GIVEAWAY: Win a copy of The Magic Pattern Book by Amy Barickman

Earlier this year I had the great pleasure of reviewing and giving away a copy of the book Vintage Notions by author, entrepreneur, and esteemed sewer, Amy Barickman and today's I'm delighted to be teaming up with Amy's publisher again for another exciting book giveaway.

In connection with Vintage Notions, I was sent a copy of The Magic Pattern Book, which was also written by Amy. Not being a sewer myself, I will admit, a wave of panic washed over my soul when I heard that this book was en route. How, I wondered, would I explain or properly access the integrity and merit of a book about sewing, when it's an art that I only know the very basics (think high school home ec level) of myself?

Thankfully, all it took was flipping through the pages of this lovely hard cove book to instantly put my mind at easy. Much as how Ms. Barickman centered Vintage Notions around the work of famed home economics leader Mary Brooks Picken, so too did she turn to the Women's Institute for inspiration with this book. Even the title itself comes from the term "magic patterns" that was coined by the Institutive in the early 20th century (so-called be it was nearly magical how one pattern could create so many different garments when altered a touch or done up in a different fabric). Though it should be noted that patterns contained within, which are of a fairly beginner level and thus ideal for sewers with a wide range of skill levels, are not vintage themselves nor intended to create vintage style fashions.

Chalked full of clear, beautiful photographs and illustrations, this helpful, well laid book presents readers with a series of six different sewing patterns (in sizes small to XXL) as well as six different variations and six assorted fabric suggestions for each (the patterns come on a CD that is included with the book, but can also be downloaded from the web, if desired). Thus The Magic Pattern Book, which was released in 2014, aims to provide readers with the ability to make a whole wardrobe thanks to the fact that between all these options, one can, in theory create 216 or more different garments.

Though that may be a bit of a stretch (being a complete wardrobe, I mean), particularly depending on your personal style, it does unquestionably provide readers with a wealth of different, straightforward, engaging sewing patterns and variations on all of them that could easily help just about anyone enhance and grow their wardrobe and skills at the same time.

While I don't foresee making any of the lovely modern - but generally quite classic - fashions or accessories in this excellent book anytime soon (again, I'm not a sewer), I was still able to enjoy it cover to cover, learning more about both sewing and garment construction in the process. As a passionate fashionista and more recently as an Etsy vintage shop owner, I find these points to be invaluable and loved the take away lessons I picked up from The Magic Pattern Book for this and many other reasons.

I know that scores of you are sewers and that is a huge part of the reason why I agreed to read, review, and giveaway this wonderful book. I love being able to provide one lucky reader the chance to win a copy of The Magic Pattern Book, and if you'd like to try to be that person, please read on for the details of this giveaway.


How to enter


Definitely free to do as many of the following seven things as you'd like to gain entry in this giveaway. I just ask that please ensure that you leave a separate comment for each method that you enter with, so as to increase your odds of winning.


1. Leave a comment on this post letting me know what you might like to sew first from the book (the options are a dress, a tank top, a cardigan, an accessory such as a hat, a skirt, and a coat), if you win.


2. Blog about this giveaway on your own site, linking back to this post.


3. Like Amy Barickman on Facebook and post about the giveaway on your own Facebook page.


4. Follow Amy on Twitter and tweet about this giveaway, including the hashtag #TheMagicPatternBook in your tweet.


5. Sign up to follow Amy's blog by email (you can do so at the top of the right hand sidebar).


6. Follow, or be an existing follower, of Chronically Vintage on Instagram.


7. Like, or be an existing follower, Chronically Vintage on Bloglovin'.


Giveaway details


This giveaway is for one copy of The Magic Pattern Book by Amy Barickman. It is open to readers from Canada and America, at the request of the publisher (apologies to my wonderful international readers), and will run from today (March 12, 2015) until Friday March 20, 2015.


