Pattern Palooza

No this isn’t another Patterns and Postcards post (although I have some swap items I need to scan in) but if you don’t know what I’m talking about (and like sewing patterns and sewing magazines) go check it out now. Also, last chance to enter the Stitched by You Giveaway if you haven’t done so already.

Aaand back to your regularly scheduled distraction:

I rarely buy envelope patterns – I find the fit inconsistent, the ease excessive and the cost exorbitant (half-price pattern sales are a rarity in Australia, $5 sales are like the Cambrian explosion – every one agrees one definitely occurred some eons ago and was awesome, but there’s a total lack of consensus on how to successfully initiate or even predict another one).

It also pisses me off how much of a scam postage is on the Vogue website (I wrote them a semi-shitty email about charging me $25 for postage and then shipping my stuff in a flat mailer using first class shipping for the grand sum of $4.25 – I never heard back).

So when I stumbled across Patterns Plus Australia during a pattern-review search I was pretty shocked to see Burda, Vogue, Butterick and McCall’s envelope patterns (some out of print, some contemporary, some old-lots of Vogue Designer patterns too) for $3 and $4 a pop with free shipping (to Australia-check with them for other locations). Assuming it was either a scam or some sort of genuine quantum anomaly, I browsed through everything and bought a bunch of patterns.

I got a polite email from them earlier this week informing me that one of the patterns I’d ordered was out of stock. They then offered me a free pattern of my choice for the inconvenience of having to choose a replacement (Spotlight should learn from these guys). And today, all the patterns, including the freebie turned up (in a 3 kg mailer no less-no crummy first class shipping here) all good, all new, all pattern-y and sh*t.

They also have the 1046 Anna Sui pattern I used for my sticky-tape stencil-printed Scarab dress and this space-age OOP Rucci number (which for some reason, I felt sure I’d seen on the cyberdaze blog ~~but can’t seem to find at the mo’~~ here). Also this (because it looks cool, it’s vintage and multi-sized-which is weird). They also have a sh*tload of burda patterns from back when burda used to have fairly trashy and extremely entertaining pattern covers-I totally bought one (we can laugh over it later-suffice to say, for now, that the chick on the cover is totally heading out for a random threesome in her crotchless stockings and anti-grav hairdo -’nuff said).

So anyway, now might be a good time to hit them up for all those OOP and discontinued designer patterns. It sure beats the living daylights out of using bolts of fabric for self-defence/ crowd control in a Spotlight* queue while the lone servitor chats with the auntie up front about how rude some customers can be.

*Spotlight is a local fabric/craft chain similar to Joann’s but without the low-low prices.

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