A Little Walk Down Memory Lane

My Mom loves to sew. When I was younger she did a lot more clothes sewing than she does now. Now she is a quilter mainly. Though she has been known to make some clothes for Daughter.

My Mom is also a saver. I think she has saved every pattern she ever bought and the fabric as well. As I dug through boxes under the stairs at my folks house this past Thanksgiving, I was taken on a trip down memory lane. There were fabric scraps that I distinctly remembered from various clothing items either my Mom or I wore.

And let me tell you there were boxes...as in multiple boxes. One could almost classify them by decade, based on the print styles. It was...amusing, because that "I can't believe I wore that" thing comes up.

But, you know, there are styles that are classic...they don't suffer too much in the translation. Especially now when people dress not to conform so much as they do to define who they are. And since I'm kind of a traditional sort of retro sort of girl, and the patterns my Mom had are in my size so I thought, why not use them!

So without further ado let me show you what I found. And this isn't everything. Blogger would only let me post five pictures.

The blouse on the left reminded me of some of the tops you see in the stores right now. Made in a knit fabric I don't think anyone would know the pattern was from 1964. My Mom and I had matching dresses made from the pattern on the right...well her dress was made from that pattern...mine was from a smaller pattern I didn't find. I do remember they were a light pink, double knit polyester fabric. Somewhere there is a picture of us...but that was another hunt.

I don't think my Mom ever made either of the above patterns. The contents to both are still in tact. I could probably make a killing with them on e-bay! They are priced .75 and .85 cents. My how things have changed!

Now the pattern on the right above is one of those classic ones. McCall's classifies it as "Easy, Recommended For Beginners". It is priced at .50 cents U.S., .60 cents in Canada. I think I will actually be using that one. I might even be brave enough to make the one on the right as well...it's not that outdated is it?

More classics, the pants make me think of Laura Petrie (aka: Mary Tyler Moore) in The Dick Van Dyke Show.

I think I will be making both of these as well. The drawings make look dated but really, the styles are simple and, once again, classic.

So there you have it. Well, not ALL of it. Like I said I could only post five pictures on this post. These are just the sewing patterns. I still have to show you the knitting and crocheting stuff I found! But I'm going to save it for another post. :D

You know there are draw backs to saving everything, but in this case I'm really glad my Mom didn't get rid of anything. And she was glad that I will be able to make use of them again. Ooooo, it just makes me all frugally and warm inside!