25 Days of Giveaways from McCall's, Butterick, and Vogue Patterns

This just in!  Every day for 25 days, the McCall's Pattern Company (who own McCall's, Butterick, and Vogue Patterns) is giving stuff away.  For Free!!!


In order to qualify to win, you must be an email subscriber to Butterick.com, McCallPattern.com, VoguePatterns.com, or ClubBMV.com.  Sign up for their newsletter on any of those sites.

So, what can you win?  Yesterday's winner won a DVD by sewing guru Claire Shaeffer, while today's winner will win 2.38 yards of beautiful silver-colored crepe-back satin.  Stay posted to see what tomorrow's offerings are.

Do you want to know something fun? This is my best friend Laura on the cover of the Winter/Holiday 2010 Vogue Patterns Catalogue. Isn't she lovely? Laura and I met at a casting in NY aeons ago. We were roomies for several years-- first in Manhattan and then later in Brooklyn. Next time you go to the fabric store you can say, "Hi Laura!!!"

My first Homemade Vintage Dress

I cannot pinpoint when it was that I started loving vintage fashions.  Growing up, my sister and I loved watching AMC (American Movie Classics), and later, TCM (Turner Classic Movies).  I don't know how we got into that either (although my parents did consider an almost yearly watching of Gone With the Wind as an integral part of any good Southern upbringing), but afternoons after school were generally filled with the visages of Jimmy (Stewart), Cary (Grant), the Hepburns (Katherine and Audrey), Liz (Taylor), Paul (Newman), and others plastered on the television screen.  I can only imagine with so many beautiful clothes in the movies, designed by the likes of Edith Head and Adrian, that it is only natural that many of the styles sank into my subconscious.

I have been eyeing vintage patterns on eBay for some time, but decided to go with a current Butterick pattern.  It is a reissue of one from 1947 (B5209).  The great thing about buying these reissued patterns is that you know all the pattern pieces are there, the patterns are printed (many older pattern pieces don't have anything printed on them-- they're simply blank pieces of tissue paper), and the directions are modernized.  It really is the best of both worlds.

I wrote a review of the pattern on PatternReview.com, detailing what I changed about the pattern and my recommendations.  You can read it here.

Cover Girl

One of my favorite clients to work for is the McCall Pattern Company, who also owns Butterick and Vogue Patterns.  Everyone there is wonderful, and I have been working for them for a while, so they feel like family.  I also always thought it was a perfect fit-- I love sewing, and buy their patterns frequently.  Moreover, my great grandfather, who died in 1933, worked at McCall's as a printer.  It feels like things have come full circle!

If you happen to be in a fabric store anytime soon, you can see me on the back cover of the Fall 2010 Butterick catalogue.  I am on several of the patterns inside the book as well.

In sewing-related news, yesterday after dropping my parents off at the Philadelphia Airport (they're off to Italy for vacation!), I took advantage of my proximity to the city to go to one of my favorite fabric stores.  After being relegated to the fabric-cum-craft stores in Delaware, it is indeed a divine experience to browse through the bolts of cloth in a real fabric store.  It is a strange thing indeed, but I derive true joy from examining and petting all of the different textiles and trims that they had on offer.

Just a peek in my buggy (that's the southern term for shopping cart, y'all) reveals some of the tempting delights that I treated myself to.  My modus operandi was to walk around and put everything in my cart that caught my eye.  Most of the fabrics I chose were wool, although I had a few satins as well.  I didn't purposely choose colors in the same colorways (the blues and the salmons), so I guess that is just what I am being drawn to these days.  I do have some projects in mind-- here's hoping that I'll be able to follow through.

XOXO,