Julie from Sew-Retro Vintage Patterns just sent this to me, and I *wants* it. But it's not my size! (It's B38.) And, as we've already established, I'm way too lazy to grade patterns. Anyone got it in a B36?

Anyway, it's sweeeeet. Look at those pockets! I would definitely coordinate the pocket flaps and the neckline band. I might even go so far as to add another coordinating band around the hem. (My laziness doesn't extend to unnecessary design touches, only to grading patterns.)

Sigh. I hope one of you B38 ladies buys it, makes it, sends me a picture, and wears it in good health to the next meeting of the Fauxlero Club.

Here is the fourth in our continuing series of "Meet Our Advertisers": Penny from Antique Dollhouse of Patterns!

How long have you been in business?

THE YEAR 2000! I did not have one pattern or antique doll before the year
2000! My life was uncomplicated before 2000!

What motivated you to go into the vintage patterns (and dolls!) business?

I love dolls (a latent passion) and was in WalMart in the summer of 2000 in
Hood River visiting, and the salesclerk told me about the Barbie doll
patterns and how they were destroyed after 6 months … they then became
collectible. I was hooked and started collecting from that moment on.
Over 100,000 patterns in stock today …

What did you do before this?

I was a secretary for the Government, for the Railways, and I volunteered with the Lions Clubs.

Where are you based?

Fort MacLeod, Southern Alberta, Canada, the first town in Alberta.

More fun questions:

What's the weirdest/best/craziest/most beautiful thing you've ever found?

When I first started on Ebay, I was in a secondhand shop on Vancouver
Island and loved this little blue vase for 10 cents … One of the first
items I listed, and no camera at that time! That little blue vase, I found
out, was one of only 4 in the world made in that color, 4 in green, in yellow and in pink. The new owner was sure one happy customer, he built a case for it and drove down personally hundreds of miles to pick this little vase up. He paid $22. That is what it went on Ebay for with no picture …

What do you have in stock that you can't believe hasn't sold?

My Marilyn Monroe and Elvis costume sewing patterns … doesn't everyone love Marilyn and Elvis?

What do you dream about finding?

A warehouse or Quonset hut to put all these patterns and antique dolls and
costumes and vintage hats and belt buckles, toys, stuffed animals, vintage
jewelry, 18 pattern file cabinets, 100,000 patterns, all my collectibles
all under one roof … Now that would be organization!

What do you enjoy most about working with patterns?
Historic value … and because it is a link with my mother's memory. She
has rapidly declined in the memory area at 85 and it is hard to visit a
parent daily in a nursing home at times. We count pattern pieces together, and many patterns trigger a memory. "Your aunt Nina made that outfit for you when you were three … This is the 1950 coat and hat set pattern … I wore that 1940s two piece peplum suit when I married your dad …" And on and on.. It passes the time while we are visiting. I am sure all mothers at one time sewed to survive. This is our link. I yell out the numbers or the letters and Mom ticks them off on the pattern sheet. And my world is fine when I see that wobbly OK on the back of the envelope.

What do you wish someone would ask you about your site?
"Did you do this all yourself?" Yes, I typed every word, even had to do those 15,000 items twice over, and I set up the website twice over. I love
typing!!!!

It's a good day at work when …
The piles of patterns are lessened, when I receive a gorgeous antique doll
in the mail and she is in perfect condition!!! And it is a good day when I
can go through a whole day and someone is not wearing perfume! I am so
allergic to perfume!!

If I ran the internet for a day I'd …
Promote healthy living, living off the earth, being so positive and so
happy. I was born happy and positive and cannot imagine life without
laughter …

The blogs I read (other than A Dress A Day) are …
Marty North, Greenfield Park, Quebec, Canada, area near where I grew up in, and Chambly County High School, and Classmates.com, too. Erin you are the only blog I read about regarding fashion because you are the Fashion Queen!!!

You'd laugh if you knew this about me …
I walk funny (they say) — people can spot me blocks away from my
walk. And I am psychic … my mother, grandmother and myself are born
tealeaf readers (I am now retired).

I am obsessed with this clock dress that Theresa sent me. It's already gone, of course, from Posh Girl Vintage … and it would have barely fit me anyway (and by "barely" I mean, I could have zipped it up, maybe, if I could renegotiate that whole "breathing" thing with my lungs). If one of you bought it, will you tell me that you love it, and that you wear it every (suitable) day, and that you have given it a special nickname? Please?

