PatternStash is having a sale March 20-22: She'll be offering a 15% discount in place of the usual 10% - just mention dressaday. (At Pattern Stash, shipping is just a flat $2.50 in the U.S. for all your patterns, no matter how many patterns you purchase.) (That's one of her patterns above, which I find both charming and disturbing in equal measure.)
www.GlamourSavvy.com is also having a Spring Sale. 25% off all items (including patterns) through the end of March. Just use code word "March" at checkout.
Also, I'm strangely tempted by this swimsuit:
Not that I think this cut would be especially flattering on me (or flattering AT ALL, mores the pity), but because I *LOVE* that color, and I had a swimsuit exactly that color when I was about eleven. I'm sure if I lie down for a little while this urge will go away, but if it doesn't for you, click on the image to visit the Popina Swimwear page -- it's on sale for $40.
Also -- all of you who've ever had a less-than-perfect dog? Need to read this blog. Go now, I'll wait.
Completely randomly: I like this t-shirt.
Less randomly: there is a giant button auction going on until March 22. (That's [giant][button auction], not [giant button][auction]. If there were a [giant button][auction], don't you think I'd post a picture?) Details here. (Thanks Brenda!)


































No (giant button)(auction)?! If you ever hear of one, please let us know!
Posted by: Vegan | 03/18/2009 at 12:50 PM
Why is it disturbing?
Posted by: Nadine | 03/18/2009 at 01:37 PM
Because I am CONVINCED that Girl the Younger is about to EAT that bird.
Posted by: Erin | 03/18/2009 at 01:39 PM
Love the shirt, fear the swimsuit.
Posted by: Sal | 03/18/2009 at 02:34 PM
Love the shirt the modern take of The Ravin
Posted by: Anonymous | 03/18/2009 at 02:52 PM
must point out that another bonus of that swimsuit is that the cut of the legs obviates the need for any sort of bikini-area waxing, which is a plus... just sayin'
Posted by: nancy | 03/18/2009 at 05:44 PM
I too had a yellow swimsuit when I was about that age. It had gathers at the bustline (what did I do with those gathers?) and I remember feeling pretty good in it. Those children on the pattern look a little evil-maybe they want that swinsuit?
Posted by: Libby Fife | 03/18/2009 at 05:46 PM
Every time I see one of these vintage girl dresses, I just swoon. How....CUTE! But the skirts always look a wee bit (okay, a lot) too short to me. That length makes them easy to play active games in, but these aren't play dresses, are they? If I were a little girl (I mean in body, to match my existing Little Girl heart), I think I'd want a skirt to the tops of my knees, especially if it flared out. Is the mid-thigh length shown in the pattern the standard??? (You have to imagine those 2 girls standing up straight, of course.)
Posted by: Cookie | 03/18/2009 at 06:35 PM
I love that T-shirt and I can envision all kinds of variations on that theme...how about a tiger image out of the words to "Tyger, Tyger?" and so on.I read that dog blog. It is the sort of thing that makes me grateful for my own life and the biting/allergic/expensive pitbull that I do not own.
Posted by: Anonymous | 03/18/2009 at 08:45 PM
Definitely scared of that swimsuit, but hey Erin, I just got back from Chicago (again), and made a point this time of going to the Chic Chicago exhibit (http://www.chicagohistory.org/planavisit/exhibitions/chic-chicago) after you blogged about the butterfly dress. What a FABULOUS exhibit! Thanks for pointing it out. Anyone going to Chicago needs to see it.
Posted by: Lisa @ the Vintage Fashion Library | 03/18/2009 at 08:53 PM
the bad dog blog is fantastic. Thanks for the link, Erin! Also, the boy leg yellow suit is adorbs. I would never wear the color, but I bet you could pull it off.
