The ones i'm keeping...

...being a periodic peek at my pattern stash and related goodies.

Today's selection?  This early 20th century McCall pattern:

How early?  Well, that's a very interesting question.  It gives a patent date on the back of the pattern, April 21, 1908 (no patent number, which would make it quick and easy to look up, but i'm not complaining...).  However, that patent isn't for an individual pattern design, but for the "guide chart" system that keys the instructions to portions of the garment illustrations.  Yep, that little bitty fine print on the back of the pattern envelope and those tiny little line drawings are all the instructions you get...

So we know at least that it's not earlier than April 21, 1908 - but how much later?  This being a child's pattern, the sizes are given by age rather than measurement, and i know that's an indicator of an older pattern, but i don't know just when McCall switched to sizing them by measurement.  A boy's shirt is also not the trendiest of garments, so the design of the garment only gives you a ballpark on this one.  I have seen early 1920s McCall patterns that have a different, much more ornate envelope design, but don't know if that was used on their whole line, nor exactly when it came into use... more research!

Flea Market Finds

We finally made it to the favorite flea market on Saturday! We had tried the week before, when they were supposed to open for the season, but the whole operation got flooded out. But this past Saturday, it was sunny and 70-ish, so we went a-hunting...

Here's what i left with:

A small leather make-up case, a little smaller than your average train case

A tailor's ham, which will probably go to my sister, since i kept the last one i bought for her...

A sleeve roll (and i've been needing one, but new ones are expensive, and not that easy to find!)

A sewing box, containing mostly unexciting notions, but also a pair of nice Wiss pinking shears

A 1940s craft booklet with instructions and projects for crochet, knitting, tatting, and embroidery - and which turned out to have another knitting pattern stuck inside

Three issues of McCall's magazine from 1940

A school songbook with lots of popular songs from about 1915 to the early 1920s

Not a bad morning's haul, really. Would have been grand to stumble onto some great patterns, or some fabulous vintage fabric (say, just enough for that apron i want to do) - but there's always next time. The thrill of the hunt!