Once the giveaway has wrapped up, I will select a winner using a random number generator and announce that person's name on Facebook and/or Twitter shortly thereafter. If doing so is possible, I will also try to contact the winner directly by email or Facebook private message to let them know that they won and to obtain their address, which I'll pass along to the publisher who will send your prize to you directly.

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I was genuinely impressed and inspired by this book. I learned from it, smiled over the tidbits of history and vintage quotes from the Women's Institute that it included, enjoyed the modern, highly appealing format, and don't doubt for a nanosecond that if I was sewer, I'd be powering my way through some or all of the patterns house between its covers.

Thank you very much to Amy Barickman and her publisher for the opportunity to giveaway a copy of The Magic Pattern Book here on my blog and also for sending a review book my way, too. Far from trepidation, reading this book filled me with happiness, got my creative juices flowing in general, and ensured that I will always have a great title to turn to if I want to purchase a fantastic, very useable book for any of my awesome sewing friends.

Best of luck and thank you very much to everyone who takes part in this fun sewing pattern book giveaway!

The cutest heels I've ever owned care of Born Bad Betty

Outfit details

C.late 1930s/early 1940s red straw hat: Frugal Frocks 
Pearl stud earrings: eBay or Claire's 
C. 1940s triple-strand pearl necklace with sterling clasp: Thrifted (this necklace is a touch longer, but I wanted a choker length one to pair with this keyhole neckline dress so I simply used a hair elastic to temporarily shorten the length in the back, which was then hidden by my hair - this is a great way to get more millage out of many styles and types of necklaces) 
Black and pine green 1940s swing style dress: Hell Bunny (purchased from Blame Betty's bricks and mortar shop in Calgary, AB) 
Black cropped cardigan: Fairweather 
Gold toned metal bangle bracelet: Payless 
Vintage strawberry brooch: Either eBay or thrifted 
(Awesome!) 1940s/1950s cream gloves: Gift from a dear vintage loving friend ♥ 
Mid-century vintage red faux leather handbag: I Love Vintage Stuff 
Black seamed nude stockings: eBay 
Red vintage style "Strawberry Fox" heels : Born Bad Betty 
Lip colour: MAC Russian Red


Photography by Tony Cangiano

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First and foremost, I want to sincerely thank everyone for your empathetic, caring comments on Sunday's post about unexpected having to do my business taxes at breakneck speed last week. To all those facing similar situations or simply having to do your taxes in general this year, believe me, I feel you pain and am always here if you need someone to vent to during the process. By Sunday evening I had essentially completed and submitted everything and was officially as spent as a quarter at a slot machine!

I have to say though, continually operating on almost no sleep (not joking at all) and being so stressed last week because of my taxes, really did a number on me. I debated taking this week off from all forms of work actually, but for a multitude of reasons, that isn't possible. Instead, too drained to even lift my laptop (zero exaggeration there), I spent Sunday night and all of Monday either sleeping or kicking back with a marathon of the really enjoyable travel show Departures on Netflix. Though I'm still massively beat, things will gradually be returning to their usual pace workflow wise from today onward and hopefully next week they'll be completely back on track and my energy levels (microscopic at the best of times) will have also been recharged a bit, too.

Now, if I can stop yawning, on with the show! Before you think I'm being OTT a tad with the title of today's post, I need raise a point that I've touched on many times here over the past (nearly) six years and that is the fact that I have hard to fit feet (crazy high arches) that tend to fall somewhere between average and wide widths, depending on the brand (I swear, if there was a size between those two standard sizes, an "average and a quarter shoe", if you will, that would be my size), and as a result, I can often try on 100 - 200+ pairs of shoes before I find one that even remotely comes close to being comfortable/fitting me properly.

As such, my choice of footwear has often been a matter of what fits, with, if I've been extra lucky, some prettiness thrown into the mix. Having had such poor shoe luck over the years, I've as good as given up ordering pairs online, where an endless see of gorgeous/cute/alluring/vintage appropriate/you-name-it options exist at nearly every price point. I've been burned there too many times with shoes that didn't fit a lick and which due to Canada Post's high shipping charges, I usually couldn't send back, instead reselling or gifting them to friends or relatives.

