Sewing patterns swap – Bay Area Sewists

The Bay Area Sewists meetup group had a big sewing patterns swap at the end of February. (You can read the meetup description here.) Everyone brought patterns they wanted to give away and they also had the chance to take home sewing patterns that were new to them. We had a big turnout and a huge array of patterns available – everything from menswear and dresses to coats and crafts. We also had many vintage sewing patterns courtesy of a member whose neighbor gave her a pile of them! I think we had nearly every decade from the 1950s to the 2000s represented!

These photos are just a sampling of some of the sewing patterns at the swap. I took these photos after many patterns had already been selected. We had a ton of dress patterns. For some reason that always seems to be the category with the most patterns. They fill up two tables.

I’m the organizer for the group and created the format for the pattern swap: We have four rounds of choosing. If you brought at least three sewing patterns to the swap, you can participate in each round, and choose one pattern per round. Each round lasts the length of a song on my phone. 😉 The fourth (and last) round is a free-for-all – everyone can take as many patterns as they want. So even if you didn’t bring any sewing patterns, you still have an opportunity come home with a stack of patterns.

For each pattern you bring, you get one entry to the giveaway drawings. At this meetup, we had three giveaways: Sonya Philips’s 100 Acts of Sewing pants pattern (thanks for donating the pattern, Sonya!) and the book Subversive Seamster and a thread catcher, both donated by members. I donate the leftover patterns to the East Bay Depot for Creative Reuse in Oakland.

I brought about 10 sewing patterns and came home with these three – a skirt pattern by Disparate Disciplines – now called Seamster Patterns – and these two vintage patterns – one Simplicity (love the neckline on the dress!) and this vintage Butterick, which is actually a maternity pattern. Whoops – didn’t notice that until I came home!

We hold our pattern swap and fabric swap at the Berkeley Public Library. The library has a great community meeting room that’s free for Berkeley residents to use once a month. It has all these tables on wheels that are so easy to set up. I love the library!

We also had a brief discussion about pattern organization after the swap was over. I’ll put that information in another post – otherwise this post will be really long.

So I’ll close with our group photo. We all had a great time – as you can see from the smiling faces. Happy Sewing everyone!