When I drove past the home, I was intimidated by the many boxes of "junk" in front of the garage and the crowded looking garage. Heather suggested that we just take a look. I agreed and who knows, we might find something interesting. We parked our car near a corner and walked past a few homes before walking to the driveway. The boxes in front contained many odds and ends of colorful fabric that did not intrigue me. Many seemed to be about a yard of remnants that seemed to need laundering. As we entered the garage through what seemed to be the only walkable path, Heather "spotted" some stretchy cheetah fabric and immediately snatched it. It was the only fabric on the shelves that she liked. There was fabric with some interesting print, but I passed for fear that I would stay longer than I should.
Then we met a friendly lady, one of the daughters of the late seamstress/teacher. She asked what I was looking for and told her retro/vintage patterns. She responded that she has a whole bunch of those and pointed to a Simplicity drawer (just like the ones in fabric stores) replete with vintage patterns, of which most if not all were from the 1970's and possibly early 80's. Many were in plastic bags that included their directions and seemed to be missing their original envelopes. Just when I was ready to go through a drawer in further detail, the lady welcomed us to her home and took out two boxes of patterns and placed them on a kitchen table. Heather was eager to locate some children's patterns and became disappointed when most of the patterns were for teens and adults.
She was fascinated with a 1974 Simplicity pattern's envelope having illustrated models wearing flared pants with cute shirts with buttoned front and puffed sleeves. I would also agree with her on this style and would not mind having an adult version of the same style.
There were so many patterns thumb through and we did not have the time to stay so I just picked up what I could easily make such as a 1970 "super simple" from Simplicity. I also took an early 90's tailored short jacket, a la The Nanny (Fran Drescher). Then the lady pointed to the living room where there were more boxes of patterns! Oops! I could not turn down her offer! I found a cute dress from McCall's with a criss cross back and an "It's So Easy" princess seamed top with cap sleeves. There were many "enticing" styles, but what prevented me from not grabbing more than the 10 we purchased were that many of the sizes were in the 8-10 range. Again, there were few children's patterns in the boxes.
On our way out of the garage, I found glenplaid for Heather's skirt. Each folded piece of fabric was $1, a super deal. Altogether, with the 10 patterns, and Heather's cheetah fabric, I spent $12. Just as I had planned, we did not walk out with an armload of stuff.
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