Upcycling

I've been sorting through vintage patterns lately, a few at a time - if you look up the word "tedious" in the dictionary, you'll discover a sentence that explains how to use the word: "Checking vintage patterns to see that they have all of their pieces is very, very tedious." However, the super-cute illustrations keep me going, and I especially like this one. I somehow feel it might be depicting the early stages of a toddler rumble. Like the girl in pink is telling the boy in blue that he wouldn't have fallen if he'd been more careful, and the toddler in white wants her to stop being so bossy. But I digress.

What was odd about this pattern was the inset photo in the corner, with a little girl wearing an oversized shirt. (If you look very carefully, you'll notice she's holding her fingers as if she were holding a cigarette. Extremely disturbing, but apparently she's pretending to be her dad.)

That's because the pattern was designed to be cut out of a man's shirt. The cutting diagrams on the inside show how to lay the pattern pieces on a buttoned shirt to take advantage of the ready-made buttons and buttonholes. That's how the overalls, with the buttons up the side, are made. Just adorable, and a timesaver, too. I'm picturing them in plaid flannel myself.

I thought the pattern might date to the World War II era, and the date on the flap confirmed it.

Sweet, isn't it? (Except for that child pretending to smoke.)

Thank you for the input on bows vs. spools. Fortunately I do not have to decide, because a nice person bought two sets of the blocks from my Etsy shop, and it's up to her. However, I'm taken enough with the pattern, a little different than the diagonal bow tie pattern I've favored in the past, that I would like to try to make some. I don't know if I need more hours in the day, or more days in the week. Probably both. 

 

Comments

[Linda @ A La Carte]

This is seriously the cutest pattern ever!

[laurie magpie ethel]

A clever reuse of Dad's shirt! Child pretending to smoke is disturbing..but the other graphics make up for it!

[Kathy]

What a neat pattern!
I agree about the tedious and what gets me is when I get through nearly every piece and then discover one missing and have to chuck the whole thing. Sometimes I really do wonder why I keep putting myself through it!

[Jill]

Super cute!! and a fun post!

[Melissa]

That's a pretty dang cute and clever idea!