Thus, knowing that there are no guarantees when it comes to me and shoes, when a footwear company approaches me about doing a product review, I always tread (pun intended :)) very, very lightly. I've kindly turned down many offers when the shoes weren't bracingly mid-century and/or rockabilly/pinup appropriate, in fact this is only the second time I've ever worked with a company in this capacity.

The absolutely darling red faux suede, fabric strawberry adorned shoes that I'm sporting in these photos (which we shot the weekend before last here in town near the River Channel on a chilly late Saturday afternoon when the sun was shining meekly and frost dotted the ground) were very kindly sent my way by way of the terrific British vintage inspired footwear and handbag company Born Bad Betty.

The fine folks there were gracious enough to let me select any pair from their current offerings - which was no easy choice, let me tell you, as all of their styles are smashing and very vintage appropriate - and then promptly sent them to me for review. Their customer service was top-notch every step of the way and in addition to today's post, later this month I'm going to be teaming up with Born Bad Betty again for an exciting giveaway where one lucky winner will win the BBB pair of shoes of their choice.

I'm going to be talking a lot more about the company then, but now let me begin by saying that they're a fairly newcomer on the old school inspired footwear scene who are quickly gaining an avid following their home country of the UK and further afield, too. The brand's offerings are not only cute and creative (think dangling charms and delightful motifs), but I can attest to the fact that they're very comfortable.

Though I wouldn't say the fit of the pair I received was absolutely 100% perfect, that is an incredibly hard thing for me to find with any brand and unlike most shoes, much to my delight, these fit me quite well and I had zero issues wearing them and walking around for several hours on the day when these photos were taken (that's the first time I've worn them outside of the house).

Naturally you can imagine my happiness and surprise that the fit turned out as well as it did! I opted for the Strawberry Fox pair of heels from Born Bad Betty because strawberries are not only one of my favourite fruits ever, but also a design on clothing or accessories that I've always been wild for (chalk that up in no small part to spending some of the earliest years of my life in a town that had a big annual strawberry festival).

Another factor in my decision making process was definitely the fact that I own so few cute shoes. I stand by the title of this post, these are hands down the cutest high heels I've ever owned and I'm tickled pink (or would that be strawberry red) to have these wonderful shoes in my wardrobe now. They're comfortable, sturdy, well made, and very, very pretty. I would note that the found the soles to be a touch slippery at first, but even just walking around on pavement for a few minutes seemed to have helped scuff the bottoms a touch and create some grip, so I didn't take a tumble or even come close to it at any point during our outing.

I truly appreciate that Born Bad Betty sent me these uber darling strawberry heels and want to extend my sincere thanks their way for doing so.

On the day these snaps were taken, I'd had plans for an entirely different outfit with a vintage garment that recently I'd purchased online, however it quite literally started to fall apart on me as I put it on for the first time (a story I may devote a whole post here to at some point - it remains to be seen how things turn out there), so with daylight fading fast, I had to think on my (cute high heel adorned) feet quickly and toss this ensemble together in under five minutes. Tony actually said that he liked it more than the originally planned look and I liked the two equally, so while I wasn't happy about my new purchase being a serious bust, I was glad that this outfit was able to come together so nicely on the fly.

This charming 1940s style green and black dress, the only peephole dress I own actually, was the first piece I ever purchased (back in 2013) from Hell Bunny. It was love at first wearing with this frock and I've been a firm fan of the brand ever since, adding several more of their garments to my closet in the time since then. I'm petite framed (5’2”) and not overly well endowed (average, but not exactly giving Dolly Parton a run for her money, if you know what I mean), and I do always like to maintain a degree of modest with my outfits, so I don't usually wear keyhole style dresses (which tend to dip down waaaaay too far on me for my tastes), but this one is the exception to the rule and I'm almost shocked it took me this long to share it on camera.

