In the flesh

Well! I had a very interesting Thursday. Bear with me as I think this may be a long story...

It all started when I was browsing Craigslist and found someone who was selling "thousands of sewing patterns, as far back as the 1930s." I couldn't resist calling to get more info. The woman selling the patterns was a dressmaker and had purchased many of these patterns to study the details; given an upcoming move, she wanted to get rid of a big part of her stash. She mentioned that she has also has a lot of Japanese sewing magazines too. So after the call, I shot out an email to alert Diana of Geek Sewing, who, as you know, has a blog dedicated to Mrs Stylebook and dabblings in other Japanese sewing mags. And she also lives in Seattle.

Fast forward to the evening, I had just arrived at the seller's house and was starting to dig through boxes of patterns. Penny, the seller, got a phone call, and this is her side of the conversation:

"Hello?...Yes....Yeah...Uh huh...Wait, I recognize your voice, do I know you?...This is Penny!...Yeah, your friend is right here." Penny hands the phone to me and it's Diana! It turns out they know each other from a local sewing group a few years back.

So Diana arrived about half an hour later, and it was the first time we met in person. She is just as sweet as you'd expect, and also a little bit sassy, trying to coerce Penny into giving her a 2005 Mrs Stylebook that she needs to complete her collection. Diana brought her Mrs Stylebook sloper and patterns she had drafted for show-and-tell. The three of us talked about bust points, dealing with knits that curl at the edges, and dressforms. All in all, it was a fun evening!

As for what I purchased, well, the majority of the patterns were from the 1980s and 1990s, lots of great Vogue designer stuff, but I'm just not sure how to adapt these for today. I did get a handful of patterns from the 50s and 60s.

Anyway, small world!