Patterns from the Past

Simplicity 3309 In the Spring of 2009 my company was contacted by the costuming department for the TV show Mad Men . Season 3 had several p...

McCall's 7081 Every once in a while the owner of Patterns from the Past, Michelle Lee , gets her moment of fame. Here are a few blogs ...

McCall's 5550 Pierre Cardin The TV show Mad Men starts August 16th. Banana Republic held a casting call contest. When I was in San Fr...

Simplicity Designer's Pattern 8283 Patternreview.com is hosting a Vintage Sewing Pattern Contest .  First prize is a $100 gift certific...

Every year the 2nd grade classes from my town go to the local Garrison House . They dress up in "Colonial" style clothing. The gi...

In the past few years I have had discussions with Girl Scouts in my town about doing her Gold Award around having our town not use plastic...

Between 1949 and 1950 Simplicity produced a line of patterns. They started the same time as Vogue's Paris Originals Line. The pattern...

I will be hosting a 1950's tea party at Costume Con 26 in San Jose, CA and giving a talk about the history of sewing patterns. This brin...

In honor of Mr. Roger's 80th birthday - March 20th, 2008 is " sweater day ". I grew up watching Mr. Rogers. I loved the sh...

One of the most memorable clothing exhibits I saw the Yves Saint Laurent retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1983. I clearly ...

Not one but two teen idols wore double breasted coats for the Macy's Parade! I really liked Jordin's coat, but Ashley's had W...

Prince William and Kate Middleton will be married at the end of April. Let's take a moment to look at Will's mom's famous gown...

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. I love sewing costumes for my kids and seeing all the creative costumes out there. Let's go ...