Craft Rage

Did you know that Butterick released the Walkaway Dress in an updated version? Looks like it was in the late '70's or early '80's. Same basic look, much slimmer skirt! I had no idea!

I found it uncut, factory folded, but in the wrong darned size, so it'll end up in my Etsy store this weekend, I guess.

UPDATE: I didn't realize what I a prize I'd found until I started to get emails about this pattern shortly after I posted this picture. Since I'm a huge fan of all the folks who inquired, either by email or by comment, I was wrought with fear and guilt over having to make a decision. Lacking any ability to make a decision (it's Indecision Thursday, to be followed shortly by Wishy-Washy Friday and immediately preceded by Waffling Wednesday) I decided to feed everyone into the Randomizer, and the big winner is Jenny from Chronically Uncool, who not only sent the message/comment with the earliest timestamp this morning, but who came up first on the Randomizer.

My vintage pattern collection keeps growing, even though I keep trying to weed it out.

For every ten patterns I buy, there are seven I like, but maybe only one that I think I'll ever make for myself. The other three are usually what I call "soulless" - they're really generic looking '70's & '80's patterns, or anything that looks like Mrs. Roper would wear it.

Still, style is subjective, and essentially, 90% of my vintage pattern collection is stuff I'll never make or wear. Thus, my Etsy store, which I've been neglecting pretty badly. Over the next week or so, I want to get more of my stuff scanned in and uploaded. The big slowdown is that as I upload to Etsy, I try to also crosspost patterns to the Vintage Pattern Wiki; maybe I'll concentrate on getting my listings done first, and then go back and do the wiki afterwards.

And speaking of vintage patterns, I had my first vintage pattern identification experience this weekend!

I left the TV on in the background while I was kitten-sitting and trying to clean the house, when a Gidget marathon came on. Gidget, Gidget Goes to Rome, etc.

Well, when Gidget Goes Hawaiian came on, I actually sat down and watched some of it, after seeing this dress in one of the early scenes;
I can't even explain why this excited me so much; most of the sewing blogs I read have people who can look at any article of clothing and name five commercial patterns that they could use to make a reasonable facsimile of that item. I, on the other hand, am only starting to notice details like dolman sleeves and fancy button plackets, and topstitching. To be able to make a connection between something in my pattern collection is pretty exciting, even if, in this particular case, the pattern is so distinctive I'd have had to be blind to miss it.

On another note - I read a lot of blogs that have advertising, and I don't personally find it offensive or awful, and I hope you don't, either. I've had Google Ads for some time, and have recently joined BlogHer because if I'm lucky, I'll be able to afford the $125.00/yard fabric I finally selected for my wedding dresses, of which I appear to need 9 yards. Yeah, that's a whole other post.

At any rate, it's not like I'm trying to get rich or anything crazy like that; since December 07, my Google Ads revenue account has reached $1.29 - not exactly early retirement money. At any rate, I'm giving it a try, to see how it goes. If it goes well, my blog will get more traffic, which should increase my ad revenue a little bit, and I'll be dressed like a fairy-tale princess at my wedding. If it doesn't...well...actually, if it doesn't, it probably won't bother me at all. It's my freaking wedding - I'm not going to remember any of it anyway. If it weren't for the photographer, I might be tempted to show up in a t-shirt and jeans. With sequins.