Posted by: Liz | 03/18/2009 at 10:04 PM
What a cool tshirt! I like the other links, especially the little girls (OK, I have three girls who have to be beaten into trousers), but I *really* want that tshirt...anon in Ire
Posted by: Anonymous | 03/19/2009 at 06:00 AM
I'm not sure I see the point of the bad dog blog. That dog needs an intervention! The allergies and IBD are one thing--you can't blame somebody for their allergies--but biting is a problem (and, no, not just because he's a pit bull. I love pit bulls). The [non-pit bull] dog we had when I was a kid was aggressive and would have been a biter had we allowed anyone to get close enough, but it was *totally* our fault for failing to socialize or get behavioral help for him. We didn't know any better at the time, but there's no way I'd let that go on now, no matter how sorry I felt for a dog with health issues.
Posted by: Latter-Day Flapper | 03/19/2009 at 08:02 AM
Flapper, I think the point of the bad-dog blog is that sometimes, no matter how hard you work, your dog isnt good. If you read the posts comments, theyve had him in training classes, theyve owned pit bulls before, they use a muzzle, hes on drugs ... the point is that sometimes its nobodys fault, and then you have to figure out: what do we do now?
Posted by: Erin | 03/19/2009 at 08:23 AM
Just want to tell you -- again! -- how much I enjoy your blog. I haven't made a dress in years but I always love your pattern picks. And the recent pattern stories were wonderful! Thanks so much for sharing.
Posted by: Coffee with Cathy | 03/19/2009 at 08:58 AM
The older girl has that too good to be true look on her face like Patty McCormick in The Bad Seed.
Posted by: San Antonio Sue | 03/19/2009 at 09:44 AM
I love the color AND the cut on that swimsuit!! I know the color would never suit me (I don't tan) so I am checking out the website now for alternative hues. Thanks for the tip :~)
Posted by: ZombieLace | 03/19/2009 at 10:23 AM
That swimsuit looks like it will require repeated tuggings to keep it in place around the legs/crotch area. The little girls are undoubtedly wearing little ruffled panties under those short little skirts, because when you are younger than six, it's cute and girley to bend over and show your ruffles. Then you go to first grade, and BAM! suddenly it's considered bad manners to show the world your panites. I'm nearly sixty years old, and I'm still a little stunned over that.
Posted by: evalyn | 03/19/2009 at 01:39 PM
I agree with Erin, and then you have to call the Dog whisperer.I saw that pattern before too and got totally creeped out.
Posted by: Theresa | 03/19/2009 at 02:11 PM
I wish the girls would scrunch their socks down a little, or fold them into a cuff at the very least. High socks are no good!!
Posted by: Jen ~ MOMSPatterns | 03/19/2009 at 06:34 PM
I think you might like *this* tshirt:http://www.topatoco.com/merchant.mvc?Screen=PRODStore_Code=TOProduct_Code=BEAT-EXCITED-ASPHCategory_Code=BEATThe artist (Kate Beaton) also has a website with very funny and charming comics mostly about historical figures. cheers!
Posted by: Nora | 03/19/2009 at 09:55 PM
Wow, you're right, Cookie; that is a VERY short skirt. I think that was the style then but it certainly wouldn't fly today. Not on MY daughters, at least ;-)But, I am strangely intrigued by the waist treatment (rickrack FTW!)... I bet I could duplicate that look on a modern (longer) pattern. I'm betting it's not an integral piece but rather a triangle shaped overlay.
Posted by: Joni | 03/20/2009 at 06:40 AM
Cookie, those short skirts scarred me for life. That was the style back in my little girlhood. Swinging, skinning the cat, running the bases,or jumping a fence brought those bad boys' chant, "I see London..." I had an unhappy preoccupation with my underpants. To say nothing of the wind sweeping down the plain straight off the North Pole onto bare legs. Cute in a picture, yes; kind to little girls, most emphatically no.
Posted by: Anonymous | 03/20/2009 at 10:54 AM
Re: dog whisperThen you agree with both of us, because calling the dog whisperer would be, in fact, an intervention.
Posted by: Latter-Day Flapper | 03/20/2009 at 04:02 PM
I loved the little girls' dresses -- I think I have the original pattern that my mother used to make me more than one dress like that. She made them just above the knee length and they had matching shorts underneath so when they showed they weren't panties.
Posted by: Ivy | 03/20/2009 at 08:59 PM