So a couple weeks ago my parents and I went down to Durham, NC to visit my grandparents for Christmas. I picked up a bunch of sweet sewing loot there! I got some fabric, my grandma's old patterns, some sewing/fashion books, (both in English and in Hungarian!) and I visited this amazing secondhand craft shop!
I first discovered the joys of secondhand craft shops when my boyfriend and I went to the Upcycle Exchange in St. Louis a couple months back. He's not a crafter, but he really enjoyed being there since they had two very friendly kitties that were just having the best time playing with stuff in the boxes around the store.
So when I visited Durham, I decided to look for a secondhand craft shop. And I found one of the best shops I've ever been to. It's called the Scrap Exchange, and it is HUGE. It has EVERYTHING you can imagine. I could spend all day there. My only complaints are that the patterns were very unorganized, (although that could be due to customers instead of staff, so I won't really hold it against them) and that there were no kitties.
I really should've taken pics.
I picked up a few notions, a bunch of old patterns, (which I'll upload pics of on later posts) and a vintage Japanese book about Swedish embroidery. But one pattern that I bought really stuck out to me.
This right here.
This is a mail-order pattern for a handbag by Woman's Home Companion, November 1935. It's addressed to a Miss Mary Dudley Pittman in Raleigh, NC. I got it for only $2!
I'm so excited! This is my first 1930's pattern, and mail-order ones are often rare! :D Let's take a look at it!
It's hard to see, but there are 4 printed pattern pieces, uncut! (I'm surprised a pattern this old is printed and uncut!) The two pointy things (are they large tailor's tacks?) came in the envelope too. This should be simple enough...
Uhh....what?
So this right here is another pattern printed onto some flannel. Is this the fabric I'm supposed to use to make it? If so, why's it so plain? Am I supposed to trace it onto another fabric? Then why not print it on paper like the other pattern pieces?
I asked both of my grandmas what I was supposed to do with this, and they had no idea. So, I suppose I'll start emailing other bloggers to see if they know anything about these kind of patterns.
The instructions are rather hard to follow and aren't clear on what I'm supposed to do here. It's also confusing because the paper gives instructions on how to quilt this bag, then how to make it. Am I supposed to quilt it first and then make it? Can I do just one or the other? The instructions really aren't clear on that.
Also, another confusing thing about this pattern is that there are 4 copies of the instruction sheets, 2 copies of the cloth pattern pieces, and 2 1/2 copies of the paper pattern pieces. How many copies of this pattern did Miss Pittman order? Why'd she order so many, since they're all exactly the same? Is this normal for mail-order patterns of this era?
Hopefully someday in the future I can make this, once I figure out what the hell's going on here.
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