The best part, of course, is that scrumptious clock print. I bet I could dig up the requisite clip art and Spoonflower myself some of that, don't you think? Should it be a big border print, like this one, or a smaller scatter print? Over red stripes, and or black and white as they are here?

As a joke, I'd love to wear this dress without also wearing a watch. (Which would, even as a joke, last about ten minutes, because not wearing a watch drives me nuts. I once bought a new watch at the airport because mine had broken in the car on the way over. And it was only recently that I stopped wearing a watch 24 hours a day, including in the shower [I have a lot of Swatch watches].)

Interestingly enough, the clock here is set at roughly 8:23, and not 10:10, as fakey watches usually are now. Which means (at least according to Google Answers) that the print is really and truly old.

While you're mourning the unavailability of this one, you might want to check out some of the other pretty dresses at Posh Girl …

Here is the third in our continuing series of "Meet Our Advertisers": Marge from Born Too Late Vintage and Born Too Late Vintage Patterns!

How long have you been in business?
Since February of 1999.

What motivated you to go into the vintage & vintage pattern business?

I love the fashions of times past. Back then clothing was made to last and great care was taken in the construction of clothing. I also enjoy sewing with vintage patterns and modern patterns. Sewing allows me to show my creative side. As a plus size woman I like being able to get exactly what I want when I sew. Why pay a fortune for a dress I don't love and that doesn't fit me right? I can custom fit my own clothing and pick out exactly the fabric I want to get the look I want.

What did you do before this?

I worked for the phone company for 20 years and then retired. I then worked as a medical transcriptionist at home for 6 years after I had my daughters. I started out selling their party and holiday dresses and then fell in love with vintage clothing again. I used to wear vintage clothing when I was in high school.

Where are you based?

My shops, Born Too Late Vintage and Born Too Late Vintage Patterns are based at http://specialistauctions.com. I'm the vintage and antique clothing moderator there as well. Physically, I'm in northeastern Pennsylvania.

More fun questions:

What's the weirdest/best/craziest/most beautiful thing you've ever
found?

I absolutely adore this Fred Leighton hand crocheted ecru gown. I have done fine crochet like this in the past and I marvel at the work that went into this:

What do you have in stock that you can't believe hasn't sold?

I have a variety of mens and ladies fedoras that are in just beautiful like this one.

What do you dream about finding?

I'd love to find a Claire McCardell. My mom was born and raised in Frederick, Maryland, the home of Claire McCardell and I definitely feel a connection with Ms. McCardell.

What do you enjoy most about working with vintage patterns?

When I'm working with patterns I'm listing I really enjoy it when there's a scrap of fabric in the envelope from the former owner or when the former owner has made some notations on the envelope or a piece of paper inside the envelope about what the pattern was purchased for or how the fit of the dress was. That's a treasure to me.

What do you wish someone would ask you about your site?

Why I am selling on Specialist Auctions rather than another site.

It's a good day at work when …

I've been able to get my listings done, sold a few things, received some positive feedback and of course being mentioned on A Dress A Day.

If I ran the internet for a day I'd …
Get rid of the pornography.

The blogs I read (other than ADAD) are …

Always Playing Dress Up (my blog!), Diary of a Mad Fashionista, Zuburbia Vintage Clothing blog, She's a Betty Single Girl Guide and the VFG (Vintage Fashion Guild) blog.

You'd laugh if you knew this about me …

I adore Tom Jones and Sean Connery. Could I have been a Scottish or Welsh lass in my past life?

I was flipping through some of my old sewing books a while back, looking for something (I can't even remember what) and was arrested by this image, which of course is the famous Walk-Away Dress:

If you can't read the caption, it is:

Even a beginner can make a dress like this one successfully, from two old dresses. This pattern is smart, adaptable, and easy to make since it only has a few pieces.

The book was Fashion Sewing on a Budget, and I have to say it's one of the more helpful of the ancient titles that I've accumulated. I think because it takes a "learning by doing" approach, which is the learning style I've always favored. (You make more mistakes, but you learn more from them!)

The online copies I've linked to above, on Amazon, are fairly pricey but my copy is marked "$1-" on the flyleaf and I'm sure I've seen this many a time in thrift stores and used book sales. Keep an eye out in those places, if you want it.

