Everything Must Go!

Friend-of-the-blog Nora is doing a little pattern divestiture on eBay -- you can check out her listings here.

Now you all know I have nothing but love for the professional pattern-sellers, but I have to admit that my heart quickens when someone tells me that they're selling off some of their "collection". I think it's because, rightly or wrongly, I figure that they are selling off things regretfully, only because they need some space, and that regret is because what they're selling is freakin' awesome. (Which seems to be true in Nora's case -- nice pattern up above, what?)

This belief of mine is carried to a ridiculous extreme when I think about estate sales -- I mean, c'mon, this is stuff people DIED holding on to! It must be incredibly great! And no matter how many times I go to a sale that consists only of wash-and-wear polyester 1970s housedresses, archival issues of TV Guide ("Who's the Boss?" always seems to feature prominently), and ABSOLUTELY NO FABRIC OR PATTERNS even though "sewing machine" is listed in the ad, I keep believing.

[Of course, I am SO EVIL -- so evil, that if I ask about patterns and the estate sale runner is dumb enough to tell me that they threw them out, so sorry, I always say "Oh, that's too bad -- you know, some of those patterns go for $30 each, or more!" Even if I *know* they probably tossed a box of 80s-puff sleeved monstrosities. Such cavalier behavior on their part must be *punished*.)

But back to this pattern. Boy, I love that yoke! I'd make this in a charcoal gray with red buttons and wear it with a red belt (but not red shoes). So cute!

Comments

[Nora]

Hey Erin, thanks for the link! I'm really into gray with red lately too. You're right about how hard it is to get rid of stuff. In fact, as I was describing the patterns I realized all over again why I got them in the first place!But most of them are ones that I just know for one reason or another I'm not going to make up (usually because they don't honestly suit my body type or my unglamourous lifestyle). So I'd really rather someone else get to sew them, and wear them - that's what they're for! (And if they want to share the joy they can post the finished product on the Sew Retro blog.)By the way all, I have a few more to put up, including some (mostly mens') knitting patterns from the 40s. The pictures are awesome, and goodness knows mens' fashions don't change that much.

[Anonymous]

but why would you pass up a perfectly good excuse to wear red shoes!?

[angldst]

Thanks for this heads up. Nora, one of your skirt patterns has just been bought up and is going into a good home. I've been wanting that pattern (or similar) for months now, and I'm planning on making it up soon after it arrives to wear it with a little fitted satin jacket to a late October wedding. :) I'm eyeing up a couple of the other patterns. I sew mostly early forties and mid fifties styles. Possibly with red shoes. ;) -d

[Ang]

I love red shoes! But agreed, matching to a belt is too Garanimal-esque. Better as a surprise with none to little worn otherwise. Red, that is.I think one of the reasons I love doing what I do so very much is just what you mentioned, Erin, about estate sales & the contents within. The clothing (and more recently, a few patterns) I find when called in are things that meant something to someone, so much so they often hauled it from home to home....city to city, state to state. I bought an estate last summer that belonged to a woman who moved here to the midwest nearly 15 years ago, from NYC....and she had closets, boxes and drawers FULL of clothing from the 60s & 70s! Some with tags, many duplicates. The best part was a huge box of hand knit sweaters she had made herself with her own label "DEENA Hand Knits"....lovingly created, cardigans pinned down along plackets, folded neatly and stored for years....never worn. The people dealing with her estate thought I wouldn't want them because they were hand made! They had planned to throw them out, no less. I was glad to get to save them.....Estate sales and calls for me always have a tinge of sadness about them, but in the end at least the things someone loved enough to hold onto end up being in the hands of someone else willing to love them again.Ang

[vespabelle]

I was at an estate sale last weekend where there were a whole bunch of patterns (1940s-1970s) for a QUARTER each. Sadly, most of them were not my size but I bought some of the more inspiring ones including some that'll fit my daughter in 7 or 8 years! and an original Calvin Klein jeans pattern (I have the kids version of this as well!)

[knitgirl]

Am I the only one out there who doesn't like red shoes? My dad bought me a pair of red patent leather Capezios when I was 2 while my mother was in the hospital having one of my brothers. Mom was expecting him to buy the normal 1960's toddler saddle shoes, quelle surprise! I love the picture of me in those shoes, but now, just don't like red period. I do like grey with just a little bit of pink, though.

[Sue]

guilt-tripping someone for getting rid of what are actually puffy-sleeved 80s sewing patterns: pricelessfor everything else, there's...

[Jacqui]

Hi, A sweet friend of mine on Flickr said that you might be interested in about a thousand pictures of mine that I just uploaded to my Flickr account a couple of days ago. My Mother and Grandmother were fashion designers, they are the object of study on an ebay discussion thread this week, also there's some chat about them going on on the Vintage fashion Guild forum, this is because my Mom has been diagnosed with inoperable widespread cancer and I posted some requests for prayers. The link to my Flickr photo site is here; http://www.flickr.com/photos/67723735@N00/ and the link to the discussion thread that you might find interesting because I've posted some stories about their design history, is here; http://forums.ebay.com/db1/thread.jspa?forumID=92&threadID=1000568373. Love you site, I'm excited about it. Big Friendly Hugs, Jacqui http://jacqui.livejournal.com OH and Mom = Jeannette Alexander and Granny = Peggy Hunt

[twollin]

Erin - I don't know if anyone else has had this experience, but when my mom died and I was put in charge of the "cleaning out", I got a guy to do the estate sale, not realizing that he had a "specialty". Since I was doing this all over the phone, I did not realize until I got there and it was all over that all he had sold was furniture and collectibles - all the patterns, fabric, etc. was not seen as important or interesting or worth anything. So, I had to do the whole job all over again in order to try and clean out my parents' house. So, that is something people might want to remember - sometimes people have specialties or only want to deal with certain types of estate stuff.

[Julie The Vintage Goddess]

>>>>and ABSOLUTELY NO FABRIC OR PATTERNS even though "sewing machine" is listed in the ad, I keep believing. ~sigh~That is the story of my life Erin, always the sewing machine and never the patterns.

[Anonymous]

I loved your response to the evil estate sale people who toss patterns!

[minya, warrior seamstress]

But my roommate CJ & I love the 80s puff-sleeved mostrosities. Especially with big collars, V-waists, and full skirts.

[vespabelle]

I was at an estate sale a few weeks ago (where I found a devine hat!) that had lots and lots of fabulous patterns (1930s-1980s) each for $.25! I bought "only" an armfull (and two vogue knitting books) because the patterns were much much too small. I bought a few for inspiration and some Vogue Teen patterns for my daughter (who can wear them in, oh, another seven to eight years!)