Patterns, Patterns, Patterns!

This week I have gone a little crazy on buying patterns. Firstly, I bought Gertie's coat and dress pattern from Butterick and another retro pattern pattern which I saw someone on the craftsy website had made and which I adored. These patterns were on sale and shipping wasn't very much either. Considering the difficulty of getting patterns through the chain stores in Australia I thought it would just be easier to buy off the website. I would prefer to support local businesses, but given that they only seem to stock one of everything and I end up calling four stores, I took the easier option.

My other purchase was 150 patterns off eBay. They came in the boxes below! I have had a quick sort through and there is quite a few that I will probably never use, so they may end up back on eBay.

I love the pictures they have on the front. Especially for the men's pajamas. The guy has a golf club?! Do men golf in their pajamas? Or is it just so we know for sure they are men's pjs? Lucky they added the golf club, because I did get a bit confused when I saw the second man who is in the nighty. I offered to make Trevor (husband) one and to say he wasn't overly keen is a bit of an understatement. I think his actual response was a snort and a 'yeah right'.

I saw a new brand of pattern in the box that I have never come across before (not that I know every company that ever made patterns), Weigel's. I had never heard of Weigel's and was amazed to see a made in Australia logo on it. A bit of a google research showed that Weigel's was started in the 1880's by a lady named Johanna Weigel and her husband, who used to make all of her own dresses and started a business after many of her friends had requested her patterns. I found a biography here and some more information here. Both are very interesting to read. Johanna died in the 1940's (at age 92!!), but the dresses on the left look like they might be from the 1960s or 1970s. I am not sure what period the nighty is from. Does anyone have any clues?

I will definitely be doing some more research and would love if anyone knows anything more about this company and the patterns to leave a comment or send me an email.

My other exciting bit of news was that one of my friends is starting a pattern making business and has asked if I would like to be a pattern tester. That would be a big yes!! So looking forward to sharing her patterns and my efforts at sewing them and doing justice to her creativeness (bit worried about the last bit!). If you have any tips for how to start a pattern making business, please let me know so I can pass them on!

Now all I need to do is buy some more fabric, and sit down and do some sewing. I can't wait to start :)