a box of patterns

My mom has always been the sewer. Well, and just about everything else, for that matter.

Our unfinished basement is filled with 20, 30 rubbermaid containers, stuffed to the brim with fabric- interior fabric, curtain fabric, upholstery fabric, clothing fabric, ribbons, etc.

Our collection is fairly impressive, and I've only recently begun adding my share to our stash.

It'd be even nicer if we were to utilize this fabric. But at the rate we're going, it'd take about 8 lifetimes to use it all, for one thing or another.

In the midst of the basement, stashed away behind some cardboard boxes on one of the many, spider-infested shelves, I discovered a blue tub of patterns my mom once stumbled upon at a yard sale. The patterns are incredible- most of them date back to the 60s and 70s. 

I think what intrigues me most about these patterns is not what you might expect:

yes, inside the colorful and informational 

sleeves, there IS a pattern for creating your own clothes with whatever fabric you might choose.

 But my favorite part of the pattern is the illustration on the outside. It's actually what intrigues me most about fashion designers; besides their actual ability to create outfits from an idea in their head, it's the transfer to 

paper that I love- their 

artistic talents often go unnoticed but their ability to sketch the human figure, 

give that figure the attitude that they might portray when they are wearing said ensemble, 

and create the right texture, flow, and shading that the fabrics will create on the body is really incredible.

I have added one pattern to the tub since my initial "tub discovery" a few weeks ago. I found it at "Lost in Time Antique Mall" in Winston-Salem, NC. 

It was $1- quite a steal. I couldn't pass it up, especially considering the face of the model in the red dress. She's so sassy.

"and inevitably wind up, finding for yourself, all the strengths you have inside still rising"

I'm going to be a junior this fall.

I have two years left of college, and an internship looming in the very near future.

And I have no idea what to do with my life, or even what the future holds post-graduation...only 2 years away.

Sure, typical college fears. Typical life fears, really.

But, for me, it's not a matter of "I need to figure out what I like doing"- I have too many of those.

What do I really LOVE to do? What do I really want to do for the rest of my life?

As a matter of fact, who am I, really?

I usually think I have a pretty firm grasp on the latter. But it's different when you consider your future, your adulthood.

I have so many options available for me, and I know it's not going to be perfect the first time around- I'm going to probably have jobs that I hate, or make decisions that I may regret later in life (although I hate regrets and will try my hardest to make sure it's simply a decision I can LEARN from...). But I know that, eventually, my journey will lead me in the right direction.

But I feel like I'm blindfolded. Or, maybe, being shoved into a room filled with a blinding light and told to "just GO FORWARD". Oh, ok. I have to run into something eventually, right?

At any rate, the summer is coming to a close and, while I am nervous, I am really excited about what this year holds for me! Photojournalism in the fall and a photography course in London in January- by next summer, I hope to have a much better grasp on the direction I'd like to look for a career.

In the meantime, I CAN tell you that I love clothes. Particularly dresses. And particularly dresses purchased from vintage and/or secondhand shops.

So, welcome to "I Found This Dress". My hope for this blog is serve as my outlet for personal fashion discovery, through photographs and videos and music and any outlet of creative expression. There is SO much to learn and gain, and I hope that others will direct me also, to places they have found helpful or fascinating. I'll be gaining links and photos over the next year or so and I look forward to, one day, looking back on my progression in the world of fashion.

Hey, you have to start somewhere, right?

Love always, 

Alexa