Fall Inspiration

It's that time of year when the temperatures are the hottest, the sun is the highest and the humidity is the worst. The Fall/Winter catalogues that have begun arriving in my mailbox are a complete tease. I'm flipping through page after page of chunky knits, woolly tights and pretty tweed skirts all the while sitting in my apartment in front of a fan, trying not to melt. When I was out vintage shopping this week for the store I even bought two wool plaid skirts that I plan on shortening. I just tucked them away in the bottom of my to-sew-pile because I'll start sweating if I even look at them.

So, as I'm thinking about Fall fashion and sewing I began doing a little online browsing and ran across my new favorite time waster: The Vintage Pattern Lending Library. Sewing has always been an exercise in frustration for me. I can sew a hem or take in a seam or two but every time I start to sew something from scratch, those pattern pieces laid out before me become an insurmountable task. If there's ever a reason to gather myself and try again it's the wonderful collection of vintage patterns available from the VPLL. I've been watching a lot of old Myrna Loy movies on TCM so I'm a bit partial to this collection of 1930's patterns but they have designs dating from the 1840's to the 1950's.