Gram's Stash

I visited my grandmother while I was home in Phoenix over the winter break and made out like a bandit on patterns she had stuffed away in boxes! My Gram has always been a sewer—she should have started up a store a long, long time ago. She’s 92, has suffered 2 strokes (one just a few months ago) and she still runs three sewing machines at the same time. She only takes breaks to watch the Diamondbacks or the Suns, when they’re on.

Anyway, we had a lot of fun going through her old patterns. Most were from the 80s, which isn’t a decade I’m much interested in (for “vintage patterns” at any rate), but she had a great time telling me all about how she used each pattern, who she’d made outfits for, and which fabric she’d bought for which shirts, skirts, etc. I could have taken quite a few more than I eventually ran off with, but below are just a few of the gems in her collection:

I'm not sure how I feel about the wrap around skirt on this dress, but I love the neckline.

Look at that gorgeous fabric!! I'd love to get my hands and sewing foot on some of that.

My Gram and a friend of hers made matching dresses from this pattern. They must have been a hoot, running around a town of 1000 people in the same dress. I hope one of them found a pea-green fabric with white dots on it, too.

Yep, that's a Brooke Shields pattern! Given that my Gram has been Bartlett pear shaped for as long as I've known her (so, at least as far back as when this pattern came out), I'm pretty sure she bought this pattern for someone else.