Mail Call

Since I've tried to reign myself in a bit on the obsessive and somewhat compulsive pattern buying, mail calls will be fewer and less epic than the last few, but here is today's loot anyways.

This find is what I like to think of as the only gambling I may ever do. The ebay listing was for an old shoebox full of patterns. The seller was not a seamstress and simply wanted to move them on to someone else. The listing had just one picture, of the front of the shoebox with a cute little 1950's children's underwear pattern peaking out the top.

Mail Call

Living at a faraway post here in Norway as military can make getting your mail a complicated task to say the least. The military does whatever they can to save us money and difficulty when we're overseas and APO boxes are one of those many boons I could not do without. Our mail goes to New York where the cost of shipping it overseas is picked up by the Air Force, then our mail jumps through a series of hoops before finally ending up at our base post office.

Photo from http://ozebook.com/wordpress/?p=69

So naturally Mike picks up the mail every day while he's at work and brings it home every evening. This is my favorite time of day. Not only does my handsome husband come home, he comes bringing packages of loot!
I get the greatest stuff in the mail. Between my endless hunt for the perfect pattern online, my many purchases of fabric from various sources, and the EPIC care packages my mom sends full of vintage buttons, trims, silks, dresses, and accessories, Mail Call, as I like to think of it, is fan-freaking-tastic at our house.
So today I'll share what I got in the mail.

Today's loot was great. From ebay I acquired "Art of Dressmaking" published by Butterick in 1927.

Have you heard about Etsy?

If you haven't heard about Etsy, then you need to. Not only did I have a successful shop there before we moved overseas, but my mother sill does (And regularly posts things that I can't live without!).
I thought that I would follow the Adjustable Belt Tutorial with a few places that you can find some of these great buckles, as well as great vintage and modern notions.
Lets start with the buckles:
This 1930's Bakelite and rhinestone buckle is in a great new shop on etsy called Seams Forever.

Here's a great rhinestone geometric buckle for only $9 in another etsy shop, Boylerpf who also has some amazing vintage jewelry.

And from my mom's shop, Phoebe Delia's Mercantile, the prefect ribbon to make belts with. I have tons of this myself (God bless those care packages) as it's great for sewing (I use mine for belts, bows, ruffles and other embellishments) and it easily dyes any color.

On a similar note, I just got two large boxes in the mail from Mom, and they were brimming with vintage patterns from the 1930's, yards and yards of lace in every color, fabric (silk charmeuse, oh my!) and a few delightful vintage undergarments for pattern making and wearing.
{Sigh}
Jackpot.