As we're ever-so-slowly starting to emerge from winter, it felt like a good choice to usher the upcoming season in with, as did this marvelously fun circa early 1940s red straw hat, a recent buy from my go-to vintage shop in the Okanagan, Frugal Frocks located nearly two hours north of us in the small town of Armstrong, B.C. (and whom I blogged about here last year). I'm a massive fan of wide brimmed vintage hats like this and had wanted a red one for ages, so hitting upon this gem so close to home was an exciting score to say the least.

I opted to sport it that day because I'm a big fan of matching one's hat to their shoes sometimes and when you're wearing red heels like these fun Born Bad Betty beauties, it seems all the more fitting to do so with a newly acquired crimson chapeau like this.

If you haven't checked out Born Bad Betty's offerings yet, I highly suggest doing so. At present, a lot of their merchandise is heavily on sale, which is a boon for all customers, but especially those (like myself) who are located outside of the United Kingdom and may be dealing with weaker currencies than the British pound.




With spring and then summer just around the corner and scores of sunny days to come, you can bet that I'll be prancing around town in these sweet, sassy, mid-century appropriate strawberry heels from now until Old Man Winter comes calling again - especially since it certainly isn't everyday I get a cute pair of shoes that actually fit me and which suit my vintage wardrobe so wonderfully. Thank you again, Born Bad Betty for making that happen!

The taxman cometh

This week began with a bit of jolt that set not only the tone, but dictated my actions for much of the next few days that would follow. While opening my mail on Monday, I was greeted with one of those letters that we all know and likely dread, with an official government stamp and no-nonsense brown kraft paper envelope.

Rarely harbingers of good news, said letter informed me that I was not just due to file my PST (the provincial sales tax collected on sales to my fellow British Columbians), but that it was overdue. This came as a substantial surprise to me, because a.) I genuinely believed based on a telephone conversation I had last year with a government phone line staff member when I set up my PST account that it was not due until the first anniversary of that date (in the spring) and 2.) because I hadn't received any kind of notice that it was due, when it was in fact actually due (earlier this year).

If there's one thing you should know about me, it's that I pride myself on being extremely professional and equally punctual, so the fact that this had happened - I'm not pointing fingers at you, Government. Nope, I'd never do that ;) - ruffled my feathers big time.

Moreover, it meant that I suddenly had to get all my business accounting in order a much shorter time frame than I’d been thinking for most of the past year that I would have to work with. This meant getting all my digital business information, paperwork, receipts and the like up-to-date (well, up to the end of 2014, but I figured why not just tack the last couple of months on, too, and be properly up-to-date entirely) in less than a week or face, as the rather unfriendly letter gingerly threaded, receiving a Notice of Assessment.

{It's officially that time of the year again. Vintage image source}

 


I don't say this often, but ugh!!! Out the window went every last plan of post writing, Etsy shop listing, Easter outfit daydreaming (said major spring holiday being less than a month away at this point), and even sleep some nights, and instead I plowed through, with no shortage of curveballs along the way, to get everything in order and sent to our (mine + Tony's) accountant so that she could file my PST (and since all was up to speed, the rest of the things pertaining to my business taxes for 2014 as well).

Many lessons learned, which is a good thing. Yes, my lovelies, a good thing, because no one is expected to know everything about small business ownership and taxes in their first year (of which this is mine). I'll happily take a Band-Aid approach to baptism by fire anytime and definitely know what to do differently for next year. Drained as a beer keg at a frat party I may be after such a long week of accounting work (et al), I may be, it was an important reminder to always double check your facts and dates when dealing with the government and to try and stay on top of my business record keeping better in 2015.

Now, to just get through our personal income taxes a touch later in the spring and we should be done there. Would a second "ugh" be overkill? ;D