The 'perfect' dress and pattern-palooza

Let me introduce you to a dress I designed years back I call the 'Perfect' dress.

 Though it's a cute dress, I don't call it perfect because I think so highly of my design skills. I call it perfect because I hand drafted this pattern to fit ME like a glove. It's my dream dress. The one that is the most flattering for my particular figure that I can always rely on. I came up with this design about 5 years ago and since then I have made myself about seven or eight of them in various fabrics, not to mention I have made at least 40 of them for clients! So moving on to the point of this post, I made myself a new one yesterday out of that charming asian umbrella print fabric I posted pictures of last week.

 Since it's still chilly here in the 'burbs of Los Angeles I had to winterize the ensemble only removing my cardigan to take the picture, but you get the idea. It's the perfect summer dress and I can't wait to wear it out and about with wedgie sandals and a bright colored vintage purse. ;)

 Also accomplished yesterday was a long over due organization session with my vintage pattern collection. As suggested from Wearing History I ordered a 100 pack of archive quality acid free 6 7/8" x 10 1/2" comic book bags to store them in. I am shamed to admit I had them all jam packed in an old cardboard box with no protection.

Not anymore! Though still stored in a box, now they are all safe and snug in their new sleeves and organized by decade. This took me ages to do because one of the boxes of patterns I inherited from my Grandma had several patterns with damaged envelopes that had missing pieces. Cue in me getting to the bottom of the said box only to find a big pile of the missing pieces that I had to find the sleeves to, some being unprinted. Would you believe out of the 100 plastic bags I only have 1 left? I never thought I had aquired so many patterns! I know I have a few more floating around in my sewing room somewhere so the count is probably more like 105, but still. It's amazing how quickly they accumulate.

 To end this post, here is a picture of my latest Ebay splurge. A cute vintage chalkware yellow kitty with chippy paint. He now lives in my sewing room between a framed 1920s LA times fashion section spread and a faded white framed 1950s paint by number of a Victorian lady.