I still haven't made the Walk-Away dress, myself. I keep reading other people's reviews and can't decide whether to try it, and, if so, in what fabric … and, of course, where to put the pockets!

I think it was two years ago that I fell in love with this bag from Luella Bartley's Target line. It has lots and lots of pockets and it's bright yellow: of course I loved it!

I bought one (the only one my Target had) and looked for it at the other Targets in Chicago, but of course I didn't find one — everyone loved this bag. So, once it was clear that I was going to wear it into little tiny bits (and I did; I broke the top zipper and washed it until it was more of a grayish mustard color than yellow) I started an eBay search for it.

I used the keywords "Luella yellow" and yesterday my search finally came up gold. (Or, rather, yellow.) Some seller dug up a new-with-tags version and put it up, and five hours later it was (notionally) mine. (I still have to wait for it to come in the mail, and I just realized I didn't remember to have it sent to my PO Box. D'oh! Time to email the seller …)

So my recommendation to you is to save those eBay searches (check out this page if you need help) and keep renewing them. Everything shows up on eBay eventually. You just need to be patient.

Here is the second in our continuing series of "Meet Our Advertisers": Janet from Lanetz Living!

How long have you been in business?
Started on Ebay in 1999.

What motivated you to go into the vintage pattern business?
I dealt mostly in Ephemera (old paper) and would buy from estate liquidators. I often purchased 50# at a time and these lots often included vintage "Paper" sewing patterns. I was fascinated with the illustrations and they sold extremely well. I began searching them out and pretty soon I started getting lots of emails wanting me to buy estate lots of patterns and so it began …

What did you do before this?
Stayed at home and tried to spend every dime my husband made. (He told me to make my own "dimes"!) He was quite happy and really thought I would only sell enough to keep my grandchildren in toys and clothes and visits from "Nani". He was shocked by the way the website took off in 2006. I now work 40-60 hours a week with full time help. I am having a ball!!!

Where are you based?
20 miles west of Wichita Kansas in a small farming town.

More fun questions:

What do you have in stock that you can't believe hasn't sold?
A better question for me is "What I had that DID sell!!" Some pretty wild patterns go out of here on a daily basis. Ha!

What do you dream about finding?
Vogue Designer patterns … from a store that went out of business 50 years ago and have been secretly tucked away in a dry climate free from bugs waiting for me to find them!! Come home to Mamma!!!

What do you enjoy most about working with vintage clothes and vintage sewing patterns?
The customers from around the world. I love to hear their stories of why they are purchasing them. I often post them on the website.

It's a good day at work when …
We get all the orders filled and out the door and a new gallery is listed and I still have time to make dinner for hubby.

You'd laugh if you knew this about me …
I don't sew.

Janet is having a sale: Take 15% off. Enter the code "15" in the discount box on the shipping page when you check out. Expires Sunday night June 22nd at 11pm CST. (Send her well-wishes for her grandson Chandler's speedy recovery from surgery while you're at it …)

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!

Whenever I need a good shot of righteous indignation, I like to search through Google Books on keywords like 'ridiculous dress' or 'ludicrous gown', because I'm never disappointed. I can always find some man who has decided that the only thing wrong with the world is women's dress, and that of course he, being far above the vagaries of fashion (and who is, of course, wearing that completely rational item of dress, the necktie) is ideally suited to pass criticism upon it.

This example is wonderful — it's not that the streets of London are filthy, or that men should perhaps not throw their cigar butts in the gutter — no, women's dresses are too long. (Why can't both things be true, I wonder?)

