Check The Estate Sale Store for your Vintage Pattern Needs.   We carry patterns in our Ebay Store, as well as, our Online Store.   Always consider making an offer if you feel we're not being competitive.

Vintage patterns are the greatest deal for your hard earned dollar today.  With the advent of the Internet there's a wide array of pattern choices many of which turn full circle in style. 

Then there's the Classic Sophisticated Lines that never go out of style.  Perhaps the fabric choices may change but the styles are staples.  Every women needs to have that Basic Black Dress or that Straight Line Pill Skirt in her closet.

Blazers always seem to stay in style.  With a little tweeking of the lapel, heightening of the hem, or the addition of some of the hottest new embellishments, you're off and running with a new tweeked design.

Whether you're looking for Vintage Retro or Classic Lines, you're always going to find something in Vintage that works for the latest fashions.  It's hard to find styles that are "totally unique" from the 1940's onward.  

Most of the newest styles borrow from the past.  A good example is the "hotest" trend in women's jeans today...the skinny, cigarette fit with the low rise waist.  That's nothing more than the 1980's skin tight jean combined with a 1970's hip hugger.   If you want low rise, flared jeans we get a 1970's bell bottom jean with a slightly narrower bell bottom.  All these types of things can be tweeked using a vintage pattern by a savy sewer. 

Right now, vintage baby dolls, wide bell bottom jeans, and Boho styles from the 1970's are hot, so expect to pay more for these patterns. 

I think I first fell in love with Antique China and Porcelain when I was really young when I saw my newest best friend's mom's off-limits China Closet.  I'll never forget the pattern but at that young age I certainly didn't know what it was.  It gleamed that white, white shiny porcelain gleam of perfection and all atop was a rose garden, my most favorite flower in the whole world.   

One day, when I was a teenage,  I was Christmas shopping with my friends at a favored high end department store called G. Fox & Co. in Hartford, CT when my eyes met that pattern.  My heart started pumping.  There it was in full display where, for a small fortune, you could buy one piece at a time.   My dad was a factory worker and my mom was a stay-at-home mom, so you can imagine my allowance was $1 per week.  I'd need to save my entire allowance for at least 15 weeks to get just one piece, never mind trying to acquire an entire set.  It was an impossible task for a teenager with no patience so I passed the thought by. 

Well, I still can't afford that set and I'm now 52, but that doesn't mean I can't admire and droul over it.  Can you imagine average people collecting a set like that today?  But, back when I was young almost every 50s housewife had a pattern she collected and that pattern would be treasured until it was passed down to the next generation.  A beautiful legacy of something worked hard for, treasured and appreciated for it's fine craftsmanship and quality.

THE PATTERN:  Royal Albert Celebration ~ I tried posting a pic but the system doesn't seem to let me.  Here's a link, perhaps it will work.  http://img.auctiva.com/imgdata/1/8/9/8/1/0/webimg/34556905_o.jpg

In this blog, we'd like to talk about all the reasons we're passionate about antiques and collectibles excluding the investment aspects for buying.   Afterall, it's a lifestyle choice in many ways.   I'll start by talking about my Aunt Leona.

After my Aunt Leona lost Uncle Henry, she started to dispense of her 70+ years of accumulation.  She had a lovely older colonial home that was sparsely decorated with antiques.  You could tell that she had thoughtfully planned, skimped and saved to acquired every piece in her home and they were bought with love.  

I sat in a chair as she handed me a book.  She handed over the book holding it with both hands as though it were a precious piece of glass for fear of dropping and shattering it.  Her hands were quivering and not from old age.  She proceeded to explain that the book was about the history of the company she worked at for many years and talked all about the company.  She was giving me her most precious antique.  Can you imagine somebody feeling this way today.  That book represented Loyalty, an act from days gone by........ So, in a way, antiques represent a Loyalty to the ways of the past, a time when you could leave you're door open and not be afraid that someone will come in and steal from you, or worse, hurt you.  It reminds me of a day when people were Loyal to a Brand or when "Made in the USA" meant something and when Quality and Serviceability were for the most part, understood when buying a product, and when people just took that for granted.