How long have you been in business?
The facts: My name is Tina Sutherland, I'm a 52 year old former RN, current grandmother and married to a lucky guy. 😉 I own What-I-Found – Sewing Patterns. (I'm one of the several pattern sellers at Main Street Mall Online.) I have been selling patterns for about three years, selling online for 10 years.

What motivated you to go into the vintage business? I live in an RV traveling full time for my husband's work. He does safety inspections on amusement rides so we go from big cities to tiny towns and I shop everywhere, all over the country. I owned an antique shop in Seattle and sold things online from there, but when we hit the road I needed to sell something small and unbreakable. Patterns work out perfectly, I think they are fascinating and they move with us (all 3,500 plus).

What's the weirdest/best/craziest/most beautiful thing you've ever found? The best thing I have found is a letter and I have a dress with iron on details (warning! FAKE POCKETS! —Ed.) that hasn't sold (but I admit I'll be sad when it goes!).

What do you dream about finding? I dream about finding boxes of uncut 1920-30's patterns. Oh, and they would be in wonderful condition!

What do you enjoy most about working with sewing patterns? Since we move so often it's not practical for me to take a "real" job, so working with the patterns lets me be flexible. I can list a ton or take a day off as needed. So long as I have internet I'm a happy gal.

What do you wish someone would ask you about your site? I do wish folks understood that these are pieces of history … a sixties pattern is nearly 50 years old … it's sort of amazing that something made of tissue paper is here and intact.

It's a good day at work when … A good day is when somebody discovers the long lost pattern they have been looking for. They are so happy and send such nice notes. A bride finding her exact dress is exciting too. Even when it's a fauxlero dress!

If I ran the internet for a day I'd … If I ran the internet for a day I'd issue everyone a sixteen year old to stand by as tech support.

The blogs I read (other than ADAD are …) Of course A Dress A Day! Then Lisa, AKA Miss Helene writes Random Acts of Vintage and I'd add Fabulon … it's a treat!

You'd laugh if you knew this about me … You'd laugh to see me wearing my pink hardhat hauling steel. Sometimes we move rides and since I have no real tool skills I get the scut jobs … but I can outwork those young whippersnappers.

Oh, hey, folks: it's Blog Action Day. And I was resolved not to miss it this year, and what did I post about this morning? Shoes. sigh

This year's Blog Action Day topic is "poverty" — and usually, when we think of poverty, we've been conditioned to think poverty is a problem Someplace Else, someplace far away, where we see news reports of barefoot children and people lined up with begging bowls.

But, of course, people are poor everywhere (some people in our own neighborhoods are poorer today than they've ever been). And so one of my favorite charities has always been the Greater Chicago Food Depository. It's hard to be hungry — and harder still to be hungry in a country where there's fast food on every block, sugary drinks advertised on every billboard, and where an apple can cost more than a hamburger.

If you want to help your neighbors get enough to eat, please do consider making a donation to your local food bank or food pantry.

And (on a lighter note) if you want to help one of our vintage-pattern neighbors …

Rita at Cemetarian is updating her site, and wants to know what you think of the recent changes. If you make a useful suggestion, she'll offer you a 20% off coupon! And then you can send your savings to the food bank, and everyone's happy!

Since Winter will be here ANY MOMENT (I'm told, although it was 80 degrees in Chicago on Monday), I need, as usual, more shoes. Perhaps "need" is too strong of a word; perhaps I'm looking for something like "hankering for" or "appetency". Anyway, I found these on eBay: only $50! Which is good in these times of economic uncertainty, right?

I am also havering over these, which are a LOT more expensive, but still cheaper on Amazon than anywhere else:

And what seems like months ago, but was only weeks, I'm sure, I bought these, also cheap ($80! For leather boots!) on eBay:

The calves were a bit too snug, but that's no problem — I took them to my shoe guy and he put little gussets in on either side of the zipper. It took him about a week (plus I had to go in for a "fitting" once he had the new bits inserted, to make sure they were exactly right). Now they fit perfectly, and it was only $50 to get them that way. Considering I've never, ever seen black leather boots I liked for under $250 (and thus have never, ever bought any) I feel pretty good about these!

All of these have heels under about 2", which is good, walking-wise … since, after the collapse of civilization (ANY DAY NOW) I will be walking southward to avoid the zombies and/or cannibals.

So with one new pair of black shoes (okay, two pairs — I bought a pair of Faryl Robins on sale at DSW — marked down to $40! — that I haven't taken a picture of yet), possibly one pair of wine, and a pair of black boots (plus I have brown J. Crew boots from last year that I bought at a thrift store for $7) I should be all set for autumn (if it ever gets here) and winter. So don't look for any more shoe posts from me until AT LEAST April. Right? Right.

Posts about *tights*, though …

More sale notices: Holly at Lucite Box Vintage is having a sale: 10% off anything until October 20th with the coupon code ATCOLORS. Holly (or rather, her adorable apartment) is ALSO featured on the magnificent blog Apartment Therapy, for their Fall Colors Contest — click here to check it out (and leave a comment)!