SOCIAL CATECHISM.
Q. WHAT is the dirtiest creature you know?
A. The English fine lady.
Q. What are your reasons for saying this ?
A. Her habits.
Q. Explain yourself more fully.
A. When she walks she drags behind her a receptacle for dust and dirt of every kind.
Q. What is this called?
A. A long dress, or train.
Q. What is its action?
A. It sweeps the ground, collects mud, dust, cigar-stumps, straws, leaves, and every other impurity.
Q. What happens next?
A. This accumulation rubs off to a certain extent upon other portions of her dress, or upon the legs of any person who may walk beside her, and when she gets into her carriage, the objectionable matter spoils the lining ; besides that, the dust is most offensive.
Q. Why does she wear such a ridiculous dress?
A. For one of two reasons. Either because she aims at a servile imitation of certain great folks, or because she owes money to her milliner, and dares not order any kind of dress except that which this tyrant sends home to her.
Q. Why does she not raise, or loop up her dress to keep it from the ground?
A. Because, being a lazy person, she has thick ancles [sic], or being a scraggy person, she has skinny ones, which her vanity forbids her to exhibit.
Q. Is there any other reason?
A. Yes; she has probably ugly feet, disfigured by corns or bunions caused by wearing tight boots.
Q. Is there any cure for such habits?
There is none, until her husband has been nearly ruined by her extravagance, when she is compelled by economical reasons to dress like a rational being, and at once becomes clean and charming as the British female was intended to be.
Q. What sensation is caused to man by the sight of these dresses ?
A. Contemptuous pity for the woman, and pity, without contempt, for her unfortunate husband.
Q. Does she know this ?
A. Yes, but as she dresses less to please men than to vex women, the knowledge has no effect upon her dirty habits.
Q. Where can the animal be seen?
A. At the Zoological Gardens on Sunday afternoons, in the Park and Kensington Gardens, and in most places where fine clothes can be successfully exhibited.
Q. What lesson should you deduce from this ?
A. That of thankfulness to Providence that, (if married at all) you are married to a sensible woman and not to a fine lady.
Q. What will you take to drink ?
A. Anything you like to put a name to.

Here is the first in the series of "Meet Our Advertisers": Jen from MOMSPatterns!

How long have you been in business?
I've been in business on eBay since 1998, and owned my own vintage sewing pattern website since September, 2006!

What motivated you to go into the vintage pattern business?
I used to sell costume patterns, until a dear friend of my mother's found a box of 1940s patterns in her aunt's attic. She asked if I'd be interested in selling them, and I originally, very snobbily said, "Oh, I'll TRY but I can't see that there's a market for USED OLD PATTERNS." Imagine my surprise and delight when they sold for more money than my NEW patterns! I adore the styles and fashions from the past, so started focusing on the vintage styles and couldn't be happier having a job dealing with what I LOVE.

What did you do before this?
I used to foreclose houses for a large, well-known bank!

Where are you based?
I'm in a town called Orange Park, which is right outside of Jacksonville in Florida. Hot, humid & sunny … all the time.

More fun questions:
What's the weirdest/best/most unusual/most beautiful thing you've ever
found?
Dabbling in vintage clothing, I found nearly ninety (yes, 90!) vintage new old stock DeWeese bathing suits from the 1970s. My pals Michelle from Dollhouse Bettie and Ang from Dorothea's Closet Vintage are selling them on consignment for me and we are reveling in the whole Charlie's Angels feel of them!

What do you have in stock that you can't believe hasn't sold?
Most of the 1930s and 1940s FABULOUS DuBarry patterns I recently added … They're just fantastic … really!

What do you dream about finding?
A box of 100 or more uncut 1920s McCall's vintage sewing patterns … An original Fortuny Delphos evening gown … and good homes for any of my beloved patterns for sale!

What do you enjoy most about working with vintage clothes and vintage sewing patterns?
I love the quality of vintage clothing. The attention to details … the shirring, the draping and the utter GLAMOUR of the days gone by.

What do you wish someone would ask you about your site?
May I Link To You / Blog About You / Advertise For You?

It's a good day at work when …
I wake up to emails from people telling me that they just found the MOMSPatterns site and they had SO much fun looking at styles that their mother or grandmother had made for them … when I can connect someone with a pattern they used to love SO much but lost … and when there's a nice stack of orders to get filled & shipped!

If I ran the internet for a day I'd …
Make sure I was number one on Google for ALL vintage sewing search keywords & combinations so I could make sure I was reaching anyone who was interested in vintage, sewing, and vintage sewing!

The blogs I read (other than ADAD) are …
Random Acts of Vintage (My friend Lisa's blog)

You'd laugh if you knew this about me …
I CANNOT SEW!!

Jen has also offered to run a month long sale for you! Coupon code 'nowiknowjen' 15% off. From today until the end of the month!

More coupon details … you can use the code over & over & over again all month long, so as you see more patterns added throughout the month, you can STILL use that code! Free s&h to USA & Canada with the purchase of 5 or more patterns, discounted shipping rates available for international orders.