Blue Gardenia's Sale …


Vogue 7687

Denise at Blue Gardenia is having her yearly sale … here are the details:

Another shameless plug. Forgive me. Please. But the mortgage must be paid. The pups must have their treats. And His Bertness has a fondness for Haagen Dazs. Oh, the list, it is endless. Truly.
So. Take your seats. The curtain's rising. The drums are rolling. Etc.
I announce, without further ado, The Blue Gardenia's once-a-year sale. And it's a doozy. Really. Purchase any three items — patterns, jewelry, mix and match — and get 33 percent off. Yup. 33 percent. Is that fabulous or what? You can buy ten, twenty, thirty items, forty even, and you'll get 33 percent off the total price. And your purchase will come lovingly shipped, as always. The patterns carefully stored in archival wrap with backing boards, the jewelry in classy boxes. And you don't have to stand in line with the riff raff. No pushing. No shoving. No smelly armpits or aching, swollen feet.

Early next week I'll choose the winners of the best/worst present ever contest … so there's still time to look at your haul from Thursday and say "What were they thinking?"

Only Rita Could Get Me To Blog About Pants

So Rita, over at Cemetarian, has THREE of this pattern to give away:

ebay item 8305987417

And I don't blame her, if I had this in my house I'd give it away, too. So, speaking of things you give away at holiday time, if you actually WANT one of these patterns, leave a comment about the best/worst/funniest/most inappropriate holiday present you've ever received. I'll choose three comments on Boxing Day (or soon thereafter) and forward the winners' details to Rita.

One Christmas where my mom gave me the three nicest things out of the Tweeds catalog (remember that?) and I wore each piece (two blouses and a skirt, I think) all to shreds. As for bad Christmas presents … looking at this pattern, even the most head-scratchingly bad presents I ever got pale in comparison.

So, c'mon, spill! Tell us about the ex-boyfriend who gave you a pack of gum (with one stick missing, on December 26th) or the best friend who knew that all you really wanted was two hours to go to a movie … and who got you the ticket and showed up to babysit. You will brighten the holidays of all who read the comments, and possibly get a copy of this pattern … to inflict on someone else, NEXT Christmas.

Two and a Half More Things for You

Just wanted to remind you that there is PLENTY of time to donate to Books Through Bars:

http://www.networkforgood.org/PCA/Badge.swf?BadgeId=113162

Remember to put "Dress A Day" in the dedication field and email me your receipt so as to be eligible to have a character in my "Secret Lives of Dresses" novel (coming from Grand Central and Hodder in 2010!) named after you! We're trying to get to $1500 by January 7 …

Has anyone else heard about the proposed CPSIA law? The best discussion of it is going on over at Fashion Incubator. If you buy from small manufacturers (or ARE a small manufacturer), you should REALLY know about this. Seriously. Go check it out.

Also? These are my favorite joke right now.

Stuff I Forgot

Holly at LuciteBox Vintage asked me to point out that even though she'll be away from the 22nd-28th, she'll be shipping again on the 29th, AND the discount (15% off anything on the site) and the donation (10% to Books Through Bars in honor of the purchaser) still applies until the 27th!

And I missed a whole slew of stuff from Pamela (of GlamourStitch, GlamourSavvy, and GlamourSurf … and Glamoursurf, by the way, is offering 20% off through Dec 31, enter the keyword "Santa")

So you could get a discount on something like this:

swimsuit

Or this:

McCalls 5648

Or you could just head over to Glamourstitch for this:

McCalls 4312

Or to Glamoursavvy for these boudoir shoes, which if they were my size, would have never seen the light of blog (despite the fact that my nightwear now consists solely of exercise clothes, so as to obviate one more excuse to avoid the treadmill, and these would look ridiculous with Target flare-leg yoga pants):

boudoir shoes

Whew! Okay, now I think that's it. But if not, email me!

This might be the last of it … did I forget anybody?

