as woolen long underwear, thus provoking consternation and discord between the intended recipient and her chocolates-giving beau. But that's just my take. What's yours?

Question 3: Did you know that this pattern is on SALE? Yes, yes it is: 20% with code EARTH DAY, through Friday. And get free shipping when you buy three or more patterns! (From Sandritocat.)

Labels: Butterick_5950, mystery_boxes, sales

INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA—New Graduates Size Up Potential Employers

New graduates of the Wartime Secretarial Pool and Military Academy of Indianapolis have been matched with potential employers today in the Academy's first-ever "draft day."

Graduating students were auctioned off the to the highest local bidders, many of them desperate for labor due to the war. The new workers' wages are federally regulated, but employers offered many perks, such as free hair waving, Friday movies, and company-supplied dickies.

Employer Sam Hardin, a local wholesale distributor, approved of the school's novel idea for matching employers and graduates. "These girls have had real good secretarial training," he agreed, "Plus, if we're invaded and Jerry gets this far, any one of them could take three or four down with a nail file. I've seen their drills." Jewel Harris, of Menckenville, who graduated with an advanced stenography certificate and the school's sharpshooting medal, was also happy with process. "Typing bills of lading and close-order drill sure beats washing dishes at home," she said.

Today's pattern is brought to us by Lisa, of Vintage Pattern Library. Her dog was hit by a car last week (he's fine, but there are vet bills!) so she's running a sale — use code GODOGGO for 20% off, in honor of Boo, the magical bouncing dog. (And since Lisa and her family are huge Butler basketball fans, also in honor of the Butler Bulldogs!) Good though 4/11.

Labels: patternstories, sales, Simplicity_4312, whatsthestory

This is Karen's Heidi — isn't it fabulous? I really, really love that fabric. You can read her review, here, on PatternReview. (You may need to log in, but a basic PatternReview membership is free, and if you haven't signed up already you really should — it's fantastic for research!)

I ran across Karen's version while I was doing a quick check to see what kinds of variations on the BurdaStyle Heidi have been showing up. There's Burda's own Prom Variation, of course, but I haven't seen very many other ones. Possibly because the Heidi is VERY CLOSE to perfect as is, but I've been thinking that I'd like to make it in more lightweight fabrics, as summer comes on (here in the Northern Hemisphere, at least).

The Heidi I linked to before is made in Liberty Tana lawn … but I'm wondering how the fairly narrow Heidi skirt works in a lightweight fabric. I'm worried it would ride up. So I was thinking I might double the width of the center front skirt panel and add a couple inches to the middle of the back of the skirt, which could then be gathered to make a slightly more summery and playful skirt.

I suppose the right answer is "line it, you dummy," but I haven't had much luck with lined skirts. Your thoughts?

Labels: BurdaStyle, Heidi, pattern_review

So, quickly:

here's my dress from the 2010 American Crossword Puzzle Tournament. I broke 500 for the first time!

Thanks to Jan for taking the picture (on my cell phone).

Also: this is one of those BurdaStyle Heidi dresses. I'll post a better picture of it later in the week.

Also: the fabric is from Spoonflower. I'll make it available this week too.

Also: yes, those are hot pink patent penny loafers.

Also: that's it.

Labels: crosswords, erin_sewing, Heidi, stunt_dresses

Black Dress: Betcha five bucks I can take down the one on the left before he finishes his drink.
Green Dress: Decent or indecent proposal?
Black Dress: Indecent. You get better jewelry from the indecent ones.
Green Dress: You're on! Didn't you notice the dog collar? He's a priest.
Black Dress: Honey, that's what makes this fun.

Thanks to Jen at MOMSPatterns.com for today's pattern … AND she's running a sale: 15% off! Use the code 'vavoom'. (Free shipping to US & Canada with 5 patterns purchased. Jen has 1000s to choose from …)

Labels: McCalls_4568, patternstories, whatsthestory

Flashing gang signs really wasn't helping.

In homage to Paul Ford.

(Thanks to Lauren for the image!)

Labels: patternstories, whatsthestory

"Not Used Except For Pocket" — that may, in fact, be my epitaph. (Wouldn't that look good on a gravestone? It's surprising how much time I spend thinking about my grave marker considering that I intend to be cremated, isn't it?)

Anyway, memento mori schemento mori, look at this pattern! It's lovely (even if the pic is a bit fuzzy). I likes it. And I want to know why someone opened it up and only used the pocket. Imagine how good the other, pocketless dress had to be to be more worth sewing than this one!

This one is on sale from Penny at Antique Dollhouse of Patterns — she's offering 35% of through Sunday (Paypal orders only, though). So you can browse through her site until you find the pattern that's annotated with "Used — No Pocket Piece", right?

Oh, and here's an idea: who wants to start assembling a "found poetry" page on the Vintage Patterns Wiki based on things written on pattern envelopes? With almost 28,000 (!) patterns, there must be a number of interesting notes to choose from!

Labels: pockets, sales, Vogue_8122

Yes, I am still obsessed with penny loafers, so it's time for me to share another roundup of them with you.

In some very exciting loafer news, Bass has finally come out with a low-vamp penny loafer (the Brookfield). I wish they were an update (but not this one) on the classic cordovan Weejuns, a shoe I wore constantly from elementary school through high school, but you can't have everything. (The menfolks can have updated Weejuns this spring, though.)

What you can have is them in white, which I think is really cute for summer:

And being Bass, they come in wide widths, which I appreciate, and they have more padding than most of the other loafers I've seen. (You may have to search a bit for the white ones — I see them intermittently on eBay.)

I like these Franco Sarto Ivy loafers too, but I'm not sold on the suede, and all the non-suede options are fake croc. I really, really hate fake croc (and real croc, for that matter).

I haven't had a chance to try these on (unlike the Brookfields) so I think the vamp may be too high.

These Via Spigas Olsins are super-cute:

They're on the expensive side (~$100) but are on sale everywhere right now in random colors (including the dreaded croc) and a bright shiny orange.

(The Via Spigas, with that wonderful snipped-off 1960s toe, don't look so good on a wider foot, I'm sorry to say. If you have narrow feet, they will probably look fabulous.)

This KORS MICHAEL KORS Harper loafer is cute, except for the lug sole. (Why, Michael? Why?) And they're very expensive, at almost $200:

Aldo has a loafer, too, in black, brown, and red (red's on sale!) but I don't like the trompe l'oeil nature of the penny slot (you see how picky I am?):

These Aldo loafers are a little too 1990s for my taste, but maybe the 90s are coming back, now that we've nearly exhausted the 1980s revival?

If you're out and about and see any other penny loafers, please drop me a link!

Labels: penny_loafers, shoes

Seen last week on the Collette Patterns blog:

The tone-on-tone of this is really gorgeous. (Click on the image to go to the blog and see a full-length view.) I would love to see something like this on a non-princessy wedding dress, say a simple silk sheath in cream with cream roses along the waist and hem in taffeta or even organza.

While I'm at Colette's blog, I would like to point out how cute these little bias-tape bows are. Adorable!

And speaking of embellishments, I *think* I saw recently a dress with a heart on it, where the heart was made of random sizes of heart-shaped buttons. Does that sound familiar to anyone? Or did I just make it up?

(The dress itself is available here, and it's a larger size, too!)

Thanks to Kathleen for the link!

Labels: embellishment, vintage