Yesterday my mom showed me her stash of old patterns and this afternoon I went over to her house and kidnapped the whole box when no one was home. Shocking! Don't worry. I'll give 'em back...

Here's one of the most awesome ones:



I love this for so many reasons. I love the illustrations, which isn't surprising. But more than that, I love the combination. Why a clown and a caballero? Is it because they both start with C? If so, did McCalls also make a "Boys' or Girls' Lumberjack and Lederhosen Costumes" pattern set? The possibilities of alliterative strange profession and cultural dress combinations fascinates me. (Especially since I can't think of any more.) But I love this pattern the most because my grandmother actually made it using the colors on the package. I didn't know people ever did that. Here I am in my grandparents' backyard in 1985:



Obviously, it was probably about 1987 or '88 when it actually fit me. It wasn't made for me, after all. By the '80's, I think maybe McCalls would've been selling Rockstar / Russian Soldier combos.

I scanned the image, printed it, cut it out, took the covers off an an ugly and unused journal, recovered the covers with fancy paper, stuck on the clown and caballero, covered the covers with Contact paper, punched out the holes, and put the covers back on. My inspiration came from this blog. Here's how it turned out:

Labels: sewing/crafting.

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