I love vintage sewing patterns and inherited a stack from my Nan, who was an avid sewer. She made some of my most favourite childhood outfits, and made my kids a lot of track suits to play in when they were toddlers. I have framed a few of her patterns and they are on display in our sewing/craft room (as shown here and here).
Today I scanned a few of the patterns and then printed them out on cardstock to make some cards. They will be the perfect cards to have in my stash! Now I just have to come up with some sewing related verses to add on the inside. Any ideas?
These cards will go perfectly with gifts wrapped in pattern tissue.
I heart them too! thanks for the blast from the past!
I LOVE this idea! I am a new card maker and also a sewist and quilter among many other hobbies. I, too, love vintage patterns and have a few from my grandmother. I wish we would have thought to save all of them. She made many an outfit for me and my siblings growing up. I just Googled “sewing poems” and came up with this one:
http://www.quotegarden.com/needlework.html
There are also quite a few other websites to check out.
Happy crafting!
what a fantastic idea Lisa i love it and its great for the environment,recycling,well done
“Thank you sew much!”
Love the idea! Thanks for the inspiration!
Have a look at the Stampin Up Autumn mini-catalogue… 😉
I have a couple sewing sayings I love:
1. Live Life Simply
Eat, Sleep, Stitch
2. Princess of Perpetual Projects
3. I got a sewing Machine for my husband! Good trade, Huh!!
4. Keep Calm and Sew Stuff
5. You Sew girl!
Lisa
Those patterns look fantastic! I really like the one with the yellow dress.
Nancy
What a great way to use those wonderful vintage patterns! The cards are adorable!
What a great idea. Here are some of my favorite sewing quotes.
Hem your blessings with thankfulness so they don’t unravel. ~Author Unknown
Memories are stitched with love. ~Author Unknown
Chains do not hold a marriage together. It is threads, hundreds of tiny threads which sew people together through the years. ~Simone Signoret
Love is the thread that binds us. ~Author Unknown
They are so beaautiful, Lisa! I love this idea and your story too!
Much love!!
Bela
As always another lovely idea.
A wonderful idea – Thanks. Here are some of my favourites :-
“A home is built of peace and love … and not of wood and stone, A place where happiness lives and memories are sewn”
“Love Sews a Bond that time can never tear”
“A family stitched together with love seldom unravels”
Hugs – Fee X
What a great idea!!!
I think this is a fabulous idea!
Such a lovely idea thanks for sharing it.
I love these! I love those drawings more than anything! Same as those old ‘Vogue’ covers, so great!
Esther.
This a such a great idea! And, it gives a reason to send a handwritten card in the mail.
I love vintage patterns too! I have decorated my craftroom with some of them… Great idea to make some cards out of them!
Warm hugs from Switzerland
Doris
Very clever. Several months ago, I cleaned out my sewing room and threw out all my old patterns. Now I wish I had saved them.
Another clever idea – I especially love the hairstyles of the models!
Hi Lisa & Sarah.
I know I am only one follower of your many – but I just wanted to say how I find your blog so inspirational. Lisa you have inspired to start sewing again and Sarah those yummies that you make all my family love you for.
That is why I have decided to award you both with the Irresistibly Sweet Blog Award – you both deserve it.
Please hop over to my blog – http://kelskaszazzkaleidoscope.blogspot.com/ to see what you have to do. I am not trying to rouse up more followers – I’m just trying to give you both a little blog love for a job well done. Hugs Kel
I understand, now that I have some of my granmother stuff for sewing I´m doing some projects to use them and share with my family
Vintage patterns can transport you to another time! I was at my local Salvos this week thumbing through their patterns when I discovered one my Mum had many years ago!
Clever! I adore vintage patterns and just happen to have some passed on from my great-grandmother. This would be a wonderful way to share their beauty.
Do you think there’s any issues with copyright with scanning? I’ve been fussy cutting images to use in cards but it would be good to scan some to use over and over.
Hi Jodi – You have raised an interesting point. I did scan a couple of old patterns to use in greeting cards for my friends (for personal use not for sale) as shown in this old post. I have just looked up Australian copyright law
http://www.copyright.org.au/acc_prod/ACC/Information_Sheets/Sewing___Knitting_Patterns.aspx
and it looks like the artwork would be copyrighted for 70 years so my patterns are not old enough yet to reproduce. So I would imagine scanning them for your own personal use would most likely be acceptable, however if you are selling your cards, it would be best to use really old patterns from the early 1900’s.
I love my vintage patterns 🙂
Hi Lisa,
Thanks for sharing your collection of haberdashery. I never knew it meant notions, but thought it meant an old fashioned clothing store. I think I had seen the word in a store name. I enjoyed the ways you suggested using them. My daughter and I have a collection of old buttons, similar to the ones you have still on the cards. The McCall’s pattern caught my eye. Does the envelope have a date on it? It looks like a pattern my Mom used to make a dress for me when I had just graduated from college (1970).
The McCalls pattern was from my elderly Aunty – she would have made the dress for my cousin who was born in 1963 – so the timing works well with your pattern. I love old sewing notions/haberdashery items.