It took more than a year of watching and waiting, but finally THIS PATTERN is mine:

And I bought it from Wonderful Wiki Contributor Birgit/Tarna's eBay store, which only makes it better. (She also has a Main Street Malls store.)

I love this dress so much. I think it's because (even though the model in the illustration is clearly an ingenue) this seems like a very attractive (okay, let's admit it: sexy) dress for a woman, not just a girl. Think a kind of lush, mid-career Elizabeth Taylor; before women past 35 were encouraged to inject their foreheads with toxins lest — heaven forbid — they showed a creased visage (or attempted to raise their eyebrows).

And is it wrong that I want to make this dress in every color (starting with orange)? Possibly best not to answer that.

If this pattern makes you long to buy some patterns yourself, you're in luck: Janet at Lanetz Living is running a sale (while she goes off to welcome her fourth grandchild into the world — congratulations!). It's
25% off … just use the code sale25 (make sure it is all one word) and it will be deducted for you. Sale will end at midnight CST on Nov 2nd. You might want to start your browsing with this one …

Ingrid (and Erin, and Mary Beth, and Livebird, and Lisa, and Cindy) sent me this link, to Jodie's selvedge dress:

This is, as you can plainly see with your own eyes, magnificent. I hereby crown Jodie Queen of Doing Cool Stuff for this week (with the power vested in me by … well, by nobody, but that's beside the point). Anyone who can do this is the Queen of Doing Cool Stuff by general acclamation.

And you have GOT to click on the image to see all the other pictures. The fabulosity quotient here is very high. (Pregnant women and those with heart conditions should fortify themselves with chocolate before clicking through.)

I really, really, really hope that Alexander Henry or Michael Miller or SOMEBODY gets the hint here and does a fabric that's all selvage/selvedges as a boon to all of use who are too lazy to save ours …

Remember Robin Barcus? The dress artist who was doing a dress for each of the 50 states? She's got a new one, and I really like it:

Click on the image for other dresses she's made recently, including a series of dresses made from dollar store items. (My favorite is the whiffle-ball wedding dress.)

how long have you been in business?
2 years sourcing vintage for private/design clients, then www.freudianslipsvintage.com launched in Autumn 2007.

what motivated you to go into the vintage clothing business?
My previous life as a commercial fashion designer was becoming all about designing to fit into increasingly tight cost margins, and was no longer about creating beautiful things, setting up a vintage business enabled me to continue to be creative whilst working with beautiful clothes, and no sweatshops either!

what did you do before this?
I worked as a freelance fashion designer, designing womenswear for companies including Marks and Spencer and Laura Ashley

where are you based?
London, UK

More fun questions:
what's the weirdest/best/craziest/most beautiful thing you've ever found?
The most beautiful dress I've found recently, as I think it's so red carpet worthy and the colour is so unusual is this vintage 1940's Roecliffe and Chapman yellow draped gown and I also love this gold 1930's jacket, as it has huge crazy furnishing style tassels and the fabric is incredible!!

what do you have in stock that you can't believe hasn't sold?
This gorgeous black Frank Starr crepe goddess gown with bakelite belt, it's searching for a tiny waisted owner!

what do you dream about finding?
I got engaged In May so the hunt is now officially on for the perfect vintage wedding dress for me (selfish I know!!) I have an art deco engagement ring, so now need the dress to match!

what do you enjoy most about working with vintage?
The thrill of the hunt! that constant feeling that the most amazing vintage 1940's floral silk dress is just lurking, waiting for you to find it, at the bottom of the next box stuffed full of 70's scratchy polyester delights …

what do you wish someone would ask you about your site?
Can I purchase all of your most fabulous and expensive items straight away for the wardrobe of a huge Hollywood movie set in the 1940's etc. …

it's a good day at work when …
I get an email from a customer telling me they love their new dress, or I find a huge stash of mint condition, gorgeous new stock.

if I ran the internet for a day I'd …
Somehow eradicate all the spammers, just so I never get one more email offering me inappropriate pharmaceuticals or telling me I'm being offered the deal of a lifetime by a Russian oil magnate …

the blogs I read (other than ADAD are …)
zuburbia, go fug yourself, the Vintage Fashion Guild blog and tons of other vintage fashion sellers' blogs when I have time

you'd laugh if you knew this about me …
I still ride my immaculate 1980's (bought as a teenager) push bike with Duran Duran style logos and orange neon paintwork, as I don't see the point of buying a new one, much to Mr Freudian Slips' amusement …

Not that I want fauxleros to end … but here's a smattering of those that have been sent to me lately:

Dulcet sent this one from 1896.

Our beloved Cookie sent three. This one is highly abstract — you have to have a highly-attuned fauxlero-sense to spot it:

This one is a mod, mod take on the concept:

And I really want to know why someone wrote "Magic Lady" on this one:

Pamela was listing this one on eBay ("designed" by Gloria Swanson!), but the auction may have ended by now:

Summerset found this one, although I'm not sure if it's a fauxlero or a cape in its larval form:

Ashley found this one from Alexander McQueen, although it will set you back more than £900 (!).