Janet at Lanetz Living couldn't choose just three patterns (and I can't blame her) … instead, she created a special 25% off coupon for you! Use the code "xmas" when they check out and it will automatically be deducted. Plus, Janet offers free Shipping in the USA and Canada when 3 or more items are purchased. (International shipping is discounted with three or more items.) The coupon will be good from now until New Year's Day.

Janet has over 200 Vogue Designer patterns to choose from … has newly listed McCalls Needlework Magazines from the 1930's to 1950's … and (my favorite) dozens of shirtwaist dresses that span the era from the 1940's to today!

Holly at Freudian Slips Vintage says that Dress A Day readers will receive a 10% discount off anything from her website if you type in coupon code RUDOLF. Check out with the shopping cart as usual, then click "recalculate" to receive the discount from your order. The discount will run from now until the 20th of December only, and will finish at midnight UK time.

If you're looking for something to spend that discount on, you might want to peep at these:


satin shoes


aqua clutch


Whiting and Davis gold mesh bag

Whew! I think that's it; see you after Christmas! Happy Holidays!

Almost done …

Sheila at Out of the Ashes has created a coupon JUST for Dress A Day readers good until December 26 for 15% off instead of the usual 10% – yay! Put in PRESENT at checkout it's not too late to get a pattern for a New Year's Eve dress …

Tina, at What-I-Found offers these for your holiday listmaking:


Butterick 9195


Advance 2859


Simplicity 4178

These are from Lisa at Miss Helene's:


Advance 8043


Simplicity 2407


Simplicity 2096

And these are from the Vintage Fashion Library:


VFL 8477


Simplicity 3451


VFL 117

Ain't No Stopping Us Now

I'm going to post all the fabulous Christmas and Holiday links I got today if it kills me.

Luckily, Jen at MOMSPatterns is making it easy; look at this:


McCalls 6812

If there is someone on your list that wouldn't like this pattern then perhaps next year you should just send them a card.

She's got this great men's shirt up, too, on eBay:


Schiaparelli shirt

Jen is also offering 20% off any Dress A Day order through the end of the year, with the coupon code 'alliwant20'. It's good from now until 12/31/2008 midnight, EST. Good on any MOMSPatterns order, excluding gift certificates (although gift certificates are a REALLY good idea)! Oh, and the 20% is even good on that shirt above — mention it when you win the auction and Jen will adjust the invoice!

Anna at BootyVintage has these in stock right now (but probably not for long):

Men's boxers:

Simplicity 4351

A pattern of gifts "children can make for the whole family!"

Butterick 6762

And some great aprons:

McCalls aprons

Oh, Oh, Oh … Merry Christmas!

Birgit at Stitches and Loops sent me these, and only my sense of bloggish responsibility kept me from buying all of these myself and not posting them:


Butterick 6707


Vogue 8915


McCalls 6044

Christine at Alley Cats has these for some lucky Jazz Age babe:


PPP 6125


PRP 4560


pattern 2951

Hotpatterns is doing a sale: buy any two of their three bestselling dresses and get the bag pattern of your choice free! (You have to email in your choice of bag pattern to sales@hotpatterns.com and they will add it to the order — Offer ends Dec 31st! One of their three bestsellers is this one, which I love and plan to make Real Soon Now:


Cosmopolitan dress

Are you ready for more?

Of course you are. Karen at Mystique Vintage is offering these three charmers:

A great sheath dress pattern:


Vogue 6178

Some really nice floral 1940s fabric:

1940s rayon

And, for the girl who has (nearly) everything: a faux-fur and satin hanky-holder. You know, for the vanity table:


hankyholder

Karen has also added a gift certificate feature to her site through Paypal – good on all items for sale at Mystique Vintage (with no expiration date!) and in denominations of $5.

Amy at Viva Vintage has this heartbreakingly wonderful vintage coin charm bracelet:


coin bracelet

And this mother-of-pearl bracelet:


mother of pearl bracelet

And this wool cape and muff set, which is so vintage it looks like it's from the future!


cape and muff set

Oh, and Deborah sent me this link to an Etsy necklace supposedly inspired by this blog! I am very, very flattered.