Vintage patterns

Striped Patterns Poncho Top

This past Saturday, I went to a local estate auction here in town. I spent a total of $6.43 (which included the sales tax) and came home with a few nice goodies. What you see above and below are just a sampling of the patterns I pulled out of the box of over 100 (some never used/cut). The copyrights ranged from 1942 to 1977 on some of the packages. Many of the pre-1950s patterns are not dated. Some day when I try to organize them, I will research the dates further.

Over half of them were for baby to teen sizes (mostly girls) and the rest were misses sizes with a few men sizes thrown in. The previous owner must have been a seamstress as some of the patterns had different full names of people and notes about shortening the cuff or letting out the seam a little more. Also, many of the envelopes were stamped with the names and locations of the stores where they were purchased (as is the case presently). Some of the cities stamped were in Los Angelos, Kokomo, my town, Montebello, CA. I kind of went into a little daydream about the life of this lady and what took her across the country as I perused my new treasures.

The smallest size available back in the day was a ladies 12. HOWEVER, a 12 in the 1950s was more like a size 8 today.

I cannot wait to actually use some of the little girl (and boy) patterns. They are soooo adorable and classy looking. Hopefully, I will have grandchildren some day that I can sew for.

One last thing, look at the bottom right corner of the 50s pattern below. Can you imagine seeing that today!