I started the Vintage Pattern Place when we were living at Edwards AFB, in the middle of California's Mojave Desert. To be honest, I accidentally went a little bit overboard buying vintage patterns on EBay- it's easy to do when you have too much time on your hands ! And trust me, there wasn't much to do in the desert!! I retyped a few patterns that I was planning on using for Christmas gifts (the print on some of the old patterns is truly terrible, and trying to read the print was making me cross-eyed), and I realized there was probably a market for this sort of thing. Sure enough, after searching around online and learning a little bit about copyright law, I was in business. The thing I love the most about my pattern business is that it essentially funds my knitting habit. I'm a total pattern hoarder, and this is such a great excuse for collecting them!


When we moved to Albuquerque, NM for my husband's 2nd Air Force assignment, I had to leave my job behind- I was unemployed for the first time since I was 15 years old... and even then I had regular babysitting gigs! With the extra time on my hands, I designed a pattern for and started sewing Christmas stockings to keep myself busy... 6 months later I was able to land my latest, greatest full time position. I'm so grateful to Etsy for giving me something to keep myself sane with while I was out of work! The extra cash didn't hurt either as we were settling into our new home. These days I do most of my designing, sewing, and listing new items on the weekends.