If you use sewing patterns at all I’m sure you’ve noticed that vintage reproduction patterns are wildly popular!  They allow modern sewers to create vintage inspired looks with ease and convenience.  No worrying about trying to track down a single size vintage pattern that is all in tact and in good condition.  You can just run down to your local fabric store, pick up a pattern (hopefully on sale!) and start right in.   Butterick, McCalls, Simplicity, and Vogue have joined the fun and are offering fantastic pattern options.

I recently shared my sewing pattern collection HERE, showing off all 308 patterns in my stash ranging from the 1920s to 2018!  One really fantastic part of my stash are the patterns I own in reproduction AND the original printing!

This is the first vintage and new set I acquired.  I picked up the reprint of Simplicity 3544 about 8 years ago when I first started collecting retro patterns.  A couple of years later I purchased a bag of patterns at a thrift store and the vintage version of the pattern was inside.  I didn’t realize at first that it was the same design.  Once I noticed I was so excited that I had found one of the original copies just by chance.

I purchased several of those pattern grab bags at various thrift stores over the years.  Inside one of the bags was this 1950s blouse, jacket, and skirt pattern.  I feel in love with the smart style and it was in my size(!!!), but too fragile to actually work with.  Just this week I went to Hobby Lobby to take advantage of their $.99 Simplicity pattern sale (I needed a different size in one of my patterns).  While there I flipped through the vintage reprint section of the catalog and saw pattern 8462!  It is one of their newly released patterns and a reprint of my beloved vintage original!

I’m not actually certain when I picked up this vintage bathing suit pattern.  It was possibly when a local fabric store was moving.  The store had several boxes of old patterns that had been given to them and they were giving them away for free to any one who was interested.  Of course I was interested!  My mom and I sat on the floor in the back room of the store and went through box after box of patterns.  Interestingly enough that is the same store that is going out of business this week that I have been getting so many amazing deals at!  I had forgotten all about this pattern until I was working on my pattern collection video.  I have wanted to make a vintage style swimsuit for years, but never found a pattern I loved.  Well, I love this one, but it’s too small.  I was trying to work out how I could easily alter it to fit my size and the next day is when I went to Hobby Lobby.  And wouldn’t you know, right there in the catalog was Simplicity 8139, a reprint of that same swimsuit pattern!  Now I can make that fabulous swimsuit, in my size, without having to worry about damaging the original copy or drastically altering it to fit my waist and hips!

I absolutely love this part of my pattern collection and hope to acquire more vintage and modern sets in the future!

Which of these sets is your favorite??  Do you have any of your own?  If so I would love to hear about them!

Until next time, Happy Sewing!

-Whitney-