The sharp-eyed Helen saw this one on Etsy. The pattern calls it an "attached capelet," but she said she wasn't fooled: it's a fauxlero.

Gremly Girl sent me this image — the woman in the center now has a starring role in my nightmares — but yes, that's a fauxlero:

This fauxlero (sent by lorrwill) WINS with POCKETS:

Elle sends this fantastic vintage Burda … a wraplero!

And, as a reminder, the fabulous Jenny started at category page on the Vintage Pattern Wiki for fauxleros here. Add yours!

And more sales! Lisa is having a fall sale at the Vintage Fashion Library. 15% off, using keyword fabulousfall, good through the 15th of October, and Sandritocat is having a one-day sale, 20% off everything (before shipping) tomorrow, Wednesday the 8th.

Beth sent me a link to this dress (at Sew-Retro, now sold) and asked if anyone else had noticed how "pull tab to open" this pattern is … which I hadn't, but now that's she's pointed this out, I will never be able to UNsee it. So, um, thanks?

She also sent this one, which is even obvious-er:

Anyone else have some good examples? Considering that I will not be able to make anything like this now that I have both seen the possibilities and posted about them … I should be grateful to have some things taken off my "to-sew" list, actually!

Oh, and, speaking of the "to-sew" list … Hotpatterns is having a $5.99 sale on all their no-sweat easy-sew patterns! Grab 'em while you can …

Book the first is Sew Fast Sew Easy Sew On, which is subtitled "All You Need To Know to Start Sewing and Serging — Today!" I'm not so sure about the "today" part — it may take you a little time to round up the supplies you want — but with a little stick-to-it-tiveness, you could be sewing tomorrow, or at the very least Sunday.

I love this kind of rah-rah, you-can-do-it sewing book, because (rah-rah!) you CAN do it. Seriously. People ask me if it's hard to sew, and I always say that if you can drive a car and follow a recipe you can sew, because sewing is really just like following a recipe (and my sewing machine has a foot pedal). You take measurements, you mix things up, and if you've been paying attention, you get something delicious at the end. (And to push the driving metaphor a bit farther: sewing machines hardly EVER crash into each other.)

Sew Fast Sew Easy Sew On lays out, with detailed illustrations, all the basics of sewing. What you need. How to cut out a pattern. The parts of a sewing machine and of a serger. Basic garment construction. It's a very patient and helpful outline of sewing knowledge, and a great beginner book. And it includes some beginner patterns — a t-shirt, a halter dress, a pair of drawstring pants, a box cushion, and the inevitable iPod cozy.

One-Piece Wearables is for slightly more advanced sewists — its subtitle is "25 Chic Garments and Accessories to Sew from Single-Pattern Pieces." At first I thought the single.jpgece thing was a gimmick, but then I remembered how many times I'd altered a pattern to remove a seam I thought superfluous, and decided to take a closer look.

The book includes 15 patterns, several of the halter-top variety (there's only so much you can do with only one pattern piece!) but I was pleasantly surprised by the dress patterns, including a sweet little number called the "window-shopping dress". There's a t-shaped tunic that's not bad either, a great circle skirt, a very interesting little jacket, and even a really cute cloche-y hat!

The illustrations are more aspirational than technical but there are good diagrams of the cutting layouts and the instructions and supply lists are very clear. For intermediate sewists, this would be a great purchase; for beginners it may be a stretch; advanced sewists might want to get their hands on a copy as a jumping-off point for their own ideas.

Forgotten Fashion is not a how-to book, unless what you need to know how to do is be charmingly absurd. I consider myself a connoisseur of the absurd, so take it from me: this is some high-grade absurd, right here. Forgotten Fashion claims to be an "illustrated faux history of outrageous trends and their untimely demise," including safari pajamas (modeled after those worn in a screwball comedy where the stars were interrupted — repeatedly — on their wedding night by the groom's pet elephant, Jinx), the "poly-chem Oxford," a man's shirt made of space-age chemicals and designed to last fifty years, and my favorite, the "Four-O'Clock Dress" a toga-like garment to be worn AFTER coming home from shopping but BEFORE "the mister" got home. It had "secret inner pockets to hide the tools of whatever vice occupied the otherwise abject and idle afternoon … miniature gin bottles, marijuana joints, or palm-sized erotic novels." Genius! (What would be in your secret pocket, I ask?)

Ready to Share: Fashion & the Ownership of Creativity might be harder to find than the books above, but it's well worth it. A collection of essays on creativity, sharing, idea transfer, and homage/borrowing/"theft" in fashion, published by the Norman Lear Center at USC, it's completely engrossing. If you like fashion and are fascinated by the arbitrariness of copyright, patents, and IP law in general, you have to read this book. (And how much do I love that I know that a considerable number of you reading this blog ARE in that category?) The book also includes a DVD of the related event put on by the center.

Whew, okay, that's it for the books on my desk today. Check back at some undetermined interval for more book-reviewing madness!