Brrrr...Fall fell here today - along with the 60-degree mid-day temps !

Current Mood : Can you believe I *still* have a headache ?!  

I love patterns. Probably everyone who sews does – there’s a couple we swear by, a few we swear at. Ya develop favorites, swearing that this brand is easier and more fun to sew than that brand you can’t figure out for the life of ya. Darn couture. I can’t pass a yard sale or thrift shop box of patterns without going through it, no matter if it’s two in a shoebox or two hundred in a footlocker. You get to see styles long gone -  I swear, I see the same 80s ornate little girl dress patterns over and over again – and ideas that’ll roll your eyes for you.

Heck, I know folk who don’t wanna sew that love pattern catalogs. I think the fondness they hold for patterns is the same thing I see, kneeling on moist earth in someone’s yard, digging for the back of the box – so much potential. I even feel a little sad when I go through that cracked plastic bin stuffed fulla pattern envelopes that have never been opened. It seems so mournful that all this potential didn’t get used as intended. I really love battered envelopes with names written on them, and comments – ‘Jane, 1986 – size 12, make longer skirt’. I’ll tell ya true that I have at least a dozen I’ve never touched, and two I’ve used three times. But even if I’m no longer the size on the envelope, I don’t wanna let any of mine go. I still want that potential, the idea that someday…

I really love my doll patterns. Always on the hunt for more. I bought some that I figured couldn’t work, just to see if I could make them give me what I wanted anyway. You know you stand a good chance of success with the major players – Simplicity and McCall’s, most others have dropped out of the doll market unless you sew for AG clones exclusively – but it’s the ‘kitchen table’ ones that really give you a run for your money ! The ones crafted by someone’s mom to clothe their unusually-sized new doll that became a little Etsy business. Those always tug at me. I know some pieces won’t work, and they’re always more expensive than the big brands –  ‘Sal’s Spooky Chic Dress Pack’ won’t ever go on 99c sale at Hobby Lobby or Joann’s – but once I see a new one, it’s on my brain. Or what passes for one. Will it work ? How did she get that sleeve in there ? Does that dress fit well, or am I seeing some baggy on the sides in that blurry ‘cover’ photo ? Hmmm….

And it’ll only be a couple weeks before I’ve bought it. Sometimes it’s a money thing, sometimes it’s a mental one. I confess, nearly every time I see one of these patterns, I try to figure it out for m’self without buying one. ( You knew I was cheap when you started reading this.) I’m so impressed, though, that they made the effort and put it out there. There’s thousands and thousands of American Girl patterns. Honestly, is there anything an AG doll can wear that hasn’t been already made as a pattern, usually several times over by now ? But show me a home-made pattern set for a Timey Tell doll, and I simply can’t resist. Unless it’s $20. and it’s primarily a series of prom gowns. Those, I have successfully resisted for nearly two years, in the case of MH.

What I really like, though, is printing out a page of pattern pieces. I scan all my doll patterns, so I can alter them if I want, but still have the original. Then, too, my rotary cutter often alters original patterns without my encouragement ! I love it when I get the halter blouse I wanted…but I also get most of Skirt #4, part of Sports Shirt #2, and the purse from the cover photo that I’ll never make. I end up thinking more about that shirt than I do about the blouse I printed out to sew in the first place !

It’s that undefinable, unpredictable chunk of ‘Imma do that next !’ that almost always comes up when I start a kitchen table pattern. Sure, commercial patterns scatter their pieces about the tissue, but unless you scan ‘em, it’ll always be ‘these six pieces make Dress D’, and they’re invariably somewhere close together, for convenience. The home-made variety is arranged with more of an eye towards ‘what’s gonna fit on this piece of copy paper ?’, which has a charmingly practical, if random, result.

Not to mention the fun of sewing this person’s blouse and that other person’s skirt the same day, to go together. It’s like making my pattern box a miniature United Nations.

Unfortunately, the only sewing I got done today was hemming some worn pants I usually only wear around the house, and patching a pair so I can still wear them outside the house. But I’ve needed to get that done, and now it is. It helps when I put everything in the way – when I get tired of moving it, that’s when stuff gets done. In other news, chicken and dumplings for dinner. Whoo-hoo ! Gotta go chop chicken…