The ever-growing "collection"

Of patterns...


It's a darn good thing that I didn't commit to not buying any new patterns in 2010. Because just this month, I've acquired at least 20. With another couple dozen to go. Today was the beginning of the Simplicity 99¢ sale at the local Mega Fabric Mart. It's always nice to know that there's a "10 per customer" limit so one doesn't go too nuts buying patterns.


And while I'm on the subject of nuts, I really want to say - to those of you who pull umpteen zillion patterns out of the drawers and leave them piled all over the top of the pattern drawer shelf: SHAME ON YOU. There's NO REASON AT ALL why you should just haphazardly dump your rejects rather than trying to replace them from whence you took them. For one thing, it's RUDE. I'm hoping you were raised better than that. For another, it makes more work for other shoppers who are desperately looking for the LAST one of something that you just left in a pile of pattern detritus. Beyond that, it makes more work for the people whose job it is to restock and straighten the area at closing time. Hourly retail isn't exactly a high paying job and restock? It's one of the WORST parts of the job.

Okey dokey. Now that I've got my little spleen vent over with, I can get on with my adventures at the Fabric Mega Mart. Let me say that I had no intention whatsoever of buying fabric. I was going there with the singular purpose of acquiring 10 of the 12 Simplicity patterns on my list of wants. But today was Day 1 of the "Winter Warmup" 3 day (or so) sale and so all those lovely clearance fabrics that are already 50% off or so? Yeah, 50% off the red tag price!

I'd previously blogged over at Sew Retro about a dress that I need to make - fast. As it turns out, there was some AMAZING polyester sari fabric in "dusty turqouise" with gold threading that would be [Jack Black voice] AWESOME [/Jack Black voice] for the project. Just enough sheen and detail work to be dressy but not so much that it would be the overdressed WOACA trying to look 20 years younger dealio. And it's a little shout-out to a portion of my ethnic heritage. Full of WIN anyway you look at it.

And check out the awesomeness of the sheer fabric. Perfect for Butterick 5032. Just perfect. I couldn't have asked for more from a fabric really. And of course, it's nice that turquoise is the "it" color for the spring season. Go on wit' my bad self. Go me, it's my birthday! Actually it's not, but you get what I mean.

Beyond these two awesome fabrics ($2/yd and $2.50/yd respectively) , I scored this lovely allover cotton eyelet for $3/yd. Regular price? $12.99/yd. It was like Christmas all over again. I'd wanted to make the girls some kind of springy eyeletty something and so now I can. W00T! Back to the reason I went to the fabric store in the first place... The patterns.

The first group are "Crafts":

2445

2454

2761

The next group are 3 vintage reissues:

2592

3544

3673

The last grouping aren't exactly crafts in my mind. More of accessories and possibilities to sell in my etsy shop:

2553

2916

3583

4391

The last one in this group is going to be fun because I'd really like a laptop bag that fits me and my laptop.

The funny thing is... Once I've made a pattern into something once, I'm fairly likely to completely rework it and change it around. It's just what I do. Patterns are more of a jumping off point than a set-in-stone thing. I'm so looking forward to playing with them.

Vogue and McCall's go on sale at the end of the month...